A bittersweet and poignant portrayal of grief, loss and finding new meaning in times of tragedy. I was always going to connect to this book on a personal level: like the author, I also lost my mother and changed career path following her death. And I love baking! I really don’t think you need to have experienced any of the same events to understand Potts’ work, because her evocative prose draws you in and grips you from the first page. A triumph.

What a lovely story, told with love. The author weaves an inspirational tale about self-belief and our power to change our own destiny.

After losing her mother,Olivia turns to cooking,finding happiness and comfort.
Despite being a successful barrister,she decides to embark in a new adventure and starts a course at the famous Le Cordon Bleu.

The book is a journey through grief,rediscovery of the self,pain and healing.Everyone deals with the loss of a loved one in a different way.Olivia finds her pathin creating and trying recipes and through this book,she presents her feelings and her fears to the reader.I loved being by her side,in the kitchen and in her everyday life after the trauma of losing one of the most important persons in her life.

A great and honest book 🧁🍰🧁🍰

Bereavement memoir + ‘foodoir’ (foodie memoir) = a perfect book for me. Potts left one very interesting career (criminal barrister) for another (pastry chef and wedding caterer). Losing her mother when she was 25 and meeting her future husband, Sam, who put time and care into cooking, were the immediate spurs to trade in her wig and gown for a chef’s apron. She ended up making her own four-tier wedding cake!* Each chapter ends with a recipe; I loved reading about the intricate patisseries she crafted for practicals and exams during her year at Le Cordon Bleu, but it’s doubtful I’d attempt to recreate most of them (the soufflé, tarte tatin and choux buns all look awfully complicated). I think the Banana and Rolo cake is the recipe I’m most likely to make – “I’d prescribe banana bread for grief,” she writes. “It has everything you need: stodge for heartache, sugar for wobbliness, and potassium for fatigue.” Even the instructions are full of funny little asides: “Cream the butter and sugars together using a stand mixer, a hand-held mixer, or a spatula and determination.” In general, I liked the food writing more than the pronouncements about grief (it’s so hard to say anything fresh about it), but this is a really charming book more people should know about.

*From bottom: cardamom cake with coffee buttercream; sticky ginger with caramelized biscuit icing; rosemary and honey cake with burnt buttercream; traditional fruit cake with marzipan and fondant icing; topped with iced gingerbread figures.

A favorite line: “They take all manner of custard seriously at Le Cordon Bleu.”

Thanks for the opportunity to read this. Gave it a good long read but sadly gave up as not quite for me.

Not sure how I would categorise this book as it is part insight into the law, part cookery book and part grief memoir. It wasn't really what I expected and I found that it jumped from one thing to another. I did understand these feelings of grief having lost my Mum but don't think it warrants a whole book. The recipes given weren't anything special and not dishes that you would make regularly. It was alright to read but not anything special - sorry!

Olivia Potts was baking her cake when her mother died. A successful criminal barrister, her grief pushed her into pursuing baking and she quit her job to enrol in Le Cordon Bleu. This is quite an unusual sort of memoir as the story is interspersed with recipes. The book is beautifully written and very moving. A Half Baked Idea was a wonderful read (though be warned it will make you hungry) and uses excellent descriptive language. An absolute delight.

After her mother’s death, Olivia tackles her grief by continuing to bake and move past her problems.

I thought this was going to be fiction when it is n fact a memoir, but it does read as fiction. It is a fascinating look at the grieving process as well as the underrated therapy of baking.

When her mother died Olivia Potts turned to baking. By her own admission she wasn’t particularly good at it, but it quickly became a respite from grief and her job as a barrister. So, she quit her job and enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu.

Interspersed with recipes that will have you running to your own kitchen, A Half Baked Idea is heart-warming memoir about grief, changing career, falling in love and the power of food.

This is a powerful novel about grief and love, and how these things both have the ability to transform a life. It’s bold and vulnerable and honest and funny, and if I could have done I’d have read the book in one sitting. I absolutely loved it, and I’ve already recommended it to at least three people since finishing it.

The book is also about food, and Pott’s writing on this subject is fantastically mouth-watering. I have tried her recipe for the tomato sauce pizza topping, and I can assure you that it is incredible – I urge everybody to try it!

Absolutely beautiful book, I loved every word. I typically avoid writing on grief as I find it too difficult but this, combined with food writing which is my favourite genre was irresistible.

"A Half Baked Idea" is a powerful novel about grief and sadness, but also about finding acceptance and happiness in doing something totally crazy but that just makes sense.

Olivia Potts recounts how she quit her job as a barrister to start a pâtissier course at Le Cordon Bleu, following the death of her mother.

Although it is a novel that has a sad topic, the way in which the author writes is funny, engaging and heartwarming: you'll need some tissues for parts of the book (especially for the last chapters), but you'll also laugh and feel a sense of joy reading about her life. Not to mention there are delicious recipes to make the dishes she talks about!

All in all, I love the idea of using significant recipes to the author's life to convey different times in her life, making baking and cooking about so much more than eating, making the whole process and emotional journey that anyone can participate in and make their own.

After Olivia’s mum dies suddenly, she quits her job as a barrister and decides to train as a cordon bleu patissier.
This beautiful book is the story of how she comes to terms with losing her mother while undergoing gruelling and exacting training to make fantastic cakes.
I thought that the weaving together of the story of Olivia’s grief and her journey through her overwhelming loss and her patisserie journey worked beautifully.
Her course is part of her healing while being funny and absorbing.
I lost my dad recently and could really relate to the struggle to accept and move on.
I also liked the recipes: they acted as markers and didn’t detract from the narrative.
I would thoroughly recommend this humorous and touching tale of loss and redemption - through patisserie!

I chose this largely because of the recommendation by Ella Risbridger, whose book, Midnight Chicken, is one of the best things I have ever read. This is a memoir about grief, but it is also and more importantly about love. Olivia tells the story of how grief stopped her life and love started it going again. Not just romantic love, although that features too. This is about realising that doing what you love can make you feel better in all sorts of ways. It is also about baking, The recipes finish off each chapter but they were the only thing I could have done without to be honest. They’re not bothersome in any way but the story is powerful enough without it.

A Half Baked Idea by Olivia Potts is a memoir about bereavement, grief, food, and changing career path.

Warning: Do not read this book without some form of cake/biscuit/pastry/chocolate nearby: you will become very, very hungry.

Olivia Potts’ deliciously written memoir is like your favourite childhood pudding: it’s sweet, comforting, warm and reminds you of times where you became attached to food as a memory. Interweaving the story of how she processed the grief of her mother passing away with her deciding to give up her law career to attend Le Cordon Bleu, ‘A Half Baked Idea’ is tender, funny and at times, heartbreaking. You’ll want to weep at sunken cakes and puck-like breads and you’ll cheer when tricky entremets and the stuff of pâtissiers nightmares appear on the page.

This book does take some getting into. For about 30%, the distinction between cooking and grief is a wide chasm: one seems to dominate more than the other. But, as the book continues, you get a closer correlation between them and find yourself understanding the hidden meanings behind the writing. Potts’ tone has moments of lightness but she can write very eloquently about the complex mysteries of grief – even the things that are hard to articulate.

It's everything I wanted in a book, it really is. Endless descriptions of cake and pastries, but also with something deeper, the author learning more as the book continues. These are the kind of food memoirs that are real catnip for me. I highly recommend getting yourself a copy when it is released to the world.

What a complete joy this book was to read. Like settling down to watch an episode of Bake Off to the nth degree. Feeling derailed and in freefall following the sudden death of her beloved Mum, Potts embarks on a culinary journey by enrolling on a Cordon Bleu course. My mouth watered with each description and I adored the recipes included. But it was a testament to Pott's writing that I was also brought to tears by her struggle to come to terms with being motherless. Grief is something no two people will experience in the same way, and yet, something we can all relate to. There is nothing linear about grieving and Potts gives us her truth. It's messy and makes you angry. It undoes you. It leaves an ache that never truly goes away. But it can also transform you and this is what made this book a comfort rather than a tragedy. Food is comfort, it is joy. It teaches us that mistakes are ok. It teaches us patience. It nourishes us. I want to thank the author for allowing us to share her journey and for giving us, the reader, something nourishing for the soul.

What a lovely and original book.

It tells the story of how Olivia Potts dealt with the death of her mother by giving up the law and all its frustrations and following her first love of cookery. She finds peace and solace in cooking cakes and devising new recipes.

The book is beautifully written and it touched my heart as it will yours.

Great recipes too!

A Summer treat and a total delight.