Finally for now, I’ll admit I do wonder if I, too, would be piling onto the Goop trashwagon if I had not been paid to take a look at “her” cookbook for a bit of a listicle on celeb recipe roundups and been rather impressed. For all its glitz, the book is solid. I would recommend it for any cook just starting out because it makes sophistication look accessible (there’s a reason she’s publicly whacking the ducks for ragu; you’d never mess with pork or beef in bolognese again). Sure, it can seem pretentious and silly and easily mockable. But what celebrity book does not? Does anyone really believe any “real” chef with 14 restaurants actually cooked up the type wrapped around “his/her” recipes? That was my point when a WSJournal reporter called to interview me about the “new” phenomenon of celebrities daring to do food books. I’m so old I remember Vincent Price had a cookbook. But mostly I said let anyone who has written alone cast the first stone. And not at Sheryl Crow. Chefs everywhere should be cheering that celeb for doing her book right by hiring a pro first in real life and then getting the book deal. Two ghosts may be better than none.