Disclosure: Disney and Marvel sponsored my travel, accommodations and activities for this trip to LA and Gwyneth Paltrow gave us copies of her cookbook. As always — my opinions and statements on the blog are my own!
Besides being absolutely incredible as Pepper Potts in the Iron Man movies, Gwyneth Paltrow is first and foremost a Mom. I really could tell from our recent interview with her that this was very important to her.
Even though we were there for Iron Man 3, we spoke to her as moms and got a sneak peek into her life as a Mom too. She gave all of us a copy of her newest cookbook It’s All Good and I have to say I am quite intrigued with a lot of these! They look absolutely delicious, everything from healthy desserts to full blown meals. Very healthy too. She personalized all of them for us too!
I asked her how she got involved with doing cookbooks and her response was very touching actually.
I started writing down my recipes because I was always a cook and a foodie, and my friends would call me and be like, okay, there’s Julia, my best friend since seventh grade [her best friend was actually there during the interview too!]. She called me once and she said, I have a guy coming over; I have no idea what to make- I have to make dinner. And I had a lot of friends kind of asking me how do you do that, or like all my friends would be, like, what temperature do I roast this at?
You know, what’s an easy dinner, or I have a dinner party, like, so I started writing them all down, and then when my dad died, I don’t know, I just thought it would be- because he was the one taught me cook, and like we learned together and our connection to food was such a part of our relationship, and so I thought it would be really nice because I sort of felt him in the kitchen, and I sort of felt it would be nice to write the recipes and you know, kind of pay homage to him and our relationship at the same time, and it was cathartic.
It was really, it was really sweet. You know, I really felt him there. Then this book I did basically because my son has really bad eczema, so I did his food allergy tests and stuff, and he’s really allergic to gluten and cow’s milk. I felt so bad for him, not having regular ice cream and meat balls and stuff. So I just started- it’s like, I’m gonna just make him, basically a, like a mini-encyclopedia of totally yummy comfort food that’s just, like, on his diet.
And it’s been incredible because so many people are trying to avoid gluten either for weight or, you know, they’re allergic to it, so yeah, that’s sort of how it all happened.
When asked what advice she would give to other moms in regards to nutrition and cooking healthy for their family, she brought up a very interesting point — which is actually something we ALL can do.
Someone told me the best thing; a nutritionist once told me, like, the way that we’ve changed our diet in the last fifty years is crazy. Like, if you showed our grandmothers, our great grandmothers what- the way we were eating, they’d be like, this isn’t even food. What are you doing? And she said the best thing to do- we’ve just gotten, because of the convenience of it, of course, we’ve gotten use to- and I’m the same. Like, I buy turkey jerky and horrible things that I shouldn’t buy too, but, the nutritionist said to me, when you’re at the supermarket, shop the periphery.
Like, that’s where all the fresh food is, that’s where the chicken, fish, beef, whatever- everything fresh is on the periphery. Just avoid those aisles, and it really makes sense because that’s where all the processed food is. All the preservatives and conservatives are all there preserving all this food product that’s not really- you know, my philosophy is always like, I try to cook really healthy at home because I can’t control what they eat at home or at friend’s houses. Nor do I want to. I want them to be autonomous and make their own choices and have a life.
But I think that that’s their balance; and my balance is, like, I try to cook healthy at home, and then out, I’ll eat whatever I want to. But in terms of telling your readers, we’ve always eaten that way, and we have all of a sudden skyrocketing obesity, type II diabetes, heart disease, there’s a reason it’s happening. It’s never happened until we started- like, you can literally see when plastic came and when it all changed, you know what I mean? So, I don’t know, that’s my input, anyway,
I like that idea though, shop the periphery! It’s true if you look at it.
Oh and of course… the rapping bit… this was hilarious and made me love her even more. One of the bloggers asked her if she raps while she cooks (I guess she had heard a rumor!)
Do you have a hidden camera in my kitchen? That is so crazy. How do you know that? Yes, we are a hip hop household, a hundred percent. My son, especially, he said the best thing the other day because he’s loves hip hop. He’s obsessed and he, you know, Jay-Z’s a really close friend of ours and that was his sort of gateway into hip hop. And now he’s branched out and the other day he was, like, Mom, I think that Jay is story rapper and Kid Cudi is a feelings rapper. And I was like, you’re totally right. This is so weird. Yeah, so yeah, the answer is yes.
The cookbook itself is brilliant really — so many SIMPLE recipes and things that you can make, even if you just do one a week you would be making a difference in your overall health.
Be sure to read about Gwyneth wearing the Iron Man Suit + her Iron Man experiences here!
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