Gwyneth Dishes on Her New Cookbook
Gwyneth Paltrow, the svelte Oscar-winning actress who is famous for her kale-detox regimens, has written a cookbook (that’s part Jewish, nonetheless). While this sounds like the last thing I would add to my kitchen bookshelf, famed food critic Jeffrey Steingarten assures readers of this month’s Vogue cover story that “Her knife skills put mine to shame” and she more than knows her way around a kitchen.
Paltrow’s book, “My Father’s Daughter,” which is slated to hit shelves April 2011, is a primarily composed of family recipes she prepared with her dad, Hollywood producer and director, and Jew, Bruce Paltrow.
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“I always feel closest to my father, who was the love of my life until his death in 2002, when I am in the kitchen,” Paltrow writes in the introduction to her book. “I can still hear him… moaning with pleasure over a bite of something in only the way a Jew from Long Island can, his shoulders doing most of the talking.”
While copies of the manuscript aren’t available yet, we’re pretty sure there will be some traditional Jewish recipes for readers to cook up. One of the article’s photos shows Paltrow standing in her kitchen with a challah on the counter.
Despite her uber-healthy lifestyle (she works out 2 hours a day), Paltrow has been cooking, and writing about, traditional dishes for years. In an archived issue of her online newsletter “Goop,” she praised Jewish cookbook authors Claudia Roden and Joan Nathan. She even pokes fun at certain Jewish food traditions, writing: “We have found two gorgeous kosher wines from the Napa Valley that are sure to take your Seder up a notch (sorry Mr. Manishevitz),” in a Passover-edition Goop.
“Health food was never really on the agenda. It was about fun and deliciousness and togetherness,” she told Steingarten.
But for those of us who would like to avoid any kale-detox diets, we better watch how many of Gwyn’s recipes we cook up.
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