Are Ina Garten And Martha Stewart Actually Friends?
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Over the years, Martha Stewart and Ina Garten have become household names even beyond the culinary world. Still, their reputations, and previous friendship, were sparked by the same thing: food. From cookbooks to cooking shows, foodies across the world look up to these icons, appreciating both how Ina Garten always follows recipes to a T and Martha Stewart's "outrageous" catering food displays. For this reason, the circumstances surrounding the end of their friendship are of great interest.
In her book, "Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir," Garten says that their friendship fell out because Martha Stewart moved to New York in 2000. However, Martha Stewart shared on "Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen" that they instead stopped talking when Stewart went to prison in 2004. Yet Garten denies this. Even though Stewart's friendship with Garten, which came to be in the 1990s, doesn't appear to be rekindling anytime soon, both say that they hold no ill will or bitterness over the end of their friendship.
Why their friendship was complex
While the ending of their friendship might have been the most eye-catching development of Stewart and Garten's connection, it was likely not the first time disagreements emerged between the two, as when Stewart admitted — in the foreward to Garten's "The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook," no less — that it took some time for her to understand Garten's career ambitions. Consider that it is remarkably difficult to get started and carve out your own niche in the celebrity culinary field. What's more, celeb chefs are never talked about in a vacuum; there will always be comparisons and connections that could put a strain on any friendship.
Still, the best thing you can do in this world of comparisons, in Garten's point of view, is stay true to who you are and your vision of yourself. Perhaps this is why both culinary icons have continued to have successful careers with the people they love at their side. While Stewart and Garten were certainly an iconic duo, the end of their friendship has also created space for other relationships to be forged. If anything should stick with you from Stewart's Netflix documentary or Ina Garten's memoir, it is that even when there is a bump in the road of life, you have to keep on driving.