Stop the presses. Gwyneth Paltrow (40) has written a new book.
The actress-fashionista-rock star wife-mother-GOOP owner’s, latest cook book is called “It’s All Good: Easy Recipes That Will Make You LOOK GOOD and FEEL GREAT” and it’s already number one on the Amazon best-selling books list.
Let me start by saying that I have NOT read this book. But many critics have and the reviews have been…how shall I put this…not too kind.
The haters have definitely come out and I’m having more fun reading the reviews than I’m sure I’ll have when I actually flip through the book in the store.
The Atlantic Wire calls it:
“The bible of laughable Hollywood Neuroticism”.
The New York Post says it’s:
“The manifesto to some sort of creepy healthy-girl sorority with members who use beet juice rather than permanent marker to circle the ‘problem areas’ on each other’s bodies.”
The Huffington Post:
“We’d love to say it [the criticism] wasn’t all deserved, but honestly, we just don’t know anymore.”
While Eater.com has this to say:
“drenched in a chatty faux-populism that could only come from a rich person fearlessly boasting about her life of privilege. Paltrow casually writes that she overnights homemade vegan cookies to her manager and often has a surfeit of apples from the trees on her $5.4M five-bedroom Hamptons summer home.”
Oh, I’m sorry. Were they expecting something different? From Gwyneth Paltrow???
Paltrow grew up as a privileged daughter of a successful actress and her director husband. She is married to a rock star. She has won an Oscar and has a popular site called GOOP. All this pretty much makes her Hollywood royalty.
In recent years, Paltrow has also fashioned herself as a “Hollywood Martha Stewart“, a foodie and a vegan champion. The latter is as a result of seeing a doctor who put her on a restrictive diet for three weeks where she couldn’t eat stuff that tastes good. Stuff such as:
coffee, alcohol, dairy, eggs, sugar, shellfish, deep water fish, potatoes, tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant, wheat, meat and soy.
Apparently, the cookbook is based quite a bit on a sort of “deprivation diet” where Paltrow includes recipes for a hard-boiled egg and avocado on toast. It also features some 40 photos of Paltrow as she goes about her daily ‘life”.
But the main criticisms have been about the cost of her recipes. I read that if you were to make all three meals according to her book, you will spend $300 that day on the ingredients. Nice!
May sound like a lot to us, but that’s chump change for Paltrow. What’s $300 when her GOOP site is currently promoting stackable everyday bracelets starting at $350 each (how many do you need to create a stack, by the way?) Paltrow’s “annual spring edit” includes a $750 iPad case by Valentino, a $1,650 T-shirt from Proenza Schouler and stretch leather leggings that will set you back $1,070.
Stuff like this annoys many people about Paltrow. She comes across to many as snooty and privileged. And yet…Paltrow is not you and me. She may pretend to be, but it’s not a genuine effort.
I do give her credit for promoting healthy eating, but to make any sort of impact, it has to be affordable and realistic. Paltrow isn’t living in my stratosphere and I know it. This book lines up perfectly with her philosophy of spending lavishly on all sorts of things – because she can.
But I can’t.
However, I CAN afford $35 for her book. So will I buy it?
Nope.
Not because Paltrow annoys me. Not because – like many others – she’s blatantly selling a fantasy I can’t relate to.
But because at the end of the day, no matter who wrote it, it’s a cookbook. I want it to help me make tasty and easy meals. I have no idea if this book has either of these things, but in my world, spending $35 to find out just isn’t worth the money or the effort.
What about you?
there is certainly a market for it, i mean, people grocery shop at pusateri’s on a regular basis whereas i’m a “no frills” girl 🙂
but, as you all have said, hers is not my lifestyle. i’d like to think that i know enough to eat right and excercise and don’t need a millionaire to tell me…whether they’re a celebrity or not.
Just let her be and don’t waste your energy on getting mad at something that seems to work for some. If people like her recipes they will buy the book and if they don’t it will flop which will make her realize it was not for the masses.
I’ve always liked Gwyneth just fine, but she’s not exactly “everywoman” in my books… and I’m always skeptical of celebrity hawkings anyway, since their lives do not resemble mine (outside of having a husband and kids, maybe) so no, I won’t throw down $35 to get a recipe for eating hard-boiled egg and avocado on toast. No thanks!
Nope. Especially if ingredients set me back more than a weekly shop!