Walk into any college student’s kitchen and you’re bound to find one of the following items – a jar of peanut butter, a slice of leftover pizza or a box of half-eaten cereal. Cereal is a staple for college students and young people all over the world, requiring little prep time or talent for cooking. But what if you could cook with cereal? How great would life be then? David Hoffman explores the idea of cooking with cold breakfast cereals, but unfortunately, the concept only turns out to be lukewarm.

“The Breakfast Cereal Gourmet” instantly catches the eye with its bright colors on the cover, which provide a good hint of what’s to come within the book’s binding. Recipes using cereal as one of the main ingredients are paired with vivid photographs and cereal advertisements from throughout history. In some ways, the book is a history lesson in itself, with fun facts about the history and brands of the most popular of breakfast foods.

But of course, the main focus of any cookbook is the recipes, and Hoffman presents more than two dozen mouth-watering recipes made with cereals from Wheaties to Froot Loops. Other cereals used include Life, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Kix, so Hoffman spans the health spectrum when it comes to the health factor of the cereals consumed. Some of these recipes have come from what the book describes as “America’s Top Chefs.”

Although a student in the Midwest might have to take the word of the author as to the quality of the chefs, one’s mouth can’t help but water when reading about dishes such as Baked Macaroni and Cheese with Kellogg’s Cornflakes and Mocha-Cocoa Towers with Cocoa Puffs.

It is here, though, that one finds the main problem one might have with the book. The recipes sound excellent and use some simple ingredients such as cereal. Many of the recipes, however, also look as though one must have the skills of a gourmet chef in order to successfully prepare them. Hoffman freely admits some of the recipes require a great deal of patience and cooking skill to create something worth eating.

Another issue some might have is although cereal is featured in every recipe, it is by no means the only ingredient. Making any of the recipes will require advance planning, as quite a few of the recipes need foods that are not normally kept on hand. This makes it unlikely any of the dishes in Hoffman’s book will be prepared on the spur of the moment, lessening the appeal of cooking with something simple like cereal. Cereal is easy to prepare, so with a book like this, one hopes that some of the dishes will be, as well.

Whatever problems might arise from the complexity of the recipes, the book is a joy to read. Hoffman’s style keeps the reader interested, rarely allowing the tone of the book to slip into the dry nature of so many other cookbooks. Readers are likely to pick up several fun facts about their favorite cereals that they can toss around at the next swank cocktail party they attend. A personal note of interest was learning what the marshmallows in Lucky Charms are called – they’re called “marbits” and were invented by a General Mills vice president who added cut-up marshmallow Circus Peanuts to his cereal.

This is an interesting concept using a time-honored American institution – the cold breakfast cereal. The recipes in the book sound excellent, and the fun facts and history lessons make it a joy to read. A warning, though: Don’t pick this one up unless you are, A) a gourmet chef, or B) willing to practice.