O jornal New York Times publicou aqui um artigo fascinante sobre o mundo quase desconhecido dos escritores fantasma, autores que se especializaram na redacção de livros de culinária que terminam assinados por celebridades e/ou estrelas da cozinha e da televisão. Fundamentado no testemunho directo de um desses escritores fantasma que decidiu sair do armário, o artigo afirma que alguns do autores mais respeitados e prolíficos, como Jamie Oliver ou Martha Stewart, raramente escrevem ou sequer testam ou conhecem as receitas que são publicadas nos seus livros.
Entre outras pérolas destacam-se algumas frases:
“Recipes are product, and today’s successful cookbook authors are demons at providing it — usually, with the assistance of an army of writer-cooks”
“J. J. Goode, who wrote the just-released “A Girl and Her Pig” with April Bloomfield, describes the process as “25 percent writing and 75 percent dating”
“One recent best-selling tome on regional cooking was produced entirely in a New York apartment kitchen, with almost no input from the author”
“Another ghost told me that sometimes the only direct input he gets for one chef’s books is a list of flavor combinations”
“I consider myself an ‘author,’ in quotes, but not a writer,” Mr. Flay said. “I have skills in the kitchen, but the writers keep the project on track, meet the deadlines, make the editor happy”
“Oddly, one of the best qualifications for the job is ignorance: the tricky steps and specialized skills that a chef will teach the ghostwriter as they work together are the same ones the writer will have to teach to a home cook in the text of the book. The best ghosts are the ones who anticipate the reader’s questions”