Dressed in a tight black jumpsuit and five-inch heels, and sporting a sparkling diamond on her right hand, Gwyneth Paltrow looks every bit the major Hollywood star. Slim and toned thanks to gruelling workouts with fitness guru Tracy Anderson, her luminous glow and easy smile hide the stress of her recent separation from Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin, the father of her two young children. The Oscar-winning actress, who has travelled from her new home in Los Angeles to stay at The Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong, designed two one-off recipes for an exclusive event at the hotel’s MO bar. The dishes—a beetroot and bean salad and an Asian mushroom soup—were enjoyed by some of the city’s top socialites, including Dee Poon and Victoria Tang. We caught up with Paltrow, whose book is titled It’s All Good: Delicious, Easy Recipes That Will Make You Look Good and Feel Great, at the hotel’s Amber restaurant.

Hong Kong Tatler: Welcome to Hong Kong. What do you think of the city?
Gwyneth Paltrow: Oh my God, I love it, even if the weather isn’t great today. It’s definitely the shopping capital of the world, and I got into a lot of trouble yesterday walking around all the stores.

HKT: In the past five years, the focus of your career has shifted from actress to lifestyle guru and food writer. What precipitated this change?
GP: It was all to do with becoming a mother. When I came back to work after having kids, I realised I couldn’t work the 16-hour days the movie business demands. So instead I started my website, Goop, because I have a lot of creativity and it meant I could have a regular 9-5 job, and I just fell in love with it. I now look for one film a year that is challenging and interesting, and I feel very lucky to be able to do both.

HKT: Do you have any advice for working mothers?
GP: Every working mother tries to do it all at the same time, but you really can’t, and the key is not to beat yourself up about that. There are days I make all my kids’ meals and days we get pizza. Any woman who works and has a child has a hard balance to maintain. I don’t always get it right, but I try to, and my kids know they’re always my priority. I’m a woman with the same struggles as everybody else despite all the projections that get put on me. When my daughter gets a cavity, it’s a bummer!

HKT: You’ve been very vocal about the importance of maintaining a healthy diet. What tips do you have for us?
GP: It’s simple. You can enjoy really delicious food, but just don’t eat processed junk—no food colouring or preservatives or chemicals is key, I think. For example, I’ll make cookies with sugar and butter, but I won’t buy them from a supermarket. I’d eat cheese or French fries before I’d eat anything out of a packet as our bodies don’t know what to do with all those chemicals.

HKT: In your book, you use a lot of Asian spices. Is there a particular Asian cuisine you like best?
GP: Oh wow, I love Asian food. It’s so healthy and it’s similar to the way I try to cook at home, in that it doesn’t use much dairy or gluten. I love all types of Asian cuisine, but if I had to choose, I’d pick Korean. Kimchi’s like the best thing in the world.