American actress, author and businesswoman Gwyneth Paltrow is earning better reviews for her recently released cookbook ‘The Clean Plate: Eat, Reset, Heal’ than her earlier forays – It’s All Easy’, ‘My Father’s Daughter’ and ‘It’s All Good’ – which got her acerbic feedback from analysts, many of who claimed that the recipes mentioned in them, especially in the 2015 venture, ‘My Father’s Daughter’, could cause food poisoning.
Her latest cookbook, which has been categorised as a diet book, features meal plans as well as detox and cleansing recipes; the focus is on health with the stress on clean eating. It features a dedicated section of interviews with doctors who talk on topics ranging from something called heavy metal detox to adopting ayurvedic values. It has more than a hundred recipes, alongside six cleanses that are tagged under ‘doctor-approved cleanses’. Paltrow mentions that the book is designed to introduce the basic tenets of super-clean eating without depriving any cravings. However, clean eating is equated with foods that exclude caffeine, dairy, gluten, peanuts, processed foods, red meat, soy and vegetables classified as nightshades.
Interestingly, Gwyneth Paltrow’s food journey began way back in October 2008 when she launched an email weekly newsletter called ‘Goop’, with the intent of giving readers an inside perspective of her takes on food, health, fashion and even everyday life. The newsletter presented her unbiased travel recommendations, health-centric recipes, and shopping discoveries for friends. It also was projected as her designated place to get her questions on health and fitness answered. Fans of Paltrow’s culinary expertise as well as celebrity watchers who have heard about her mastery over Italian dishes cioppino and bruschetta, would remember that her serious initiation into the big complex world of foods began with the popular TV show ‘Spain: On the Road Again’, in which she joined chef Mario Batali, food writer Mark Bittman, and actress Claudia Bassols in their forays into the eclectic Spanish cuisine.
Always keen to explore her potentials and engage with her fans and cooking enthusiasts, Gwyneth Paltrow has come a long way since she made her film debut with a small role in the 1991 ‘Shout’. The following five years saw her in films like Flesh and Bone, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, Se7en, Jefferson in Paris, Moonlight and Valentino, and The Pallbearer. Following her performance in the title role of Emma Woodhouse in ‘Emma’, she got the role of Viola in ‘Shakespeare in Love’, which won her the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She has had several successful movies after that, but food is something that keeps her tied to her fans and followers. As she states, “What I have learned is I want to enjoy my life, and food is a big part of it.”