Gwyneth Paltrow is one of life's achievers.

She's an Oscar-winning actress who is married to a rock star and who has a blossoming singing career herself, with performances at the Oscars, Grammys and Country Music Awards under her belt. And now with a new cookbook, My Father's Daughter, out last week, the question being asked is Gwynnie gunning to be the next Martha Stewart?

According to the New York Post, which surveyed food and brand experts about the credentials of the super-skinny actress -- who, unlike Nigella Lawson, doesn't look like she indulges much in food -- the actress would indeed seem to be in the running to be the latest domestic goddess on the block.

"Every food celebrity appeals to us as a surrogate family member," writes journalist Allen Salkin, who is working on a book about the rise of the food celebrity. "Martha is your crafty aunt, and so in the family of food celebrities, I could see Gwyneth as your slightly kooky but sweet sister."

So when did Gwyneth (38) begin reinventing herself as a homemaker to be copied? Some will say it goes back to 2008 when she started her lifestyle blog, www.goop.com. Then last year Paltrow toured Spain with her pal and chef Mario Batali for her PBS cooking travel series, Spain . . . On the Road Again.

Her new cookbook has been described as a posthumous tribute to her late father, director and producer Bruce Paltrow, and while many of the 150 recipes are vegetarian, the cookbook includes meat dishes such as cheesy stuffed burgers and cassoulet, along with breakfast, sandwiches, soups, salads, main dishes, sides and desserts.

Gwyneth's publisher Grand Central Life & Style has already ordered a second print run of the cookbook, which in the past few days has been steadily rising on Amazon's Top 100 best-seller lists.

Meanwhile, it's rumoured that Paltrow is partnering up with publishers Hearst, who print Oprah magazine, to launch her own magazine along the lines of Martha Stewart Living magazine, though the publication corporation have yet to confirm this.

Her readership would be expected to be younger than Martha's demographic -- the 11 million readers of Martha Stewart Living are overwhelmingly female homeowners, with the average age being 48.

Martha Stewart is the 69-year-old American business magnate, media personality, author and magazine publisher, who began her media career in 1982 with a cookbook called Entertaining which became a New York Times bestseller, and the best-selling cookbook since Julia Child and Simone Beck's book Mastering the Art of French Cooking had been released two decades earlier. Stewart went on to become a domestic lifestyle guru, publishing more cookbooks, a lifestyle magazine, as well as having a TV career. The May 1995 issue of New York Magazine declared her as "the definitive American woman of our time".

According to the New York Post, Gwyneth's challenge will be to broaden her appeal beyond the trendy urban elite for whom she is a poster girl, and to also speak to women who are less image conscious and more laid back.

"The thing about Gwyneth is she really does have hip and cool down. She's in that world, but it's not too indie. It's not Chloe Sevigny. She's mainstream. She's true Hollywood," is the verdict of one lifestyle-brand expert.

She is also expected to get the yummy mummy vote. Though hubby Chris Martin, the front man with Coldplay, is noticeably absent from her cookbook's pages, which focus on simple, healthy recipes to be enjoyed at the family table, her two children, Apple (6) and Moses (5) play an important role.

"She is going to appeal to a lot of young moms -- people who want to cook healthy for their kids," says Lee Schrager, founder and director of the Food Network NYC Wine & Food Festival.

Stewart and Paltrow, both ambitious blondes, had similar beginnings to their cooking careers. While Stewart was a professional caterer before she branched out into cookbooks, both the multi-millionaire lifestyle guru and Paltrow are self-taught home cooks.

As for the reviews of Gwyneth's cookbook, My Father's Daughter: Delicious, Easy Recipes Celebrating Family & Togetherness, like everything to do with the actress, people either love or hate it.

One reviewer wrote: "The cookbook is many things: it is aspirational and sweet, it is seasonally minded, it is unintentionally very funny, and it offers dinner party ideas and patronising 'working-parent dinners'."

The recipes are not that different from those in many other cook books out there. Well, except that it offers vegan and child-friendly alternatives and has a foreword from buddy Mario Batali and name drops Jamie Oliver, Leonardo DiCaprio, and her "favourite vegetarian friend" Stella McCartney.

That's so Gwyneth!

- Anna Coogan