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Mrs Maria Tapioca

Magical Status

Witch (2017 TV Series Only)

Gender

Female

Hair Colour

Dark Brown

Eye Colour

No information

Family

Mabel Tapioca- Daughter (2017 TV series)

Occupation

School Cook

Actress

Miss Tapioca (Mrs Maria Tapioca in the 1998 series) is the head cook of the kitchens at Cackle's Academy. She is often kind towards Mildred, especially when Mildred trades Tabby with Ebony, a normal black cat.

In the novels and 2017 TV series, she is addressed as Miss Tapioca. However, in the 1998 TV series, she is addressed as Mrs Maria Tapioca, and is depicted as being Italian, even to the point of cooking pizza behind Miss Cackle's back.

Story[]

1998 TV Series[]

Mrs Tapioca's realm, the kitchens, is situated down in the dungeons. Hence, the food is always cold when it arrives at the table in the great hall - not that it was very appetizing when it was still hot.

However, this is not Mrs Tapioca's fault. In reality, she is magnificent in producing the tastiest pasta dishes, but at Cackle's Academy, the tradition of "meat and two veggies" at any time prevailed, which prohibited her from displaying her true talents. Fortunately, Mildred and her friends managed to convince Miss Cackle that one pizza day (the glorious Saturday) would add a nice change to the menu - much to the discomfort of the strict Miss Hardbroom, who does not approve of tasty food at all.

Mildred, the other pupils, and even the castle's caretaker, Mr Frank Blossom, always try to butter Mrs Tapioca up, for it meant secret helpings of delicious lasagna or cake. She strictly refuses to use any magic in cooking - in fact, she does not allow any magic downstairs at all, and during an instance where she enjoyed a magically-conjured pizza with Miss Cackle, she commented that it was "not bad, but I'll make it better myself", which also shows she was justly proud of her own culinary skills.

Mrs Tapioca went away during part of the second season, and was replaced by Mrs Semolina, but she did return in time to bake the cake which Mildred took to Charlie at his wizard college.

Img031 tapioca

Mrs Tapioca in the books

Mrs Tapioca has a cat, Lightning, whom she says is "named right-fast as lighting to take tinned food from bowl, but not mice!". Mildred's Tabby is one of Lightning's kittens.

2017 TV Series[]

The BBC website describes her cooking: The food at Miss Cackle’s has a reputation for being pretty disgusting. Not only do the basement kitchens mean the food is always cold, it’s not worth waiting for anyway. At the helm is long-suffering cook Miss Tapioca, who has questionable personal and food hygiene standards to say the least! Straight talking and a bit rough round the edges, she would like to be recognised for her talent.[1]

Beatrice Bunch, who wants to become a cook, starts helping Miss Tapioca in her second year. Miss Tapioca asks Beatrice to sort out the cooking books, and Beatrice discovers notices for lost items in the dining hall, and guesses that there is a thief. She also finds a book on magical cooking, and sets about making some truth cookies to catch the thief. Miss Tapioca, having eating eaten Beatrice’s cookies, admits to stealing the items to help her daughter, Mabel, with her education, as she was expelled from Amulet’s Academy. Miss Cackle allows Mabel to come to Cackle's, where she is in the same class as Beatrice.

Trivia[]

  • Miss Tapioca is actually named after the pudding dessert, tapioca.
  • An interesting (and funny) oversight occurs during "Which Witch is Which?" when the school is evacuated. Most of the pupils leave with Miss Drill and Mr Blossom because they are non magical. They forgot to get Mrs Tapioca out of the school too.
  • Mrs Tapioca in the 1998 TV series is Italian, when she was presumably British in the books.
  • Like Miss Drill she in the 1998 TV series is non-magical while in the 2017 series she is a witch.
  • Mrs Tapioca’s name in other languages:
     

French TV: Mrs Maria Tapioca (Doesn´t change)
German: Mrs Tapioca (same in German)
Dutch: Mevr. Tapioca

Swedish: Fru Tapioca

Appearances[]

Notes and references[]

  1. [[1]]
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