Veggie Gate: Deceptively Copied?
Well, I’m sure you’ve heard about “Veggie Gate.” Jerry Seinfeld’s wife’s new cookbook, Deceptively Delicious, has gotten a lot of buzz stemming from her recent Oprah appearance. Problem is the cookbook, which hides veggie purees in comfort foods such as butternut squash in mac and cheese, and spinach in brownies, is remarkable similar to another book by Missy Chase Lapine’s “The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids’ Favorite Meals” which came out several months before in April. Not only are the concepts similar but so are the actual recipes. In addition to the ones mentioned before other similarities include grilled cheese and sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and cauliflower, pureed spinach and green eggs, and hidden carrot tacos.
And it gets stickier when we learn that Lapine’s book was rejected by the publisher of Jessica Seinfeld’s controversial book, Harper Collins, not once but twice. But let’s not shed tears for Ms. Lapine. She’s a very savvy marketer herself having been the former editor of Eating Well magazine so she knows the ins and outs of the publishing world. And in the publishing world, it’s all about being an A-lister and having a platform. While Jessica Seinfeld is no A-lister herself, she’s married to one of the biggest. She’s got a good look and is highly marketable with the Seinfeld connection, so I’m sure the folks at Harper were drooling over this book deal. Jerry Seinfeld has been on Oprah’s show before, so getting Oprah to plug the book was a given.
Ms. Lapine is crying foul now because she was also pitching her concept to Oprah only to be upstaged by Jeffy Seinfeld’s wife. Also, controversy sells and I’m sure that sales of Ms. Lapine’s book are higher than they ever would have been without “Veggie Gate.” However, before we all give credit to Ms. Lapine, there is one problem. Both books look similar to a book published in 2003 called Kid Favorites Made Healthy: 150 Delicious Recipes Kids Can’t Resist, which also btw, has healthy versions of mac and cheese and chicken nuggets. So who’s copying who? Whether or not Jessica actually reviewed Missy’s book before she published her own is debatable, but every idea is derivative especially in the food and recipe world.
As far as the premise for both books, I have to tell you I’m not excited. Throwing some veggie purees in junk food while making them healthier, is not the same as healthy. I saw her chicken nuggets recipe on the Oprah show and it didn’t strike me that adding a spinach puree for the chicken coating would really add that much nutritional value since the whole thing was deep fried. These books offer a false promise and fail to deliver. It’s akin to transitioning a drug addict to methadone. Transitioning kids from junk food junkies to veggie-puree junk food junkies is not teaching kids to eat healthy. It’s the wrong message. You can’t have your junk and eat it too.
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Sally { 10.31.07 at 7:41 pm }
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 OPRAHIS JUST A COINCIDENCE?
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Dr Marc { 10.31.07 at 8:27 pm }
you may be right… but after my experience with agents and publishers, lead times are long. Let’s say Jessica did see the book This means she has about 4 months to write copy and test recipes… and that’s not all, the publisher would have to edit, create illustrations and the book cover, have a food stylist photograph dishes. that’s a really short turn around time, even if she hired a ghost writer and ghost chef to test recipes (which many celebs do btw). So I’m fairly certain Jessica never saw the book when she first pitched the idea to the publisher. However during the planning and writing stage it’s possible that she may have “borrowed” some concepts and recipes.
as to unique, both books may have had their “inspiration” from “Kid Favorites Made Healthy: 150 Delicious Recipes Kids Can’t Resist”
Btw, I had a cookbook idea that I thought was very unique and I heard through various agents of similar books being pitched at the same time. So no matter how “unique” a concept may appear, I’m not surprised that 2 authors pitched the same idea.
Publishers are a smart bunch. Oprah is the holy grail. If you get on Oprah, you’re a best seller. Harper Collins saw both proposals, but knew Jessica was their meal ticket to get on the show. I’m not saying it’s right, it’s just the way the game is played.
And personally I have been turned down by multiple agents and publishers for not being a “star” ie… being on Oprah, have a magazine column, or having a cooking show on the Food Network. That’s why I love blogging. You don’t have to be a celeb to share your thoughts and ideas to help people with their health. Kind of ironic that the celeb diet doctor is on the D list:)! Kathy Griffin are you around?
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Sally { 10.31.07 at 8:58 pm }
(JOKE) Newsflash! Dateline: Long Island, NY October 31, 2007 Unconfirmed reports from the neighbors of Jerry Seinfeld say that noted celebrity cook/child nutritionist and wife, Jessica Seinfeld, deciphered the vegetable formula for the well guarded V8 vegetable drink earlier today while only using a blender and toothpicks. Ms. Seinfeld was overhead as saying, “I will improve V8 with capers!. Ta!”
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Dr Marc Twitter: @celebdietdoc { 10.31.07 at 9:03 pm }
yes, I think I heard about that too… she mentioned that she’s also replacing the salt with spinach and broccoli puree:)
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Mary { 10.31.07 at 9:39 pm }
My mother was doing things like this when I was a kid and I’m almost 52 years old! Who’s copying who? Go get any 3 or 4 cookbooks and I’ll just about guarantee that you’ll find almost exact duplicates between them. Recipes and ideas are handed down over the generations. If a cookbook is published by anybody, there is bound to be some recipe that could be said to be a duplicate from another cookbook. The likelihood of that NOT happening is very slim.
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Reg { 11.01.07 at 7:33 pm }
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.
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Reg { 11.02.07 at 12:39 am }
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.
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JC { 11.03.07 at 3:33 pm }
Publishing is VERY CUT THROAT. They don’t pay their employees well. A cousin of mine majored in journalism at UCLA got her first job with Forbes in NYC. They paid her $25k/year about a decade ago.
If you plan on selling your books online, you don’t need a publisher or agent. You just need to register your book with the Library of Congress and find a printer to print it. I’ve seen quite a few authors go this route. Depending on your quantity and size of the book, there are some Midwest printers who will print as low as $3 a book. You pay no royalties and can pass the savings onto the consumers.
You do, however, need to do your own distributing, ie. give complimentary copies to libraries and radio stations to gain publicity.
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JenniferFrance { 01.14.10 at 12:58 pm }
I kinda love it how people say oh for shame, your children won’t eat vegetables, your fault! I have a toddler that the taste of certain vegetables are repugnant to her. Even though she ate them as a baby, she hates them now. So, you do what you have to. You try to get nutrition in your child’s diet anyway you can. I started making what I call green goddess smoothies for my kid that are for adults but i just add more fruit. At certain stages, children stop wanting to eat certain things. Now, since doctors say, don’t ram them down your child’s throat, cajoling doesn’t seem to help either. Have you ever had someone try to get you to eat tripe? Well, for one, the first experience wasn’t a pleasant one but I ended up loving it after a few other pleasant experiences such as masking the flavor with a tomato sauce. So, I think you do what you can to get kids to eat. Toddlers are especially finicky due to growth and them only wanting carbs during one period and not wanting to eat at all. Before you judge, have a child. Before you judge, raise a child. Before you even dare judge, sit for two hours trying to get a picky child to eat a green bean. I’ll do whatever I have to do to get my child to get vegetables even hide them in spaghetti bolangaise.
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Dr Marc Twitter: @celebdietdoc { 01.14.10 at 4:08 pm }
Good points Jennifer.. thanks for commenting. It’s certainly difficult to get kids to eat healthy especially when they are surrounded by junk food at school, at home, when they go out etc.. Kids are great at mimicking adults.. so if you wind up eating junk they want junk, you’re on your cell phone, they want a cell phone (and not a plastic version either). So telling kids to eat healthy while they see their parents and everyone around them eating junk won’t work.
So my advice is to get rid of all processed foods (or as much as possible from your kitchen) No sodas, No crackers, No Cookies, No Chips, No ice cream.. and replace your kitchen with as much whole fruits and veggies as possible. And no lip service. You got to eat healthy yourself. The green smoothies are a great way to get your kids to eat more greens, so bravo on that!
Take your kids to the farmer’s market and let them pick out the veggies and fruits they want to eat.. getting buy in from your kids is key.. often they claim they don’t like it but it’s really because it wasn’t their idea in the first place. You’ll be amazed at how kids will do things including eating healthy when they feel it’s their idea!!
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[...] Well, I’m sure you’ve heard about “Veggie Gate.” Jerry Seinfeld’s wife’s new cookbook, Deceptively Delicious, has gotten a lot of buzz stemming from her recent Oprah appearance. Problem is the cookbook, which hides veggie purees in comfort foods such as butternut squash in mac and cheese, and spinach in brownies, is remarkable similar to another book by Missy Chase Lapine’s “The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids’ Favorite Meals” which came out several months before in April. Not only are the concepts similar but so are the actual recipes. In addition to the ones mentioned before other similarities include grilled cheese and sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and cauliflower, pureed spinach and green eggs, and hidden carrot tacos. (more…) [...]