Book review and chance to win: Notes From My Kitchen Table by Gwyneth Paltrow

Gwyneth Paltrow has had a lot of stick for being ‘too perfect’. It seems attractive women shouldn’t be too accomplished, and when they are they seem to get shot down in flames.

It seems bringing out a cookery book was one step too far, and there’s been quite a lot of bitchy reviews about it.

So I was really curious to see what it was actually like.

Is it all hype or a book you’d genuinely cook from?!

Another reason I was interested in checking it out was because of the vegetarians in our house and needing some inspiration for delicious but not too lardy meals.

Gwyneth Paltrow is what is sometimes called a flexitarian – or vegetarian who occasionally eats meat. I think that’s what my diet will inevitably become. Although my knee-jerk reaction to the boys’ vegetarianism is to currently order steak whenever I eat out! But I digress… back to Gwyneth’s recipe book!

Who is it for?

She says it’s recipes that all the family will love, something for every meal and every occasion. If you express your love through cooking delicious meals for your loved ones then you’ll really like this book I think.

It’s fresh and fairlynhealthy cooking, but not dull or spartan which is what I was half expecting.

It’s very reflective of her Californian upbringing so it’s bursting with colourful and tasty dishes.

Easy to follow?

Each recipe has icons to sign post suitability for making in advance, quick recipes, vegan/vegetarian, one-pot meal and dress-up meal – so you can pick out a meal to suit you at-a-glance.

I like the ‘If you don’t have… you can use…’ page – GP favours some niche products like Vegenaise that are pretty tricky to get hold of, so she lets you know the best alternatives. She’s been criticised quite heavily for her use of wacky ingredients in the book, but with a thoughtful page like this you can’t really complain.

Family friendly?

Loads of the recipes are simple and more than suited for putting in front of the entire family. GP also lends a hand by making suggestions of how to make some of the meals more suited to a younger palate.

Roasts, pastas dishes, muffins and chocolate brownies are all bound to please the little ones. This is not complex or fancy cooking.

There is also an entire section with tips on how to get kids involved in cooking. She firmly believes in letting her kids help out – to the point of giving them quite grown-up jobs with careful supervision to make them feel trusted and boost their confidence.

Most likely to cook

Slow-roasted tomatoes – it’s something to make at the beginning of the week and stash in your fridge to liven up a salad or throw in with some pasta. I’ll def be doing this with the tomatoes from the allotment once they start ripening. They pop up throughout Gwyneth’s book so are certainly worth making if you’re going to get into her recipes.

Broccoli and cheese soup, and cold pea and basil soup both sound lovely ways of getting your veg count up. The slow-roasted tomato soup sounds like a brilliant fresh alternative to the canned soup my kids are hooked on.

The salads are all amazing looking, a real Southern California vibe, the panzanella with roasted peppers, tomatoes and basil look like the perfect summer’s lunch – or BBQ side.

There’s an entire section on burgers and sandwiches to work through – with some great-sounding veggie options like portobello and slow roasted tomato burgers.

Spaghetti limone parmeggiano sounds fresh and perfect family fodder. And the enticingly golden crispy potato & garlic cake looks pretty wicked too.

Least likely to cook

Caramelized brussels sprouts – she claims it will convert sprout cynics, but I’ll pass on that thanks!

Would you buy it for a friend?

Hmmm I’m not sure! Celebrity cookbooks are a tough one to give to the right person. I’d have to sneakily find out first if they thought Gwyneth was irritating or not.

On the basis of the recipes alone though I’d certainly lend it to my friends so they could see how fab it is and to cast their prejudices aside!

Rating out of 10

9

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed reading this book. There are some real gems in here and I definitely think it’s a keeper.

Notes From My Kitchen Table is published by Boxtree

Thanks for my review copy! 

*****THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED*********

WIN WIN WIN!

I have TWO copies of Gwyneth’s book to give away to my readers…

1. For a chance to win please comment on this post telling me about your favourite celebrity cookbook

2. For a second chance to win please tweet this post “Win Gwyneth Paltrow’s cook book: Notes From My Kitchen Table @cookingkt (insert URL of post here)” and comment HERE telling me you have done so along with your twitter username

3. For a third chance to win please follow me @cookingkt on Twitter and comment HERE to tell me you have done so.

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This giveaway is open to all readers with a UK mailing address. The winners will be chosen using an online randomiser and announced in a subsequent post. As I am allowing multiple entries the randomiser may choose the same person twice, in this case I shall pick another winner until there are two separate winners.
When commenting please leave your e-mail address so I can contact you if you win.

I am running this competition on behalf of Pan Macmillan who will be responsible for sending the prizes to the winners. Their decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

There is one main way to enter and several ways to get bonus entries. You must leave a separate comment for each bonus entry otherwise they will not be counted.

Closing date: 10pm Thursday 7th July, 2011

Good Luck!

*****THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED*********