Jerry Seinfeld's wife, Jessica Seinfeld, put out a new cookbook named, "Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food," and went on Oprah to promote it. Oprah of course went on and on how it was so brilliant and the book even went on to be number 2 on the USA Today's Best Sellers List with over 1.2 million copies in print. What Oprah didn't know was that there is a book exactly the same called, "the SNEAKY chef."
So what will this mean? Is a cookbook just a cookbook? The author, Chase Lapine, of "the SNEAKY chef" calls a spade a spade and says that this method is no new method. Um, no kidding. You ladies didn't invent cooking. Not that I'm one to talk, I barely use my kitchen. But still...
Lapin said that she tried to pitch the book to Oprah five times and never got word back from Oprah. And, before it was published, Lapin tried to pitch her book to HarperCollins, Seinfeld's publisher, and never got published. In fact, they had a manuscript months before Seinfeld had pitched her book to HarperCollins, and apparently, there were a lot of similar recipes in both books. Hmm...
The bottom line is that Seinfeld has a name and Lapine doesn't have the Seinfeld empire behind her. It sucks because she's the underdog, and we feel for her, but welcome to the real world Chase! Shit happens. The facts are that you're a different brand than Seinfeld and you didn't invent cooking. So wake up and "Rise and Dine." It's like saying, "hey I'm a talk show host and I interview celebrities too, why does Conan have a show and I don't?" Geez, I wonder why. Did I also mention that I invented the color yellow?
Comments (4)
I read that the real issue was that there are several recipes in seinfelds book that were stolen from the sneaky chef. Either way people live or die on oprahs word!
1 of 4 | Posted by lloyd dobbler | Posted on October 25, 2007 5:33 PM
The two books came out within six months of each other. It takes a lot longer than six months to publish a cook book.
If you go to the New York Times 'city blog' page (not allowed to post a link, apparently) you can see a good AB comparison.
I read on Amazon that many people preferred Seinfeld's book bc the recipes were healthier.
Also, what no one seems to be saying is that Seinfeld doesn't just hide veg. She puts some on the plate, too, so the kids learn to eat them that way.
2 of 4 | Posted by Donna Martin Graduates! | Posted on October 25, 2007 6:05 PM
yeah, i heard the same thing, except that "one" word was changed. Instead of splash, she wrote write, "drizzle" to change the recipe. Even cooking masterminds have tiffs. Peace in the cooking middle east. it's ridiculous!!!
3 of 4 | Posted by Nads | Posted on October 25, 2007 6:07 PM
Oprah this, Oprah that. Seinfeld hacked. I love Jerry, but Jessica? Come on. Genius, hardly. I agree with you Nads, you need a name to survive sometimes. Dog Eat Dog World.
4 of 4 | Posted by Jiffypop | Posted on October 26, 2007 2:09 AM