The Author:

Jessica Seinfeld is married to Jerry Seinfeld and they have three kids. Jessica is a loving mother and cares a lot about her kids and their health and wants to keep her kids “safe and healthy”, which is why she made this cookbook to help “sneak” healthy foods into her kids meals without them even realizing it and how to help with picky eaters.  (2019, March 31)

Figure 2 (Seinfeld 56-57)

Audience:

Deceptively Delicious was published October 2007 which isn’t that long ago and there are concerns talked about in the cookbook that are still relevant for today. One of the main focuses and concern is the risk of cardiovascular disease and as a mom she tries hard to make sure her kids aren’t at risk and that they are as healthy as they can be. Due to this concern, Jessica Seinfeld focuses in on how to best incorporate fruits and vegetables into your kids diet without them even realizing it. This cookbook is mainly for families with younger kids and the meals are made more for kids than adults. You can tell this by the type of foods and the portion sizes. The portion sizes are smaller than what grown adults might eat and some of the meals are healthier chicken nuggets which not a lot of adults would eat for dinner. The meal time prep and total time it takes to make the meals don’t take that much time and range from 10-70 minutes total. Due to this is cookbook is good for working families that might not have as much time to cook big elaborate meals, but as well as families that have more time to make some of the longer time meals.

Figure 3 (Seinfeld 28-29)

This cookbook would stand out more to moms and to middle class families because even though the recipes aren’t that long or hard, buying more of the fruits and vegetables can add up and even end up costing a lot more which might not be as appealing to those families in a lower class. Another thing is that they might not be as educated on the importance of healthy eating so this cookbook might not appeal to them. Overall the book is well written and the recipes could easily be done by people from multiple classes due to the fast prep time and the basic cooking tools needed to make the majority of the meals. The cooking tools used for all the recipes are not fancy and are usually things everyone already has in their kitchen such as pans and bowls. The language used in the book is friendly to everyone even those who have never really cooked before which is good because it opens the cookbook up to more people. Jessica Seinfeld doesn’t use a lot of crazy cooking terminology and describes in detail what to do for each recipe and sometimes even gives a story about when she made it for her kids or why she choose that certain recipes and why she thinks it’s good her kids eat it (Seinfeld 84). This makes the cookbook more friendly for the audience and you feel more of a connection with Jessica Seinfeld which makes the cooking a little bit more fun and not as hard or intimidating. Jessica even gives good tips on how best to help your kids eat healthier and how to explain to them why she has these rules to eat certain foods and not others (Seinfeld 122). Jessica also gives good tips to parents on what to do or say when you child refuses to eat a certain food which helps the readers really put healthier eating into their lives(Seinfeld 68).  

Figure 4 (Seinfeld 177)

Themes:

Deceptively Delicious talks a lot about how moms can make healthier foods for their children and there is even an entire section dedicated to moms “(other) mothers know best” (Seinfeld 173) that has other moms ideas and opinions on foods they have their kids eat and why and what they can do to help their child like these healthier options better. This plays onto the role that the book tells us, that the women/ moms do most of the cooking. The cookbooks talks a lot about being a mom and talks to other moms but the book doesn’t use more inclusive words like parents as much and never talks about men or dads cooking. The book I think unintentionally defines certain gender roles in families and never talks about the dads participation in the family meal planning or his thought on certain meals or even him trying to cook. I think that the book could open up to an even larger audience if it wasn’t so women and mom focused but if it was open to all parents.  

Deceptively Delicious also talks a lot about vegetables and not really anything else about the foods. The book is so focused on adding these things into the meals that sometimes you forget what the main part of the meal is and what other things other than vegetables are in the recipe and if they are nutritious. Some of the recipes are things you could add a lot of unhealthy things to like chicken nuggets or french toast. Both of these you could add a lot of sauces and extra sugar to and make it even better tasting but even though you might have some vegetables you are still eating some unnecessary things in the meal. The recipes and the main theme in the book focuses so much on vegetables and how to sneak them in that you are losing some important information about well balanced diets for kids and how to incorporate some of these snakier foods with other things.

Other themes of the book are the way Jessica Seinfeld talks to her audience in the book. She talks in the book really casually like you are her friend coming over for lunch and you guys are just chatting about stories about healthy foods and things you do to get your picky kids to eat. This is more appealing to the reader and makes the cookbook not so intimidating to use and she tries not to use hard cooking terms so even if you are new at cooking or using cookbooks, this one is very inclusive easy and friendly to all. I think that Jessica Seinfeld knows that her audience will be more for moms and that some of them have never really cooked before and this is why using this more basic language can help the targeted audience start off cooking good more nutritious meals for their kids and can help reach out to some of the lower class to help them with more at home cooking and also help her sell more copies of her books.

Figure 5 (Seinfeld 168)

Sources:

Seinfeld, J. (2009). Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food. New York: HarperCollins e-books.

Jessica Seinfeld. (2019, March 31). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Seinfeld