I’ve loved cooking since I was a little girl. My dad picked up takeout and my mom burnt toast. So, I don’t know where I caught the cooking bug. My granny pasted photos of me and my brother into her photo album. We’re wearing white chef hats and smiling at the camera, but I’m positive we chased each other with pots and pans after the flash went off.
In a decade, I’ve graduated from Kraft Mac & Cheese to coq au vin, with just a few small grease fires in between. My progress was only possible with my sticky, dog-eared copy of Martha Stewart’s cookbook.
This November, Netflix released a new documentary about the hostess with the mostess: “Martha.” So, I’m serving up some of Martha’s lessons straight from the small screen.
Garden State
Martha Stewart is a perfectionist, and her garden is no exception. At the movie’s start, Stewart walks around her grounds, inspecting flower beds. This work calms her. Gardening has a similar effect on me too. Planting seeds and getting some dirt under your fingernails in the process allows you to be in the moment.”If you want to be happy for the rest of your life,” Martha says, “make a garden.” And if you’re not a perfectionist like Martha, remember that weeds are flowers too.
Practice Makes Perfect
“Perfectionist,” the interviewer behind the camera calls Stewart, who sits on a plush chair in her living room. She nods. “Control freak?” “Guilty,” Martha responds with a smile. For fifty years, the public criticized Stewart’s perfectionism. People felt judged by her high standards and keen eye. As Stewart prepares brunch on camera, a staff member uses a small knife for a big orange. “No, no,” Martha says. She picks up a larger knife and harshly cuts the orange herself. But as Stewart peels away, she explains to the woman why and how to cut the fruit the way she does. Stewart’s criticism is constructive. She expects perfection, which is intimidating. But frankly, that’s how you improve and she knows it.
Kiss a Stranger
Martha Stewart is almost eighty-four, but she had her own Euro trip at nineteen. Nineteen-year-old Martha went to Italy and kissed a mystery man in the Duomo while her fíance waited at the hotel. Her house may be clean, but Martha can still be messy.
The Perfect Dinner Party
Martha tells us that the perfect dinner party is about bringing the drama. Think plum pudding, fig tarts, and a bottle of vodka frozen in a block of ice — real movie-set stuff, as the documentary calls it. If you’re planning on having people over soon, give them dinner and a show.
It’s Never Too Late For Brunch
What’s on the menu? Martha makes fish, eggs, and a blood orange curd cake for guests the day before her prison sentencing, proving it’s never too late for brunch. Cottage Kitchen, take notes.
The Best Friendships Are The Most Unlikely
Martha Stewart is a businesswoman and television personality, a hostess with a capital H. Snoop Dogg is a rapper, singer, and songwriter. Their unlikely friendship broke the internet. The pair first made mashed potatoes together on the Martha Stewart Show, but they’ve gone on to co-host their own cooking show. Snoop Dogg said about their friendship, “We love to love, and we love to teach,” showing that shared passions are all you need for a real friendship.
Martha Stewart is the original influencer and the first self-made female billionaire in America. And without her recipes, my flatmates would starve. So, thank you for your wisdom, Martha. I might have to try the vodka ice block at my next dinner party.