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    What If Willy Wonka Was Your Dad? Roald Dahl's Magical Parenting With Food

    Food played a big role in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Dahl's other books. His daughter remembers fanciful "midnight feasts" and says her father used mealtime to test out new characters.
    by Dan Pashman Jun 16, 2017 3 minutes
    Children's book author Roald Dahl and his daughter Lucy. "Food was a huge part of our upbringing," Lucy Dahl says. Her father delighted his children with fanciful "midnight feasts" in the woods and often used mealtime to test out new characters from stories he was working on.

    Three-course dinner chewing gum.

    Fizzy lifting drinks.

    Everlasting gobstoppers.

    These, of course, are the creations of Willy Wonka, who himself is the creation of author Roald Dahl.

    Food is a huge part of Dahl's work, not only in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory but also in Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, The BFG, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and more. And as it turns out, Dahl's creative and sometimes twisted approach to food wasn't contained to his books.

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