There is currently some controversy going that Jessica Seinfeld's new book , "
Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food" has similarities to Missy Chase Lapine's book "
The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids Favorite Meals".
The following post is an except from the article "
Jessica Seinfeld Cookbook's Originality is Being Questioned" written by
Deirdre Donahue (USA TODAY)
Rival author says theme was hers firstCould
Oprah Winfrey's televised blessing become an embarrassment for recipient
Jessica Seinfeld?
After the wife of comedian Jerry Seinfeld appeared on Winfrey's show on Oct. 8 to discuss her cookbook, "Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food," online message boards erupted with questions about the originality of the book's premise.
Winfrey praised "Deceptively Delicious" extravagantly. The cookbook explains how to slip healthy food into children without their knowledge. For example, add avocado to chocolate pudding or put chickpeas in chocolate-chip cookies. It suggests adding vegetable and fruit purees to food.
"Deceptively" zoomed up the best-seller lists. The $24.95 book is No. 2 on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list. More than 1.2 million copies are in print.
But when the "Oprah" show aired, postings at Amazon.com and Oprah.com noted that another cookbook advocates these same techniques and specific ingredients: "The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids Favorite Meals" by Missy Chase Lapine, former publisher of Eating Well magazine. Published in April by Running Press, the book has 150,000 copies in print.
"I'm surprised that on the 'Oprah' show this was being touted as an entirely new technique pioneered by Ms. Seinfeld," Lapine said Saturday.
Slipping in vitaminsThe idea of stealth nutrition is not new, Lapin says. "My grandmother used to do it," she says, but her book is the product of five years of research. "My book is not just a concept. My book is a how-to manual."
Moreover, she adds, "I'm concerned and troubled that Oprah credited and applauded someone else for a technique that was out there six months earlier."
Winfrey was not available for comment.
Lapin says she and her publicists pitched the "Oprah" show five times without success. Twice she submitted her 139-page book proposal with 31 recipes and 11 purees to HarperCollins (Seinfeld's publisher) - once in February 2006 without an agent and again with an agent in May 2006.
"The one big fact is that they had access to my manuscript early on," Lapine says. Seinfeld's book was signed up in June 2006.
"There are at least 15 of my recipes that ended up in her book," Lapine says. However, she says, recipes are hard to protect: "If you change one ingredient, you're safe." She says that after her publisher contacted HarperCollins, "Deceptively's" cover was modified from the one on a promotional brochure. the word "simple" was inserted in place of "sneaky."
"Seinfeld is a big name, and it garners more attention than someone who doesn't have a big name," Lapine says. She and her publisher had no comment about possible legal action.
Jessica Seinfeld's DefenseResponding to the brouhaha, Seinfeld issued a statement: "My book came from years of trying to get my own children to eat healthy foods - my own trials and error in my own kitchen. The idea of pureeing vegetables has been around for decades. I have never seen or read this other book. I do hope it is successful and brings even more attention to child nutrition."
Seinfeld's publisher, Steve Ross, insists "she wasn't influenced by anyone else's ideas." Seinfeld cooks these dishes herself, he says. "I don't think money affects whether one cooks or doesn't cook."
Says Seinfeld's agent, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh: "We can never get enough of building up our celebrities and then tearing them down. but in this case they've chosen the wrong person, because Jessica Seinfeld is above reproach."
What's your opinion on this issue? Is this an issue of Plagiarism or great minds thinking a like?
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