Food & drink
"That does look
good..."
-- Nearly Headless Nick, wistfully, watching Harry eat
"I'm so hungry I
could eat a Hippogriff..."
-- Ron Weasley
essay:
Food
and Drink in the Harry Potter Universe
- food
- drinks
- kitchens
- candy
- Hagrid's cooking etc.
- Hogwarts feasts
- restaurants
- Deathday Party food
- on the Hogwarts Express
People
seem to eat well in the Wizarding World. At the Burrow, Molly Weasley serves
up delicious meals using a mixture of magic and cooking skill. The House-Elves
at Hogwarts cook a wide variety of dishes and bake delicious cakes, pies,
and eclairs. There is some magic involved, certainly, but the food is not
simply created out of nothing. Anything created in that way does not last,
but disappears after an hour or two (SN). The food served at Hogwarts is
grown locally (there are vegetable patches near the greenhouses (CS) and
Hagrid raises chickens.) The various dishes are prepared in the kitchens
and magically transported up through the ceilings to the tables above.
Normally, the food appears in serving dishes and the students help themselves.
For the Yule Ball, however, each person selected a dish from a menu, stated
their choice, and it appeared directly on their plate (GF
There is some magic involved, however. Molly Weasley is seen pouring sauces out of her wand, for example. It is possible that while the main ingredients are not conjured, some of the sauces or other flavorings are. This would seem to be a great benefit for those watching their weight, since the heavy sauces would simply vanish after a while, giving all of the flavor but not the calories. But on the other hand, if that were true, why would Fleur complain so about how Hogwarts food would make her fat?
Notable food moments...
- a plate of chicken and ham sandwiches that refills itself (CS5)
- Harry, Ron, and Hermione visit the kitchens (GF21
- visit to Honeydukes (PA
- Molly Weasley cooking when she's angry (CS3, GF5)
- wonderful meals with the Weasleys
- in the garden of the Burrow
- in the Leaky Cauldron (PA
- Harry and Ron become friends over a pile of sweets from the lunch cart on the Hogwarts Express (SS
- MORE TO COME
- butterbeer
- very popular drink served cold in bottles or hot by the mug ("foaming tankards of hot butterbeer") at the Three Broomsticks
- House-Elves can get drunk on butterbeer, but it doesn't have that effect on humans (GF
- How is butterbeer made and what does it taste like? When asked about this by "Bon Appetit" magazine, JKR responded: "I made it up. I imagine it to taste a little bit like less-sickly butterscotch."
- pumpkin juice (usually served iced, available on Hogwarts Express)
- hot chocolate
- served at the Burrow (CS4)
- and on the Knight Bus (PA3);
- Dumbledore comes down in the middle of the night for some, but finds the petrified Colin Creevey instead (CS)
- when Ginny Weasley is being brought to the Hospital Wing after her ordeal in the Chamber of Secrets, Dumbledore suggests that she be given a cup of hot chocolate (CS
- gillywater (McGonagall's drink) (PA10) (cf. gillyweed, GF)
- mulled mead (a favorite of Hagrid's) (PA10)
- red currant rum (Cornelius Fudge's choice of drinks) (PA10)
- cherry syrup and soda with ice and an umbrella (Flitwick enjoys this) (PA10)
- Ogden's Old Firewhisky (CS6, GF10)
- Elderflower wine - served at the Weasley's (GF5)
- sherry served at the Leaky Cauldron (SS5)
- bottle of some amber liquid which Hagrid carried in his overcoat pocket (SS4)
- tea (naturally)
- Lupin makes tea with tea bags, for which he apologizes; he heats his kettle with a tap of his wand.
- Single Malt Whisky - given to Madam Maxime's horses. (GF15)
- nettle tea - Gwenog dropped by Gertie Keddle's place (c. 1000s) for a cup of nettle tea (QA)
- rock cakes (GF2)
- treacle fudge (CS7)
- stoat sandwiches
- growing in the vegetable patches: pumpkins and cabbages
- food among the items in the pockets of his black overcoat (SS4)
- a birthday cake with green icing saying "Happy Birthday Harry"
- peppermint humbugs
- squashy package of sausages
- tea things
- bottle of some amber liquid
- JKR on Hagrid's cooking (CR):
- Q. Is Hagrid EVER
going to get cooking lessons?
A. Hee hee hee no, Hagrid LIKES what he cooks he can't see any room for improvement. He likes stoat sandwiches, bless him.
- Three Broomsticks Inn (Hogsmeade)
- Leaky Cauldron (Diagon Alley)
- Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor (Diagon Alley)
- The Hog's Head (pub in Hogsmeade) (SS16)
- food cart on the Hogwarts Express, pushed by a plump, dimpled witch (SS6, PA
- Honeyduke's Candy Shop (Hogsmeade)
- rotten fish laid on handsome silver platters
- cakes burned charcoal black
- maggoty haggis
- slab of cheese covered in green mold
- enormous gray cake in the shape of a tombstone, tar-like icing
Hogwarts
Feasts
- start-of-term feast
- Halloween feast (SS10,
- Christmas feast (SS12,
leaving feast
