You can’t copy me, food blogger Ella warns 10-year-old
TO FATHER and restaurant boss John Vincent it sounded like a recipe for fun: take superstar food blogger Ella Woodward, get your 10-year-old daughter to recreate her famous book cover pose, then add a pinch of cheek by using it to illustrate your own dish.
Unfortunately his ‘light-hearted spoof’ left the businessman in hot water. For while Ella Woodward is happy to share foodie tips with her hundreds of thousands of Instagram fans, she gets a little upset with those who trifle with her image rights.
The blogger, 24, showed a no-nonsense nature when she objected to the picture Mr Vincent – co-founder of hugely successful British restaurant chain Leon – wanted to put in his new Happy Salads book.
The picture he hoped to use to illustrate a recipe showed Eleanor dressed like Ella and eating the spaghetti-like dish in a re-enactment of Ella’s pose on the cover of her first cookbook, Deliciously Ella, which became the fastest selling debut cookbook on record when it came out last year.
Mr Vincent wanted to call the recipe Deliciously Eleanor because his daughter is such a big fan of Ella.
But when his staff sought the blogger’s approval, after explaining it was an homage to her, Ms Woodward said she wasn’t happy about the picture or the name of the recipe being used and that she, her agent and publishers agreed it was far too similar to the Deliciously Ella brand. But she did wish them well with the cookbook.
Mr Vincent changed the picture and the name of the recipe. He said: ‘It was just a light-hearted spoof… It was just my way of giving a nod to my beloved daughter. We remain huge fans of Ella and understand the position she took.’ A spokesman for Ms Woodward declined to comment.