By Eric Harris
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| Courtesy of Grand Central Publishing, 2025 |
Elvira, the girl with the enormous... flair for frightful feasts, has conjured up a devilishly delightful cookbook that's sure to haunt your kitchen in the best way possible. In Elvira's Cookbook from Hell: Sexy, Spooky Soirées and Celebrations for Every Occasion, Cassandra Peterson channels her iconic alter ego to serve up a campy cauldron of culinary chaos that's as fun as it is fabulous. This isn't your grandma's recipe book—unless your grandma hosts horror movie marathons and spikes her punch with a wink and a cackle. It's a playful plunge into gothic gastronomy, perfect for anyone looking to add a dash of macabre magic to their gatherings.
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| Courtesy of Grand Central Publishing, 2025 |
What makes this cookbook a graveyard smash? For starters, it's a team effort worthy of a Hollywood horror production. Peterson credits no fewer than 14 collaborators—from photographers and food stylists to prop masters and recipe developers—who've helped bring her spooky vision to life. The result? 72 mouthwatering recipes spanning food, alcoholic beverages, and non-alcoholic sips, plus 16 clever crafts and decorations to set the scene. We're talking spiked napkin holders (a cheeky nod to her pooch Gonk from the 1988 cult classic Elvira: Mistress of the Dark), a coffin-shaped serving tray that'll have guests dying for seconds, wineglass bug charms crafted from enameled plastic critters, and "smoke"-spewing pumpkins using dry ice for that eerie fog effect. Even your furry friends get in on the fun with "Gonk’s Bone Appétit," a batch of dog treats that'll have tails wagging from beyond the grave. Ugh, gag me with a spoon—these ideas are so wickedly clever and pun-tastic, they don't require exotic ingredients or cursed cookware, making them ideal for novice necromancers in the kitchen.
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| Courtesy of Cassandra Peterson, 2025 |
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| Courtesy of Grand Central Publishing, 2025 |
The recipes themselves are a scream, blending everyday eats with Elvira's signature campy twist. They're well-crafted and highly approachable, always striking the balance between playful and polished, but always keeping the horror hostess's irreverent spirit alive. Take my favorites—the “Barbecued ‘Bat’ Wings,” where juicy chicken wings get a midnight makeover with a barbecue sauce laced with black food dye or activated charcoal for that shadowy sheen. Then there's the "Devilish Spider Eggs,” deviled eggs cracked and dyed to reveal creepy spiderweb veins in black, blood-red, or purple, with yolks piped back in for a fiendishly flavorful bite. Don't miss the "Poison Toadstools," adorable cherry tomatoes dolled up as fly agaric mushrooms, perfect for popping at a creepy cocktail party. For heartier haunts, the "Living Dead Lasagna" emerges from the oven garnished with gnarly chicken feet, looking like a monster clawing its way out of a delicious doom. The "Slithering Serpentine Salad" coils cucumbers into snake shapes using the Japanese jabara-giri technique—an accordion-style cut that creates a mesmerizing zigzag effect—complete with a red pepper tongue for extra hiss. And oh, the "Bloody Orange Chicken," a takeout classic gone rogue, dyed red for a gory glow that's brilliantly bloody without the mess. These dishes embody Peterson's evolution into the “Martha Stewart of the Macabre,” proving she's the ultimate hostess with the most-ess when it comes to terrorizing taste buds.
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| Courtesy of Grand Central Publishing, 2025 |
Reviewing this book has been a wicked walk down memory lane for me. As a young lad growing up in Southern California during the 1980s and 1990s, Elvira was an inescapable icon of Halloween havoc—from her sassy appearances on local TV like KHJ-TV's
Movie Macabre (where the character debuted back in 1981) to cable reruns, T-shirts plastered with her image at record stores, posters in countless teen bedrooms—especially the boys’—and even catching her live at Knott’s Scary Farm. She was the queen of camp, and seeing her pivot to this cookbook direction at 74 feels like a natural next act. After all, Cassandra Peterson is long past the tassel routine (as she herself has joked, citing those "two big reasons" and a desire to retire the character on a high note), but her talent for blending humor, horror, and hospitality shines brighter than ever.
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| Courtesy of Cassandra Peterson, 2025 |
If you only have room for one Halloween cookbook in your crypt, make it Elvira’s. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark—your hostess with the most-ess, and the gal with the enormous... love for the macabre—serves up frightful fun on every page. Out now and available wherever books are sold, this cookbook is a must-have for fans of spooky style and campy cuisine. As Elvira herself would say: “Unpleasant dreams!”
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| Courtesy of Cassandra Peterson, 2025 |
Disclosure: The publisher provided Things To Do In LA with a complimentary advance copy of this book for review. No payment or editorial input was received, and the opinions expressed are entirely independent.
