We're In Love With Martha Stewart's 'Outrageous' Food Displays From Her Catering Days

Netflix's Martha Stewart doc, "Martha," just dropped and, while we were obsessed from the moment we heard about the project, actually watching it was a potentially life-changing experience. Stewart herself is reportedly not exactly pleased with the biographical film, but we're loving it. The two-hour-long project from director R.J. Cuttler is a sometimes spicy, sometimes poignant look at the incredible life of the homemaking icon. The documentary is full of attention-grabbing moments, but a particularly eye-popping one takes place around the 22-minute mark when viewers get a peek at some of the food displays Stewart curated in her time as a caterer.

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You may have known that Martha Stewart hates truffle oil, but did you know that she grew a multimillion-dollar catering business out of her home farm in Westport, Connecticut? Called Turkey Hill, the rambling property was where Stewart discovered her love for entertaining and preparing elaborate meals. She was so impressive at it that, in 1973, her wealthy friends started to hire her to cater their soirees. Before she knew it, Stewart was catering for events at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Sotheby's. She stood out with her elaborate and eye-catching food displays, which were designed to be "outrageous" and "catch everyone's attention," as Stewart put it.

Abundance and art were Stewart's muses

When it comes to her tablescapes, Stewart says that she drew inspiration from paintings of food by the old Dutch masters. As for just how far Stewart took her decorating, it got pretty distinctive. We're talking vodka bottles enrobed in blocks of ice filled with blooming flowers, huge baskets overflowing with juicy strawberries, and abundant crudité spreads that weight tabletops down with ripe veggies, seasonal fruit, and hunks of cheese in a way that anticipated today's charcuterie board trend. It was full-on "movie set stuff," as one of Stewart's catering partners put it in the doc. Frankly, nobody else was doing what Stewart did with food at the time; her plating was original and fresh. Her maverick sensibilities put the spotlight right where she wanted it: on herself and her impeccable sense of taste. 

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Today, it's easy to reduce Stewart's career to her post-prison collabs with Snoop Dogg and memeable cooking hacks like her double knife chopping trick. You could be forgiven for forgetting — or not even knowing — that Stewart is, above all things, a formidable businesswoman with a keen eye for how to garner attention. In her home kitchen, preparing her camera-ready food displays, Stewart wasn't just feeding the elite; she was building a legacy. "That was the beginning of Martha Stewart," she said about the displays.

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