Well, if you haven’t heard the buzz about Jessica Seinfeld‘s new cookbook Deceptively Delicious, then you have been seriously out of touch. Please tell me you at least heard about the 21 pairs of luxurious shoes Jessica gifted Oprah including many Loubies after appearing on her show two weeks ago. Anyhow, Deceptively Delicious consists of recipes from chocolate chip cookies to chicken tenders that all include vegetable purees. The controversy is whether or not Mrs. Seinfeld plagiarized part, some, or all of a cookbook with a similar concept called The Sneaky Chef. Here’s the Tot Snob review.
The Oprah Appearance: Mrs. Seinfeld was on to publicize her new cookbook. The taste testers on the show kids (on previously recorded video) and adults devoured the food with an audible “mmm”. I watched on my couch and wished I was sitting in the studio audience. Ok, I wish I was in Oprah’s audience every day, but favorite things and celeb chefs top the list. As a mom whose kids avoid vegetables like the plague, I was intrigued by the premise of Jessica’s Book. Jessica says she spends one hour a week making single veggie purees and portioning them in baggies. I am skeptical that the prep work only takes an hour, but I would be willing to spend a little longer than that for my kids to get in veggies.
The Shocking Revelation: Then, we heard about The Sneaky Chef by Missy Chase Lapine whose cookbook of the same concept came out six months before Seinfeld’s. Lapine’s purees combine a few veggies of the same color. Now, there is much speculation as to whether Deceptively Delicious copied The Sneaky Chef. Frankly, I don’t care who copied who. I do feel bad that Lapine didn’t have the namesake and multimillion dollar backing that Seinfeld did and she shopped her book at Seinfeld’s publisher and was refused, but unfortunately business is business. Bottom line is I want a cookbook with good, nutritious recipes that my kids will eat.
The Real Deal: My best friend, Bridget, and I compared both books and tested it on our veggie naysayers. Both have similar recipes for chicken tenders. We cooked Deceptively Delicious’ chicken tenders with hidden broccoli. If you can hide broccoli, then you can hide anything. Success! Her son and my daughter each ate a meal. However, the amount of vegetables actually consumed is debatable. Most recipes call for only 1/4c. – 1/2c. puree. Divide that per serving (4-6) and you’ve got almost nothing. We both admit that the recipes are healthier than fried chicken tenders and some veggies are better than none; so, we started cooking deceptively in our homes. With equally good recipes in both books, choose whichever one you can get a hold of. The only apparent difference is the hip retro Deceptively Delicious cover.
Buy Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food
Sounds interesting (and I believe Seinfeld’s book totally ripped off the other girl by the way- whether or not she knew it is the real question).
Both books also sound like a lot of work… for very little veggies and the kids are not learning to eat veggies if you hide it. What works for my son is putting veggies on the plate and making it tasty and colorful (and super small bite size). This way veggies become the familiar food, not the chicken nuggets. I know they might resist at first but they eventually get hungry and will eat it 🙂
Go ahead and hide the vegetable. Moms are already sneaking the Ritalin into their children’s diet. Hey, why don’t they hide the homework by calling it playtime. Yeh, math is the new baseball. Give me a break! What great deniers were are raising.
About the controversial (read: plagiarized?)
TWO books which are:
both cookbooks
shown to the same publisher
in the same year
with the same UNIQUE recipes
on the same UNIQUE cooking concept
by authors who live in the same city
with nearly IDENTICAL book covers
both pitched to OPRAH
IS JUST A COINCIDENCE?
Ms. Seinfeld has a NEW book out; it’s called, “The Joy of Cooking with Cinnimon.” Early readings show that the recipes are similar to well-known cookbook, “The Joy of Cooking,” except that cinnimon has been added to every recipe. Jerry Seinfeld has already scheduled for Letterman next week.
Let’s take a quick look at the William Morris agent who brought Jessica Seinfeld to Harper Collins. Her name is Jennifer Rudolph Walsh. Name sound familiar? Probably not. But, she is also the agent of Kaavya Viswanathan who is the Harvard sophomore who was proved to have plagiarised her best selling book.
Tina, I completely agree with you. On Oprah, Jessica did make a point to mention she still serves a helping of vegetables with the meals she prepares so her kids are familiar with them and learn to like them as a side dish.
In Seinfeld’s defense, it probably was not her idea. The publisher most likely approached her about a cook book idea and she may not have even known about the other book. I don’t see the Seinfelds needing anymore $$. Plus she is donating every cent made to her charity. And all this hype is giving Missy Chase Lapine lots of free press, she should be sending Jessica flowers daily. Has anyone tried the spinach in brownies? Sounds gross. Let me know how it tastes.
And by the way, I was at a party with Jessica in NYC not to long ago and she is tiny in person, really skinny and tiny with a tiny face. No idea why that matters but I was just surprised to see how small she was.
I am loving reading Tot Snob lately! Was so out of touch and busy, would love to engage all the mommy snobs in more tip trading and hair pulling debates. Has anyone signed up for our forum?
So supposedly a book came out, someone else saw it, and had a completely finished cookbook out as a copycat 6 months later? Clearly none of these people have ever written a book.
I just saw the coolest maternity t-shirt the other day that someone made on Craftster. She cut the front piece longer than usual, and then gathered it along the side seam so that the hemlines for the front and back matched. That makes for a gathered section over the belly that will make a “pocket” to hold the roundness once the belly is bigger (but doesn’t look ridiculous on a flatter belly, either). And it avoids the whole “I’m-wearing-a-tent” look. For those who sew (unfortunately, I can’t sew stretchy stuff), I think this would be a great option – and much more layer-able than the regular maternity tops.