WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — If you want to know who serves the best ranch dressing in Los Angeles or how to survive on a reality show, you ask Stassi Schroeder.

Reality television is how Ms. Schroeder, 30, has made a name for herself, as one of the stars of Bravo’s “Vanderpump Rules,” now in its seventh season. But ranch dressing is an unironic passion, so much so that she devoted a section of her new book, “Next Level Basic,” to listing the best iterations of the condiment that she has encountered. (The ranch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. is, as far as she’s concerned, good enough to eat with a spoon.)

Ranch dressing and reality TV have more in common than Ms. Schroeder’s connoisseurship: the dressing and the genre are frequently maligned as “basic,” an ever-evolving term that suggests something is unexceptional, frivolous and tragically mainstream. These are guilty pleasures. But with the April 16 release of her advice book, the author has a clear message: stop feeling guilty.

“If you’re basic and you have basic tendencies, that is your authentic self. You don’t need to hide that,” Ms. Schroeder said over a ranch-dressed taco salad at The Belmont, a restaurant she praises in the book.