The complexities of the Ina Garten/Martha Stewart relationship

One could argue that the two biggest female culinary icons alive today are Martha Stewart and Ina Garten. Both have had big years, Stewart with a documentary about her life and Garten with a recently-published memoir. In an interview about her documentary, Stewart suggested that there was bad blood between the two, saying that she felt like Garten abandoned her when she went to prison (which Garten denies). This prompted The New York Times to publish a story that there was a feud between Stewart and Garten. Eater’s Belinda Makalintal offers a new lens through which to view the pair’s relationship – through the music of Charli XCX.

It’s difficult to avoid comparisons between the women because of the many things they have in common: the Hamptons, bestselling cookbooks, elegant entertaining, successful television shows. They were once close friends, with Stewart helping Garten develop a television show prior to her success with Food Network’s Barefoot Contessa. It was this foray that may have planted the seed for a tense relationship: Garten chafed at the comparisons made by the production crew when she was filming, saying that she didn’t want to be Martha, she wanted to forge her own unique identity. Makalintal says that Charli XCX’s Brat album offers a framework to interpret the Garten-Stewart relationship, saying “On Brat, Charli confronts insecurities: the fear of being a flop, the potential loss of her career to motherhood, and, most relevant here, comparison and competition, especially with other women.” Comparison is indeed the thief of joy.

For her part, Garten says she and Stewart grew apart when Stewart began to spend more time at a new home. Stewart doubled down on her suggestion that Garten dropped her like a hot potato after her conviction, but both women deny there is any feud between the two today. There certainly doesn’t need to be any beef between them: both women have built successful empires, with similar aesthetics albeit with different approaches. And we don’t need to choose one over the other – we can like both, appreciating each for the their own contribution to a rich culinary landscape.