A Taste of Magic

Chapter 1: 1st Course - A New Flavour

I do not own Harry Potter, the Wizarding World, or any canon characters.

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Hello everyone! Hope all are doing well.

Welcome to the start of my newest project. This was what I alluded to last week in saying if things went well, I'd be starting something new and special. I have been thinking about and planning this story for a while now but hadn't started writing until recently. I hadn't worked out all the details yet but have a rough overall idea of things and points to hit. I was also somewhat intimidated by the scale of things because this is going to be another very large and long project.

If you have read any of my other works, you'll know that cooking is a passion of mine. I love cooking and food and this fanfic will be my homage to that and how it can have an impact as part of the Wizarding World. This will be an alternate universe and it will not be canon compliant. That being said, I am hoping to try and stay in character for most canon characters, like my other stories.

I'm hoping to explore some things and facets that I would love to see in the setting while making a fun slice-of-life story. I am trying to challenge myself and try to write a few different things for this story, while keeping some of my favorite elements. I try to write different stories each time but this will still have themes of family and friendship and overcoming past pain. And cooking of course.

What does this mean going forward? Well I have a bit of a bank of both this story prepared and Extended Family. Every week I will try to do my usual two posts, a chapter of each story with the occasional extra post depending on the week. I have no plans to end Extended Family yet and with this new project, I'll be able to have plenty more to update over time.

As always, I am grateful for your time and attention. I write for you. I write to provide you some entertainment, some way to escape the day. I love hearing how my stories help you smile, to give you something to read and think about. I am honored that that you spend your time with me. I hope that you will enjoy your time with this story and am glad that we can share another journey with each other.

Thank you for reading, commenting, following, and favoriting. It means so very much to me.

Thank you for being a part of my fanfiction family.

And now, borrowing the words of one of my very favorite programs with a bit of a twist: With an open heart and an empty stomach, I say onto you in the words of my muse: Allez Cuisine!

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Harry Potter was used to being stared at.

He had a variety of reasons for it. His hair was very messy and wayward. He had a very large lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead. Before, whenever he was seen next to his relations, it was always commented that he looked very different compared to them in all sorts of ways: physical body shape and demeanor. One of his favorite things to do in the world also garnered him a lot of attention, mostly positive thankfully.

Since learning that he was a wizard, as in actual magic and not figurative, the staring and the attention did not change at all. Whenever someone from the Wizarding World learned of his name, they would stop and stare at him too. Like in the Muggle world, what the magical or Wizarding one called the non-magical one, the staring could vary in intensity and interest, though it seemed people in the magical one were interested in his name as much as his appearance.