Skinny blondes telling us what to eat beware. Sophie Dahl was largely scorned by the Twittersphere as her cookery series was aired.
The mistake Ms Dahl made and should take heed from Gywneth Paltrow’s Notes From My Kitchen Table, is that readers need to believe you really eat this food.
With a such a strong reputation for prissy GOOP newsletters, austere eating and punishing exercise regimes, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Notes From My Kitchen Table.
Macrobiotic tendancies might have meant an uphill battle for Gwyneth to persuade people it’s not a book full of punishment. She’s being taken seriously though – NFMKT has a feature with several recipes in this week’s Observer.
I’ve been struck by how appealing the food looks, I want to eat most of it although I’m having to check whether I can find all the ingredients.
Most of her store cupboard kit would be available from health stores or supermarkets but might struggle with hemp milk, Vegenaise (imported vegan mayo), “duck bacon”, white or whole spelt flours. I might start a campaign to get people to ask for these in Waitrose, Vegenaise would do wonders for my cholesterol levels and duck bacon sounds fantastic.
The book opens with a tribute to her father Bruce Paltrow who died of throat cancer. His untimely death made Gwyneth determined to eat more healthily; she went for local organic food and “eliminated dairy, sugar, meat, alcohol, gluten” but admits she sometimes craved martinis and cake.
A few years later and feeding a young family, Gwyneth has brought back occasional dairy products and stuff from the supermarket “without going down some kind of hippie shame spiral.”
It’s this mindset that brings us to NFMKT. Rather than preaching a particular way of eating, there’s a practical list of substitutions you can make “If you haven’t had time to go to the health food or gourmet store”.
Moses and Apple are present via discreet photographs and endearing quotes in boxes. Husband Chris Martin is predictably absent – although he does look a lot like her dad in younger years. Make of that what you will.
There are tips for cooking with and feeding children, cute at a glance graphics to indicate which recipes need to be made ahead or are quick, vegetarian or one pot meals. There are also tips with some recipes how to “make it vegan” or “make it kid friendly”.
I’ve made two recipes from this book which I’ll blog shortly but here are some more on my “must try list”:
- Lee’s home-made sriracha (red chilli sauce)
- White bean soup
- Chive vinaigrette
- Hot nicoise salad
- Tuna and ginger burgers
- Duck and rosemary burgers with plum ketchup
- Duck ragu (slight theme here)
- Maple-Dijon roasted winter vegetables
- Spiced apple crumb muffins
- Fudgy chocolate brownies
One bit of this book that irked me on first reading was the rattled off list of celebrity and aristocratic dinner party companions in the dedication. On doing some research via Entertainment Weekly, it’s probably more an in joke between Gwyneth and her friends. Some of the names probably refer to Beyonce, Christy Turlington and possibly even Madonna.
Verdict: Plenty of yummy pictures and food you’d like to try. Slightly challenging to find ingredients but mostly feasible if you’re a foodie tending to seek out obscure stuff anyway.
Finally look here if you want to know where to buy duck bacon (Damn! She imports it) or how to make duck bacon. I must try both some time…
For a chance to win one of 3 copies of Notes From My Kitchen Table, come back tomorrow.
With thanks for the review copy.
Looking forward to hearing about how the recipes turned out. I really like Gweneth. I think this book will be much more of a success than Sophie Dahl’s because I think Sophie was trying too hard, and was trying to copy some kind of “Nigella formula” if you know what I mean.
*kisses* HH
Ah well let’s see if Gwyneth gets a TV show. That I would definitely watch!
Gwyneth is a tiny bit too clean living for me and I don’t think the photo on the front helps though your review of this book is great and I am certainly intruiged!
Ha ha, she is a bit squeaky. I blame the husband though.
Thank you for reviewing this! I think I’m going to hold off buying this until I see some recipes from it or check out a hard copy myself. The recipes on that list do sound delish but I’m definitely not keen on going on some obscure food hunt.
Mostly it’s health food store stuff that you’d have to go out your way for. 80% of it you should find in Holland & Barratt, Waitrose or Sainsburys though.
I too was a bit sceptical hearing Gwyneth aka another celebrity, was bringing out a cookbook, but the reviews I’ve read so far are, on the whole, very complimentary and encouraging. I read the other day too about the cookbook market being oversaturated, but duck Bacon is definitely a unique selling point! The duck burgers sound particularly appetitising- look forward to reading how you got on with the recipes tomorrow!
Lemmee at the duck bacon! I foresee it being suddenly stocked by Waitrose later this year in the same way as Delia made us all buy cranberries!!
Now, I hate GOOP with a passion. But I’ve heard a lot of quietly positive stuff about this book. The tuna and ginger burgers sound really good!
I think the name GOOP is enough to put me off. She makes quite a few burger recipes and they all sound really nice – I’ll be blogging one of them.
Sounds just perfect for how I eat!
I am hugely keen on semi vegan and macrobiotic. Delicious!
I thought it was right up your street!
My friend was saying that they tried to make a recipe from here and spent £20 on the ingredients, for one recipe, as it was only avaliable at Waitrose! Hm… don’t think that as a student I can afford this just yet!
Well quite possibly, although I’ve had a similar experience with Nigella recipes.
she does look gorgeous…im not sure id go out of my way to source the obscure things though 🙂
I’ve had a good look through it and to be honest, if you have a decent (probably independent) health store nearby, it’s only those 3 things that I wouldn’t have a clue where to find. It’s more a case of having to add things to your store cupboard you might not previously have had.
Fab review Sarah, you have made me chortle this morning. I want duck bacon and I want it now! (said in a diva way, of course).
Great review Sarah. I had a quick flick-through the book yesterday and many of the dishes look fab. I’m eyeing to make the duck ragu sometime soon. I look forward for a chance to win her book.
Have a nice day.
Great review…i can’t wait to read the blog posts of the recipes you tried! 🙂 Not sure if i would want to go through the extend of finding all the special ingredients though.
She does give more easily found alternatives in a useful chart near the start. It’s more that she recommends alternatives rather than making them compulsory.
I wondered about this book, but had dismissed it without looking at it! Thanks to your review I am well & truly interested! I like to have healthy moments so this sounds good. Look forward to your recipe reviews.
I must admit I raised an eyebrow myself but it’s definitely worth a proper look.
Your reviews are always super, this book sounds intriguing, I might just give it a go. Jude x
I think I might buy it myself.
Interesting review. I’d have been running screaming from this for all the reasons you’ve alluded to, but thanks to your write up I’m thinking again! Will be back for the competition, thanks!
Nope still couldn’t stand for this to be on my shelf. One of my friends will probably end up buying me this as a joke Christmas present.
Hmm. She gets a lot of stick doesn’t she old Gwynnie? Well, not so old Gwynnie. The send-ups I’ve read of GOOP are almost as hilarious as the website itself. I suppose it was inevitable that she was going to bring out a cookbook.
Hi Sarah…great review! I bought this a couple of weeks ago and was really pleasantly surprised…it seems to be a collection of recipes that I’d actually eat & had a lovely,real feel to it too – not at all what I was expecting. I’ve made a few of the recipes and they’ve turned out very well…the vegan brownies are gorgeous, but the ingredients ARE expensive. 250ml maple syrup, for a start, make them a luxury item! Still, well worth having I think. Have a great weekend x