How to Get Junior to Eat His Veggies Turns Out to Be (Too) Common Knowledge
From the New York Times
(My thoughts on the article are below. How about a compromise in the kitchen? Take a peek at the post, Is Deceptively Delicious Too Deceptive)
Jessica Seinfeld, the comedian Jerry Seinfeld’s wife, has a hot best seller with “Deceptively Delicious,” a cookbook for parents of picky eaters. Ms. Seinfeld’s celebrity and an appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” have helped propel the book to the No. 1 spot on the hardcover Advice, How-To and Miscellaneous list in The New York Times, where it will make its debut a week from Sunday.
But a number of readers posting on Amazon.com and Oprah.com and other Web sites have pointed out some similarities between Ms. Seinfeld’s book, which was published this month by Collins, an imprint of HarperCollins, and another cookbook published by Running Press, an imprint of the Perseus Books Group, in April.
That book, “The Sneaky Chef” by Missy Chase Lapine, who is not a celebrity, also suggests that parents purée healthy foods like spinach and sweet potatoes and hide them in childhood favorites like macaroni and cheese or brownies. A week from Sunday it will be No. 9 on the paperback Advice, How-To and Miscellaneous list.
It turns out that Ms. Lapine, a former publisher of Eating Well magazine, had submitted her 139-page proposal for “The Sneaky Chef,” complete with 42 recipes, to HarperCollins twice — once in February 2006 without an agent and again in May last year, the second time represented by an agent. Both times she was rejected. She landed a deal with Running Press in June 2006, the same month that Collins won an auction to publish Ms. Seinfeld’s book.
“Honestly I can’t speculate, and I’m not going to accuse anyone of anything,” Ms. Lapine said. “I suppose it’s possible it’s a coincidence.”
In a telephone interview, Ms. Seinfeld said she had come up with the idea more than two years ago in her kitchen while puréeing butternut squash for her youngest son and cooking macaroni and cheese for her husband and two oldest children. “I’ve been obsessed with this for the past two years,” said Ms. Seinfeld, who worked with a chef and a nutritionist on the book. “I don’t need to copy someone’s idea. I’ve got enough going on in my life.”
Mr. Seinfeld, who joined his wife on the phone, said, “Let’s be realistic — my wife isn’t in this for the money or the publicity.” He added, “I really don’t think we have another Watergate here.”
The basic concepts for several of Ms. Lapine’s recipes — spinach in brownies, avocado in chocolate pudding and sweet potato in grilled cheese sandwiches — also appear in recipes offered by Ms. Seinfeld.
Ms. Lapine, a mother of two daughters who lives in Irvington, N.Y., said that when she compared her book with Ms. Seinfeld’s, she was “uncomfortable” seeing that “those unusual combinations that I thought would brand me as a lunatic showed up here, too.”
Ms. Seinfeld said she had not looked at “The Sneaky Chef,” but noted that any similarities were likely to have stemmed from the use of commonly accepted children’s favorites.
Of course, parents have been swapping tips for how to hide zucchini in muffins for generations, and other books, like “The Art of Hiding Vegetables,” have touched on the subject.
Steve Ross, president and publisher of Collins, said the company had rejected Ms. Lapine’s book because it was too similar to another title on its list. He said the publisher agreed to meet with Ms. Seinfeld when she submitted a similar proposal two weeks later because of her name and her agent: Jennifer Rudolph Walsh of William Morris.
Ms. Walsh described Ms. Seinfeld as “smart, stunning, and infinitely promotable” in a cover letter. Ms. Seinfeld visited the HarperCollins offices and cooked three dishes, impressing editors.
Ms. Lapine’s publisher contacted HarperCollins this summer after an early brochure for “Deceptively Delicious” showed an illustration of a woman holding carrots behind her back, similar to a drawing on the cover of “The Sneaky Chef.” Collins changed its plans for the cover, although, Mr. Ross said, that could have been because “it just looked too awkward to have her holding a plate of brownies with one hand and carrots” in the other.
David Steinberger, chief executive of Perseus, said no legal action was being considered at this time.
“I can’t explain a coincidence like this,” Ms. Seinfeld said, “but I applaud it and I wish there were 10 more books like mine because I’m not in this for a competition, I’m in this to help families.”
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What are my thoughts on this whole issue, you may be wondering…
First, I have to compliment both of these women for working hard to get families to eat better. While I don’t agree with the dishonesty about their approach, their intentions seem to be in the right place. I would much prefer that they encourage families to cook together, but maybe that will have to be MY book! I wonder if it will sell even if I don’t have a famous husband or a scandal behind it… Your thoughts?
Here are each of these women on TV:
For delicious and healthy recipes for your family, with tips on including your kids IN the kitchen, please visit What’s Cooking Weekly.
This ‘borrowing’ goes on all the time…I co-wrote a book last year…(self-published). I sent the book around for free to many places for reviews…and found that a local paper in my area lifted some of my work from the book without credit…and it was so OBVIOUS it made me cry.
Now, on the other hand, moms share tons of info all the time and some of us choose to “write” about it…who knows, my mom in the 70′s put lots of green stuff in my food without me knowing and shared that secret when I had kids…so this is not a new concept.
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very interesting.
and yes, you definitely have to write a book.
Ms. Lapine is very fortunate to may have been plagiarized because now she’ll make so much more money from the media exposure….that’s the logic of many folks, who don’t even know Ms. Lapine. Yeh, she’ll even be more happy when her greedy lawyers start deposing the Seinfeld’s entire HarperCollins book prep team in 3-4 weeks to see who leaked Ms. Lapine’s manuscript. HarperCollins even had to change the artwork on Seinfeld’s book cover (a winking lady with carrots nearby) because Ms. Lapine’s publisher complained when they noticed a flyer on the book. You see, Ms. Lapine didn’t use an agent when she first presented her manuscript to HarperCollins so the book staff could possibly have just said, ” Heh, look here, a free manuscript to steal. Nobody will ever know.”
Interesting. But I don’t quite get the “hide the vegetables” part at all. When I grew up, my mom always cooked vegetables in a hundred different ways. Most of the time they tasted great. She never hid them in cakes or brownies, and my sister and I ate it heartily. I am not a good cook but I notice my kids eat the same veggies enthusiastically or with the disdain look in their eyes depending how they are prepared and cooked. I personally think kids don’t hate vegetables. They just don’t like them when they are cooked not to their taste. Just my humble opinion
It strikes me as odd… I don’t think Ms. Seinfeld would have intentionally plagerised the book, however, I wouldn’t put it past the publishers to “accidently” mention something.
And, I find it odd that virtually the same book was pitched by a “no body” and was denied. Stick “a name” on it and it’s golden. Just because someone is married to a famous celebrity doesn’t mean they are “good” at what they do.