A Half Baked Idea by Olivia Potts is a memoir neatly summarised by its subtitle ‘How grief, love and cake took me from the courtroom to the Cordon Bleu’. When Potts was 25, her mother died unexpectedly and she struggled to cope with the final year of her pupillage to become a criminal barrister. Whereas grief is handled as a very vague concept by many writers, Potts is articulate and specific about the way in which she processed it, from immersing herself in death admin to playing what she calls Grief Top Trumps, comparing her experience to others with her situation always coming out worse. After quitting the Bar, Potts joined the patisserie course at the culinary school Le Cordon Bleu, whose central London premises are based in Bloomsbury. The Cordon Bleu experience is both fascinating and terrifying with its exquisitely high standards – only the most dedicated foodies would be prepared for the stamina and skill required for that level of training. However, Potts truly has found her calling and is now a professional pastry chef with her own catering business for weddings and parties. The book is divided roughly equally between descriptions of starting out as a barrister, the impact of bereavement and the intensive course at Le Cordon Bleu, so readers who have an interest in all three aspects will particularly enjoy this memoir.