Jessica Seinfeld recently published a book, Deceptively Delicious, about how to sneak healthy foods into your cooking, to fool your kids into eating them. Like muffins with carrots in them. Which works very well if you can get your kid to eat a muffin.

The book was published in October 2007, hot on the heels of another book titled The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids’ Favourite Meals which came out in April. The two books have a few of the same recipies, and The Sneaky Chef aka Missy Chase Lapine has a remarkably similar method for discovering how to add vegetables into mac and cheese.

Jessica Seinfeld’s book plagiarized Lapine’s in concept, cover art – including a similar picture showing hidden carrots – style and structure, according to the lawsuit that seeks unspecified damages.

When Seinfeld appeared on Letterman’s show, he said the books were published at the same time and implied Lapine was a “wacko” and celebrity stalker, comments the suit – filed in Manhattan federal court – described as “false.”

Seinfeld also joked that Lapine accused his wife of “vegetable plagiarism” and poking fun at Lapine’s name and mental condition, including contending that “if you read history, many of the three-name people do become assassins,” before citing John Lennon’s killer Mark David Chapman, the suit said.

The suit said the comedian later told E! News, “this woman is another kind of nut. You know, she thinks she invented vegetables. And she is accusing my wife of stealing her mashed-up carrots.”

Sydney Morning Herald

I checked out the two cover images on Amazon – The Sneaky Chef and Deceptively Delicious are both linked to each other because of their similarities – and I think the ‘hidden carrots’ aren’t really hidden, it’s just that both covers have carrots. What do you think?

I honestly think that it was completely wrong, but I do wonder if Jessica Seinfeld did actually come up with the recipe book concept herself. I have three kids (so does Jessica) that I cook for, and I can tell you right now that in between the cursing and yelling (that’s me) and the crying and naughtiness (that’s them) I am not experimenting in the kitchen. I am basically slopping food on the kids plates before spending three hours making aeroplane noises to get them to eat anything.

Meanwhile, Missy Chase Lapine is a former food magazine editor and creator of a baby goods range.

Recently the books have been criticised for creating poor eating habits. Experts say that hiding vegetables in your kids food means they never acquire the taste of veggies and create good eating habits for adulthood. Also, a little bit of vegetable mixed into the sauce of a dish is going to carry very little of the nutritional value that a whole vegetable would.

This hasn’t stopped anyone buying the books, and I hope that Jessica Seinfeld hands over some of the money she’s made from her book to Missy Lapine. What probably happened is that Jessica’s book was due to be handed in to publishers and she didn’t have enough ideas, so she ‘borrowed’ a few from other sources.

Also, some compensation is due from the Seinfeld couple using their profile to not only sell their book, but also to call Lapine ‘crazy’.

Picture note by Celebitchy: I made the header image, and I see a lot of similarities between those two book covers. Some may be a coincidence, but it’s hardly possible that all the similar recipes are just a coincidence too.