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The Official American Girl Cookbook: Fancy Food and Cocktails for Grown-Up Fans
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 30, 2026
Pros: Extremely cute.
The recipes are well-chosen and cleverly named to call back to the backstories of individual characters. The author acknowledges she is new to AG (which surprised me-- why wouldn't AG hire someone already familiar with the brand?) but she clearly did the homework.
As a fan of the historical characters, I was thrilled to see that everybody was represented! There were recipes for the OG classic girls as well as characters like Cecile and Marie-Grace that often get left behind. If you like Girl of the Year and contemporary characters, you'll also be able to find your faves.
Cons: Functionality as an actual cookbook. It's clear this was created as a novelty item and AG expects it to sit on a shelf untouched after the initial page-through.
There's no logical organization to the recipes. Most cookbooks will divide recipes up by course, cuisine, occasion, or even difficulty. This book's chapters were determined by theme. For example: Chapter 3, Girls Got Game, is all recipes that have a sports-related tie-in to the AG canon. Chapter 4 is Entertaining Eats, recipes that have something to do with performance and art. This is completely useless for the consumer.
Most importantly-- there are zero photos of any of the recipes. Zero! Not even a hero image of the most impressive final product! This, again, is a functionality problem. I have no guidance on what these recipes are supposed to look like, and in many case, it's difficult to understand what the recipes even ARE without making them first. It's inexcusably cheap to have no recipe photography in a book with an MSRP of $28.
The recipes are well-chosen and cleverly named to call back to the backstories of individual characters. The author acknowledges she is new to AG (which surprised me-- why wouldn't AG hire someone already familiar with the brand?) but she clearly did the homework.
As a fan of the historical characters, I was thrilled to see that everybody was represented! There were recipes for the OG classic girls as well as characters like Cecile and Marie-Grace that often get left behind. If you like Girl of the Year and contemporary characters, you'll also be able to find your faves.
Cons: Functionality as an actual cookbook. It's clear this was created as a novelty item and AG expects it to sit on a shelf untouched after the initial page-through.
There's no logical organization to the recipes. Most cookbooks will divide recipes up by course, cuisine, occasion, or even difficulty. This book's chapters were determined by theme. For example: Chapter 3, Girls Got Game, is all recipes that have a sports-related tie-in to the AG canon. Chapter 4 is Entertaining Eats, recipes that have something to do with performance and art. This is completely useless for the consumer.
Most importantly-- there are zero photos of any of the recipes. Zero! Not even a hero image of the most impressive final product! This, again, is a functionality problem. I have no guidance on what these recipes are supposed to look like, and in many case, it's difficult to understand what the recipes even ARE without making them first. It's inexcusably cheap to have no recipe photography in a book with an MSRP of $28.
April 21, 2026
I was excited for this one because while the usual American Girl cookbooks are fairly simple, they offer some fairly tasty and relatively healthy meal options. I thought an American Girl cookbook for adults would be awesome. Unfortunately, it feels like about 60% of the recipes featured here are for cocktails. As a non-drinker this is a bummer. The food recipes that are here aren't particularly exciting and are possibly even more juvenile than the other American Girl cookbooks which is weird since those ones were actually written for children (but many of them were, in fact, done by Williams-Sonoma). In fact, the only thing that seems to make these recipes for adults is the large amount of them involving alcohol and the more advanced (potentially more dangerous) cooking techniques like frying chicken. Also, while there are plenty of photos of dolls (including the Girl of the Year dolls--so if the historical girls are your jam then skip it for sure) there are none whatsoever of the food; these are portrayed through some very juvenile drawings (again, I guess it's adult because there are illustrations of cocktails and booze bottles?). All in all, a huge disappointment.
On a quick count there are roughly 59 recipes in this book. Roughly 29 of them are for drinks, most of which call for alcohol.
On a quick count there are roughly 59 recipes in this book. Roughly 29 of them are for drinks, most of which call for alcohol.
May 2, 2026
Generally very cute and fun but why does Blaire have DAIRY in her recipe…
May 15, 2026
Cute adult book to complement the yesteryear AG cookbooks. As it states, it is a fancy food and cocktails cookbook, so I didn’t expect much more than apps, snacks, cocktails, and desserts. It has some actual recipes to try, in addition to what I expected!
As a 90s kid, I didn’t anticipate having all the GOTY’s included. I actually learned a ton about AG since the Pleasant Company days and loved the staging of the dolls photos! For a novelty book, I’m not too disappointed there’s no recipe photos and in lieu, there’s hand drawn sketches of recipes just like there would be in the non-historical books like Care and Keeping of You. In that way, it felt like a nod to the past even if it’s a tad unusual for a cookbook.
Will this win any cookbook awards? No. But will it serve the purpose of an occasional fun cocktail (or mocktail, as the author always offers a non-alcoholic alternative) to reminisce about the entire collection to date? Absolutely. It’s meant to be fun and if you’re an adult who wants a grown-up mocktail tea party with your friends and dolls, this has a lot of fun ideas to offer! It would make a great gift for the AG adult fan. Nostalgia and novelty served on Samantha’s silver platter is precisely what this is!
As a 90s kid, I didn’t anticipate having all the GOTY’s included. I actually learned a ton about AG since the Pleasant Company days and loved the staging of the dolls photos! For a novelty book, I’m not too disappointed there’s no recipe photos and in lieu, there’s hand drawn sketches of recipes just like there would be in the non-historical books like Care and Keeping of You. In that way, it felt like a nod to the past even if it’s a tad unusual for a cookbook.
Will this win any cookbook awards? No. But will it serve the purpose of an occasional fun cocktail (or mocktail, as the author always offers a non-alcoholic alternative) to reminisce about the entire collection to date? Absolutely. It’s meant to be fun and if you’re an adult who wants a grown-up mocktail tea party with your friends and dolls, this has a lot of fun ideas to offer! It would make a great gift for the AG adult fan. Nostalgia and novelty served on Samantha’s silver platter is precisely what this is!
May 14, 2026
Meh. I was REALLY excited about this book as the OG Cookbooks are literally how I learned to cook and I still consult them at least a few times every month. I was hoping this would be more elevated recipes and paired cocktails/mocktails geared towards adults. I was disappointed in this for a few reasons.
1. WAY too much focus on "girl of the year". Listen. No one cares about those stories. We just do not. There are a couple recipes for the historic characters in the main section, but they are sparse. The last 10% of the cookbook is what I expected to find for the entire book. Thoughtful recipes for each historic girl. Alas, it's only 10% of the book.
2. This isn't really functional as a cookbook which is really annoying. I want to see them broken down by character or by "type". Cocktails in one section, appetizers in another etc. These are just random with no references. Like you've got a dip for Josefina in the front section and then a cocktail for Josefina 90 pages later. Could you at least mention "pairs great with X see page X!".
Overall, I got this from the library and will probably check it out again for themed parties, but it was a miss.
1. WAY too much focus on "girl of the year". Listen. No one cares about those stories. We just do not. There are a couple recipes for the historic characters in the main section, but they are sparse. The last 10% of the cookbook is what I expected to find for the entire book. Thoughtful recipes for each historic girl. Alas, it's only 10% of the book.
2. This isn't really functional as a cookbook which is really annoying. I want to see them broken down by character or by "type". Cocktails in one section, appetizers in another etc. These are just random with no references. Like you've got a dip for Josefina in the front section and then a cocktail for Josefina 90 pages later. Could you at least mention "pairs great with X see page X!".
Overall, I got this from the library and will probably check it out again for themed parties, but it was a miss.
May 1, 2026
I was so excited for this. As someone who grew up with AG and loved the original historical doll related cookbooks - which got me into food history and I now study - I was hoping more along those lines. I was hoping for historical recipes corresponding to the Era of the doll. Instead, it felt like a cookbook where they fit the dolls into recipes in any way or tiny thread as possible. Another wish is that instead of staging dolls for photographs, the original book illustration styles would have been lovely.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews