She acts, she sings, but can she cook?

It seems film stars are in scoffable territory when they stray from the screen to profess expertise elsewhere - and, by the way, doesn't Cate Blanchett look ethereal enough to have her own cookbook?

But it turns out Paltrow really does cook. Passionately, it seems - an enthusiasm she inherited from her father, who died of throat cancer in 1992. She even cooked for the launch (you can find photos here, including a crazy picture of family friend Mario Batali dressed like he's off to the 'burbs for a wander in the mall: here ). This isn't a book of recipes endorsed by Paltrow; this is a book of Paltrow's home cooking.

Why a cookbook? she asks herself, then helpfully answers.

''In the last 10 years or so, cooking has become my main ancillary passion in life. I have always loved food, being around it, preparing it, and of course eating it. This adoration was instilled me in by my incredible father, a supreme gourmand with a deep love for great food and wine.''

Paltrow's last meal with her father was just after her 30th birthday when they ate their way through Umbria and Tuscany, and stopped one night at a restaurant in Cortona - where they ate duck ragu, and he gave her some final advice about self-respect, independence in marriage and the joy of children. This turned out to be just three days before he died.

Not only does Paltrow cook at home for her family - husband Chris Martin of Coldplay and their children Apple, seven, and Moses, five - but she's confident enough in the kitchen that she even invents recipes.

Like a cassoulet inspired by a visit to Paris with her father, but made with duck, since Paltrow doesn't eat red meat - a decision she traces back to a conversation with Leonardo DiCaprio when she was just 19 and he told her about the brutality of factory farming (this book is full of the names of the famous, like ''my favourite vegetarian friend'' Stella McCartney; Jessica Seinfeld; and Jamie Oliver, from whom she was given a cooking lesson as a birthday present one year).

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Anyway, since I started with only a half-pound of ground turkey, I was surprised that it came out to three good-sized patties. I think he was too. One half of a pound of ground turkey is equal to 1 cup, not 1 and 1/2 cups like I was guessing, and so I changed all the amounts in order to keep the same percentages that correspond to George Ohsawa's Macrobiotic Diet #-3.

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