Celebrity cookbooks and ghostwriters

[GotGarlic]

This topic has been in the news quite a bit the last several days. Are you surprised that some celebrity chefs apparently have ghostwriters write their books? Does it matter to you? Would you buy the books anyway?

It started with this one:

I Was a Cookbook Ghostwriter
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/dining/i-was-a-cookbook-ghostwriter.html

And was followed by this, among others:

Giving Up the Ghost: The Politics of Collaboration
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrewfriedman/cookbook-ghostwriters-new-york-times_b_1368018.html

Gwyneth Paltrow and Rachael Ray have been especially vocal about denying they used ghostwriters. They did have helpers, though

 

[bigjim]

While celebrity cooks may actually be chefs of some note, on TV they are entertainers out to make as many bucks as possible. Their knives suck, their cookware sucks, their aprons are overpriced and poorly made. Why would anyone believe that in their spare time they sit down and write a book?

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[BreezyCooking]

Yes - I saw that article in the New York Times last week.

Frankly, I don't care. My method for purchasing cookbooks is leafing through it, & if I automatically spot at least 6 recipes I'd really like to try, I buy the book - lol! Really don't care who wrote it.

As far ghost-written celebrity books, it doesn't surprise me at all. I mean, look at biographies & even autobiographies - 99.9% of those are ghost-written or "written in collaboration with". It should really be common knowledge that celebrities in every way, shape, form, & industry can't all be publishable writers as well.

As far as celebrity cookbooks go - I'd actually be more confident that the recipes might actually work, knowing that they'd been tested by someone else.

 

[rickismom]

Jamie Oliver & Nick Stellino are the only two "Celebrity" chef cookbooks I have & they both seem pretty authentic to me...Now Paula Deen would have a ghost writer!

 

[Cooksie]

I'm not surprised at all that professional chefs would hire professional writers to write their cookbooks. I do think that the writer should be given credit if not on the cover then at least in the intro to the book. I don't buy many cookbooks anymore, but I'd still buy the professionally written book if I wanted it. Some people just can't write, so they hire someone who can.

I read the first article. She makes it sound like ghostwriting is a thankless and unrewarding job. I think it would be a blast!