PBS: Cooking School with Martha
The Domestic Diva still runs her huge empire but still finds time to grow most of the food she eats
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Martha Stewart is at the helm of an international multimedia empire, but she still finds time to cook. And she does a lot of other things very well, too.
It’s cooking that was the focus of her appearance at the PBS portion of her recent press tour. Stewart’s interview session, for her upcoming Martha Stewart’s Cooking School series on PBS, turned into a cooking demonstration. She showed how to make a simple, delicious omelette, and she did it with such ease, style and humour, I was charmed – and this comes from a guy whose idea of a gourmet meal is a hot dog with sauerkraut.
Stewart says she is looking forward to sharing her skills in the kitchen for her new Cooking School series. It is a culinary master class for American home cooks, and she had the editor of her magazine Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food Sarah Carey and executive producer Dalton Delan to help her with the launch.
The show will premiere in October, and it’s just the latest addition to her namesake company Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, which does everything.
We are used to seeing her houseware products in stores, and I told Stewart I saw all sorts of things with her name on it on a recent trip to the mall. But the biggest surprise was to see a whole line of Martha Stewart Home Office products at Staples. “Don’t you love that stuff,” she said, acknowledging the scope of her empire. “That’s really good stuff to help you organize your home. Thanks for noticing.”
The “fine living” entrepreneur runs an impressive kingdom that doesn’t leave a lot of time for hobbies, but she told me she has plenty. “I have lots of hobbies, lots. And right now they’re centred on babies because I’m crazy about my grandchildren. I spend probably you may think it’s an inordinate amount of time with them. But I’m enjoying learning everything about babies again,” she revealed.
Another area that has her interest is the Maine Coast Heritage Trust. “I’m very involved with that and a few other environmental kinds of things that I care very much about.”
Stewart also finds time for a cause that’s very important to her. She said, “I started a Center For Living at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. We established the hospital about five years ago in honour of my mom. It is a geriatric outpatient ward in the hospital with its own facility. It’s a very beautiful, wonderful facility that the hospital’s using as a prototype for all their redevelopment in their hospital. It’s a place where anybody can go to consolidate your medical records. It’s so that you can learn about diet, nutrition and exercise to extend your lives as gracefully and as nicely as possible.”
This work of promoting healthy living links in with her goals for Martha Stewart’s Cooking School, which is to encourage tasty, healthy eating. “Fresh vegetables, maybe from your own garden, can improve the quality of your life at any age.”
Who knows when she finds the time, but Stewart said thanks to her large farm complex in Bedford, New York, “I grow pretty much everything I eat.” Even the eggs for her omelette demonstration came from her farm. And only three eggs got broken at airport security, she happily revealed.
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