Dinah Bucholz

About the Author

Dinah Bucholz is the official author of The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook. Dinah was born to a large family and grew up in a small New York City suburb called Monsey. The most exciting things that happened in her childhood were getting her pony tail pulled by various brothers, also getting teased by the same, and enjoying spectacular good times and spectacular fights with her twin sisters.

Dinah’s first experience with baking occurred when she received for her ninth birthday a toy mixer from her mom that actually worked. She mixed up a chocolate cake batter without following a recipe and then poured the brown glop into plastic bowls and set them in the oven. Thankfully, she forgot to turn the oven on.

Dinah went on to bake many more chocolate cakes and it wasn’t long before she was making fine desserts and cooking delicious food had become a passion second only to eating it.

Today, Dinah lives in Philadelphia with her husband, and to the sorrow of her four children, no pets. She spends her time cooking and writing and wearing a professional-looking white chef’s apron when she remembers to put it on.

The Story Behind the Book :  An Account by the Author

Once upon a time, a quite extraordinary woman (me), read a book called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling. I was immediately hooked. I read the first three books, which were already out at the time, and breathlessly awaited each new installment. I read and reread and reread the books. When I wasn’t reading Harry Potter, I was reading my favorite cookbooks and cooking magazines and making delicious food for my family and friends.

One wintry December day in 2006, this food-obsessed, Harry-Potter-crazed self was returning home from running errands when the words “Harry Potter cookbook” flashed into my brain. What a great idea for a book! I thought. I wasted no time putting together a proposal and cold-mailing it to agents. I was so confident that I had the best idea for the next bestseller that I was sure agents and editors would come knocking down my door. But when the replies started trickling in, they were all the same: one form rejection after another. That certainly put me in my place! A bit more humbly, I sent out more queries and got more rejections. It took a while for me to get personal feedback, but I finally learned that some agents were worried about copyright infringement. Following the advice of one author who wrote two books on Harry Potter (thank you, George Beahm!), I sent some sample material to be lawyer-proofed. With a letter explaining why my work did not violate copyright law, I finally snagged an agent, within six months I was signing a contract with Adams Media, and a year later I was on the New York Times bestseller list!