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Sava Tēva Meita (2013)

by Gwyneth Paltrow(Favorite Author)

3.67 of 5 Votes: 2

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Zvaigzne

review 1: I picked up this book because, one, I am a huge fan of Gwyneth Paltrow and, two, I also happen to love eating delicious food. The introduction is a touching dedication to her father, Bruce Paltrow, who instilled in her a love for good food...not just gourmet or health food but food that tastes good. Bruce was also a great cook who developed his style and knowledge of food throughout his life. Food also took on a secondary meaning for Gwyneth because it was something that bonded and solidified her relationship with her father. For instance, Gwyneth notes on page 15 "When I was about eighteen we started cooking together. I'm not sure exactly how is started, what day it was, or how it was catalyzed...We decided to make a meal, and from there we got kind of obseesed. We would ... morewatch the cooking channel together as much as we watched NFL football, often with me resting in the crook of his arm." Gwyneth was dumbfounded when Bruce was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1998 and he subsequently died of the disease. The book, in that sense, serves as a tribute to her father's culinary influence. She also discusses her "macrobiotic stage" of her life where she strictly ate healthy, non-processed foods which her father refused to adhere to during his cancer treatment. This taught Gwyneth the power of balance in your life. Eating organically has huge benefits and I tried to devote a lot of my own diet to organic foods, but....it's not the end of the world if you eat a french fry or a potato chip. That's powerful!There's a lot of good stuff in this cookbook. My favorite dishes are the spaghetti alla vongole and the sweet potato ravioli. I'm studying to be an elementary school teacher and we talk about having "resource book" which are books that you can keep and reference in the future because they have so much valuable information. This book is a resource book as far as I'm concerned. There so much dishes I want to cook in the future and this book will be an awesome guide.Gwyneth's uses her writing voice impeccably in "My Father's Daughter". This book reminded me of Fletcher's section that was dedicated to using voice in non-fiction. This is a non-fiction book with most of the pages devoted to recipes with commentary sprinkled in. Her commentary is witty, emotive, and the furthest from dry. She did not present her story and her dishes in an pedantic type of way. Her words were warm and inviting. A lot of people allege that Gwyneth is pretentious but her voice suggest the opposite. She includes cute stories about her children and family while mentioning her beliefs about health. I would use "My Father's Daughter" as an example of effective use of voice in a non-fiction context.
review 2: I was disappointed by this cookbook. I try to eat healthy food and am always interested in new recipes- but this book has only 2 types of recipes:1- unnecessarily overly complex, with difficult to find ingredients (ie- a recipe for cooking a chicken for 10 hours! or recipes requiring ingredients that can only be found online) or 2- overly simple "recipes" that aren't really recipes at all- like pasta with parmesan cheese and pepper, or "garden salad", or a romaine salad that is literally just a quartered head of romaine lettuce, or toast with garlic rubbed on itThe worst part about the recipes is that they are not original or inspirational at all! They aren't bad recipes per se, but you could find better versions of pretty much any of her recipes online or in other cookbooks. They are run-of-the-mill, and don't even utilize common spices well. At best this is a fallback, stock cookbook, in which case you are MUCH better off going with Joy of cooking (which is an awesome reference cookbook!), Jamie Oliver (you can find some of his free on-line) or Julia Child. The book is littered with little stories about other celebrities, which I assume are meant to be interesting tidbits, but they really just come off as pompous, condescending and a bit preachy. less

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