Mary Ellen O'Neill's Profile

As the editor and publisher at HarperCollins who saw both The Sneaky Chef and Deceptively Delicious proposals, I'd like to set the record straight. I passed on the opportunity to publish The Sneaky Chef. We were in the midst of publishing a book for the same audience-- Lunch Lessons --and I did not think we'd sell a profitable number of copies of another book. When Jessica Seinfeld's proposal came in to me, I asked another editor to review it. This is common--publishers get a lot of proposals. They are delegated to editors to share the workload and to share the opportunity to acquire good books. That editor, along with the president of our company, and without me, met with Jessica and were so impressed with her passion for cooking and, of course, her ability to get media. In no way, shape, or form did Jessica know that another editor/publisher had seen The Sneaky Chef at HarperCollins. And it wasn't at all relevant because, as so many bloggers have pointed out, this is not a new idea. Hiding vegetables in foods has been employed by mothers for years: Jessica has never claimed ownership of the idea nor claimed that it was the perfect solution; it worked for her and she wanted to share it with the millions of mothers out there who struggle with their kids every day over the dinner table.

To comment on whether it's appropriate to sneak vegetables into your kids, I ask, what's the problem? If your kids eat veggies, fine; if they don't, get them in via baked goods or whatever. As the mother of 9 and 13 year old daughters, I know the enormous relief that comes from the knowledge that my children are being fed well by me, whatever way that is.