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I watched the episode of Oprah a few weeks ago that had Jerry Seinfeld's wife Jessica, talking about her new get-your-kids-to-eat cookbook Deceptively Delicious. Basically, she purees up the good stuff her kids should be eating (broccoli, cauliflower, other veggies) and secretly puts them inside foods that her kids really love (chicken fingers, chocolate chip cookies, etc). But is this a new thing?
I ask this because I had heard about doing something similar, and a woman who wrote and published another cookbook is wondering if the two projects are too similar. Missy Chase Lapine, author of The Sneaky Chef (published in April by Running Press), says that her publicists pitched the idea to Oprah five times with no luck, and then six months later Jessica Seinfeld is on the show with her cookbook doing very similar recipes and cooking tips, and that Oprah it was being "touted as an entirely new technique."
I have to sort of agree with this last part. While watching that show I just didn't understand Oprah's reaction. She acted as if the woman had just found the cure for cancer (I think she said at one point that the recipes were "life-changing"). And the audience went crazy too, even though they weren't given free cars. (Winfrey hasn't commented yet, but Jessica Seinfeld's agent says that she is "above reproach."
Readers, what do you think? Are the two books too similar or is the cookbook world big enough for two similar books published so close to each other?
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10-23-2007 @11:15AM Rose said... Barbara of Tigers and Strawberries said it better than I could here. Short version: Hiding mushed up veggies in junk food doesn't teach your kid anything about nutritious eating.
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10-23-2007 @11:17AM Rose said... The link didn't go through in the first comment. Here it is again: http://www.tigersandstrawberries.com/2007/10/17/food-news-roundup-more-on-picky-kids-around-the-world-family-dinners-local-food-in-schools-and-the-like/
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10-23-2007 @12:18PM Jason Levine said... I recently purchased The Sneaky Chef thanks to recommendations from people here. While in the bookstore, I looked at both The Sneaky Chef and Deliciously Deceptive. They did look similar. Similar sets of recipes using similar techniques to hide similar ingredients. I'm not sure if that's a result of coincidence or conspiracy, but from my quick glance, I preferred The Sneaky Chef.
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10-23-2007 @12:25PM Deuz Augustine said... Just teach your kids to love vegetables. If they don't, you're cooking them incorrectly.
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10-23-2007 @1:21PM Jeff said... There are too many simplistic comments here about "cooking vegetables incorrectly" and "hiding mashed up vegetables doesn't teach kids anything."
For starters, I have been cooking professionally for over 25 years and most of my kids would rather spend a week grounded than eat the majority of vegetables we serve them.
Kids simply, for the most part, have a natural aversion to the taste and texture of vegetables. I have read that you have to put something new in front of a kid an average of 10 times before they will accept it and this seems to mesh with my experience as a parent. The question is what do you do in the interim? Do you have the nightly fights over cleaning your plate or do you find a subtle (sneaky) way of getting those nutrients into your kids' bodies?
Since I prefer letting my kids discover food instead of force feeding them, I have always snuck a few vegetables into their proteins while also having it whole on the plate. This does the combo of introducing them to new things in a nonthreatining way while also managing their nutrition.
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10-23-2007 @1:54PM Big John said... Jeff, I hate to attack your profession -- but you're doing something wrong. Being a professional chef doesn't mean much to your children, they most likely won't appreciate the complex food you're used to making. There is a huge difference between 'force feeding' as you say and helping them gradually appreciate new food.
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10-23-2007 @2:10PM stacey said... Back up your statement with suggestions John. I am not a chef. I'm just a mom who cooks dinner. By my count my oldest son has been exposed to peas, carrots, broccoli, corn, parsnips, and spinach at least 250 times in the past 4 years & he won't touch any of it, it any form - raw, steamed, baked, braised, sauced, cheesed, roasted, spiced, pureed. Possibly he'll a bit of corn on the cob. He eats spinach on his pizza because I shred it too fine to be picked out. I've tried insisting he taste a bite, or 3 bites, or a 'big spoonful' or letting him just ignore it as it he pleases. I've tried getting him to help cook it, to help select it, to choose what veggie he wants for dinner tonight. I've tried bribery and I've tried punishment. The veggies remain uneaten. So I puree the roasted eggplant and add to meatloaf and puree the steamed carrots add them to the pasta sauce. I make broccoli pesto and spinach pizza crust.
Someday, maybe well into his 20s, this kid will chose of his own free will to eat the veggies, until then I will use them as additives in the food he eats.
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10-23-2007 @2:22PM Jason Levine said... To expand on something that Jeff said and was touched upon in The Sneaky Chef. My son used to love eating veggies. He would eat a broccoli and mushroom pizza no problem. He would even *ask* for the broccoli over french fries.
However, something happened when he was about 2 1/2. All of a sudden, veggies became gross and he wouldn't touch them no matter what threats I issued or promises I made. At most, he would nibble on them and then make choking sounds as if it were poisoning him.
It didn't matter how I cooked the veggies, if he knew they were there, he would eat around it or freak out because something green and leafy was on his plate.
He's four now and as finicky as ever. I've come to accept the fact that I'm not going to win this battle head on. I've got to outsmart my four year old son. Let him think he's won but sneak the veggies in his food. Then, as he gets older, I can slowly "unsneak" the veggies until he's comfortable with the sight, taste, and texture of them.
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10-23-2007 @2:42PM Colleen said... I agree with those above commenting that it's not a simple task to get kids to eat nutritious foods. The New York Times just published a whole article on how genetics plays a role in that toddler-age switch to not wanting to try anything new, plus kids are bombarded with messages through advertising, restaurants, and relatives about what food is "gross" and what food is fun kid food. It's no reason to stop trying to expose kids to vegetables (and certainly parents should keep putting the veggies out there), but since there are plenty of kids who will eat nothing but bread or hot dogs or whatnot, why not sneak something nutritious in until the kid actually eats the broccoli straight up? I'm sorry, but I won't call my mom and several aunts bad parents just because they produced many picky kids just as I won't call my one aunt with a kid who will eat anything the best parent ever for that reason. There's no strategy out there that can guarantee that you won't end up with a kid who will only eat white food for a couple of years.
And as for the book debacle, I don't think anyone can copyright the idea of sneaking veggies into kids' favorite dishes. Parents and magazines have been in on that one for years. As for Oprah, well, the author of The Sneaky Chef will have to come to terms with the fact that she's just not as famous a name as Mrs. Seinfeld. A celebrity name is going to smooth a lot of paths, including the path to a spot on Oprah's show and a feature article in the NY Times. It's not fair, but it's what happens. I don't think anyone's said that The Sneaky Chef is a bad book, and certainly right now it's getting more publicity than ever before because of its similarity to Seinfeld's book. If anything, I only see this helping sales of both books. I only wish Lapine would stop with the bitter complaints to the press before she really starts to look bad to the public.
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10-23-2007 @3:59PM Tara said... THIS IS A HUGE DEAL!
Point #1 - Ms. Lapine showed her book to HarperCollins (Ms. Seinfeld’s publisher) 6 months before Ms. Seinfeld. Ms. Lapine’s publisher had already made Ms. Seinfeld’s publisher change the book cover (which easily resembled Ms. Lapine’s book cover).
Point #2 - Ms. Seinfeld has the same agent from the William Morris Agency as the Harvard sophomore student who recently lost her book contract for copying another’s novel.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12594078/
Coincidence? You be the judge!
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10-23-2007 @4:21PM Gobo said... The people here who glibly assume that parents whose kids don't like vegetables are "cooking them wrong" have obviously never been around actual children for more than a few minutes.
Kids don't like veggies, flat out. They won't eat them unless forced or tricked. That "trick" might be covering their broccoli with cheese, sneaking it into pizza toppings, or hiding it in brownies -- if it gets your kids the nutrients they need, they're better off than they would be on a diet of chicken fingers.
I help take care of a 9-year-old who absolutely refuses to eat anything but chicken fingers and bagel pizza, and has been like this his whole life. How would you deal with this?
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10-23-2007 @9:14PM gillie said... Cooking them wrong? What a joke. I have kids who like some vegetables, even love a few, and despise others. I hate peas. However you try to "hide" them, I'm going to pick them out and leave them on the side of my plate.
Not everyone likes everything no matter how it's cooked. I believe in giving kids a chance to try new things, ideally try things a few times before they decide they "hate" them. I won't force my son to eat broccoli, he hates it no matter how it's prepared. But he loves green beans and peas. My daughter on the other hand loves broccoli and always has--no matter how it's prepared. She won't touch lettuce or cabbage. Again, not everyone likes everything and nothing you do will change that.
I agree, the people who claim that "you're doing it wrong" haven't been around kids--heck they haven't been around any human beings very much.
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10-23-2007 @5:17PM licketychops said... Jerry Seinfeld appears on Oprah a week after his wife. Wife's book gets plugged on this episode as well. Seinfeld also does magazine profile for Oprah. Coincidence? I think not.
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10-23-2007 @6:18PM Wendy Buckley said... Is the moral of the story that being a Celebrity will get you further? in Publishing? in Promotion? in Sales?
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10-28-2007 @10:24PM halcyonsting said... Best tack I've found is to blend the veggies into sauces until the kids are 4-5 years old, then go to the tried-and-true dessert denial unless they try at least three legitimate bites of vegetables. I read somewhere that it takes between seven and ten tries before children (or any non-veggie eater) will willingly eat vegetables.
My three-year-old son suddenly hates pizza because of the tomato sauce, but he begs for celery daily. Yeah, it's confusing, but tastes change from year to year.
Oh, and btw, I think the whole issue here was actually that Seinfeld's people allowed plagarism under the mistaken impression that her name will sell the book better than Lapine's. I, for one, will make a point of buying Sneaky just on principle.
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10-23-2007 @10:15PM Seth said... I have no children: just a dog and wife who are in their own ways finicky. I believe those who say that kids just won't eat certain foods. i still can't get my wife to like tomatoes or cucumbers. Oh, she'll try them, but she always makes a face and refuses a second bite. "Nope. I just don't LIKE it!" And the dog? he will eat peas, but not bacon. Go figure. I KNOW I'm cooking the veggies right. I'm just up against something bigger than my cooking: irrational preference. As for Seinfeld, I would urge caution in suggesting plagiarism to explain this sort of timing. it could be a conspiracy, but that's a ugly sort of claim, especially for an idea like tricking your kid into eating veggies. I know my Mom did it to me, so it's hardly a new idea. And while my sympathies are with the author who is not already a multimillionaire, we should all be reluctant to start being "the judge" when all we have to go on is hearsay and internet postings as of this time. (All that said...I dunno. At the least, poor timing.)
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10-24-2007 @6:02AM Ed said... if your kids don't want to eat vegetables and you can't make them then a good beating is probably in order... >:P
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10-24-2007 @9:56AM bow30peep said... Jessica Seinfeld is a phony who is passing off other people's ideas as her own. Not only is her book almost the same at the Sneaky Chef, I have seen other countless cooks on Food Network do the same recipes that she rips off in her book.
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10-25-2007 @3:15PM Adam Fields said... Similarities aside, calling this a new technique is certainly laughable. Anyone remember this DC Comics cookbook from the 80s?
http://www.milehighcomics.com/cgi-bin/backissue.cgi?action=fullsize&issue=22718975283%201
It was full of all sorts of "hide the healthy" recipes.
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10-25-2007 @11:59PM Gobo said... Ed (#17), no, you're wrong. And you've never spent time with kids.
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