BUY THE BOOK
It was the ugly cry of an Oscar acceptance speech that sealed the deal. Blubbering through a list of thanks as she clung to her best actress statute did nothing to endear me to Gwyneth Paltrow. The perfection of her life — the happy celeb family, the spectacularly svelte frame (after producing two children), her website Goop and her pitch-perfect singing on Glee — hasn’t done much to win me over either. Which is why I did not expect to be hunting down her new cookbook It’s All Good at stores across the country. Seriously, it was sold out at the V&A Waterfront, Rosebank and Hyde Park Exclusive Books. I found a copy eventually. A couple of recipes tried and tasted later and I am a convert. Kind of.
Google Ms Paltrow and the second thing (after her feet, bizarrely) that pops up is her diet. There are endless posts about it. Essentially, she’s a vegan who follows a regime free of coffee, alcohol, dairy, sugar, gluten and soya. After a patch of bad health, a doctor recommended that she clear her system with this strict diet. But because she’s a real foodie, Gwyneth set about creating recipes that are still delicious.
I was already eating a high-alkaline, gluten-free diet before I heard about her eating plan. I was already messing about with quinoa and lemon juice and pumpkin seeds, so seeing what she’d done with them seemed like a good idea. I concluded: 1. The recipes are good and they work. Her almond butter cookies with Maldon salt were crispy and more-ish, her broccoli and rocket soup was dead easy and something I now crave. The book was co-edited with food writer Julia Turshen, who worked on Paltrow’s first recipe book My Father’s
Daughter, so some credit must go to her. 2. Eating Paltrow-style is for the rich (and famous). Millet, quinoa, nuts and everything organic are expensive, real maple syrup is offthe-charts pricey. 3. It is sometimes difficult to find ingredients. Kale is a Paltrow staple (she puts it in everything, including smoothies) but it’s not widely available in South Africa. 4. Follow the eating plans in the book and you probably won’t be offered the cover of Harpers Bazaar at age 40 (like GP) but you’ll most likely feel healthier, more energetic, lighter and slightly smug. I will never be a cardcarrying member of the Paltrow posse but I do reckon that she’s onto something. Eating a clean, green, low-carb, sugar-free diet suits me. And judging from the Fifty Shades of Grey- like run on the book, I’m not the only one. —
Sarah Buitendach