October was a big month for domestic icons Ina Garten and Martha Stewart sharing their stories. Garten’s memoir and Stewart’s documentary reveal striking similarities.
When it comes to Martha Stewart and Ina Garten, people are Team Martha or Team Ina.
I interviewed both for PARADE Magazine cover stories and was fascinated by each in her own way. So, I was eager to read Garten’s memoir Be Ready When Luck Happens, which came out at the beginning of October, and watch the Netflix documentary Martha later in the month.
The projects aligned with my experience with both.
Ina Garten: The People’s Recipe Developer
Garten was warm and forthcoming when we caught up. Reading her memoir was like chatting with her in the guestroom of “The Barn,” where she films her shows.
She happily geeked out with me on recipes and kitchen equipment (including this tool she always uses). She revealed that Jeffrey, beloved to her viewers and readers, isn’t her guinea pig, and she’ll only make a new recipe for him once it’s perfected.
She talked about how, even after all these years, cooking is challenging. This comforting Everywoman approach, which includes her tagline, “store-bought is fine,” can lead some observers to unfairly dismiss her as a culinary lightweight.
“She’s not a chef!” they’ll exclaim. “She didn’t go to culinary school!”
Garten is the first to say as much. And critics overlook her hands-on decades running a wildly successful specialty food store serving a finicky clientele (including Stewart).
It’s also her secret weapon. She always considers her audience’s experience making a recipe and ensures that every ingredient and every step enhances the final result. And it shows in rock-solid recipes.
In this regard, yep, I’m Team Ina all the way. As recipe developers go, she’s among the best.
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She kept an eagle eye on the details during our photo shoot and interview. At one point, while getting glammed up for her cover shoot, she was dissatisfied with the piping on a cake and bustled into the kitchen, curlers in her hair, to do it herself.
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Martha Stewart: Always Blunt
Martha also accurately reflects its subject, maybe a little too much for Stewart’s taste. She’s since said she finds it unflattering, especially the final shots of her working alone in her garden.
Our interview was in summer 2020, with the pandemic in full swing and people (mostly) staying put, and she reluctantly agreed to do it via Zoom.
But when she hopped on camera, from the library at her estate in Maine, she was characteristically regal and blunt. And a lot of fun.
Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski had stayed the night, she told me, and whipped up scrambled eggs for breakfast.
Her grandchildren gave his efforts a tepid score of 7.5 “and he was devastated,” Stewart chuckled.
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She boasted about losing weight during the COVID lockdown with her “detainees” (her landscaper, housekeeper, and driver). People didn’t approve of her calling them that, but she noted in a sly nod to her 2004 prison sentence that she, of all people, could get away with it.
She lit up when talking about how she stayed productive, including shooting a new TV show and completely redecorating her house with whatever was on hand. (Stewart’s impressive attic stash helped.)
Before our interview, I was agnostic about Stewart. But I came away with a newfound admiration for her resilience and candor.
And that’s on display in abundance in Martha. While I may be Team Ina on the recipe front, I’m always rooting for Martha, too.
Best Frenemies Forever?
There are lots of similarities in their stories, and the two crossed paths and fell out (or drifted apart, depending who you believe):
- They’re a similar age.
- Both had challenging childhoods with volatile fathers and distant mothers.
- Each got married very young, in part to get out from under their parents.
- Stewart was a successful stockbroker before moving to Connecticut, where she famously restored a farmhouse and ran a successful catering business. Similarly, Garten was a White House budget analyst before buying Barefoot Contessa, the specialty food store in The Hamptons, on a whim, where she also catered to well-heeled customers.
It’s not surprising that they connected. Stewart had a home near Barefoot Contessa and was an early fan. Stewart’s detour to pick up some lemon bars, with the head of Crown Publishing in tow, led to Garten landing her first book deal.
Garten penned a column for Martha Stewart Living and was a regular guest on Stewart’s show. Her first foray into doing her own show was with Stewart’s producers. It was an unhappy experience for Garten and put her off pursuing her own show until she was later paired with Nigella Lawson’s producers.
So, if they weren’t exactly close chums, they certainly were friendly, at least professionally.
What happened?
Garten has suggested they simply drifted apart when Stewart began spending more time at her property in Bedford, N.Y. Stewart maintains the split occurred when she went to prison for the ImClone scandal.
For all her cool polish, Stewart has a soft side and never forgets a slight. As we wrapped up our interview, I brought it back around to Porowski’s turn making breakfast for everyone.
“Are people nervous about cooking for you?” I asked. “Should they be?”
“I don’t think so,” she answered. “I want them to cook for me.
“I’ve had a lot of people for dinner here up in Maine, but I’ve only gone to one dinner party so far,” she added. “So that makes me a little sad.”
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