November 7, 2025 • 34 mins
In this episode, Martha celebrates the re-release of her very first book, Entertaining. Nearly 43 years after its original publication, Martha sits down with some of the incredible people who helped her create the book – recounting some of their favorite memories and recipes, their best loved behind-the-scenes stories, and all the wonderful parties they catered. Find out what they love most about working with Martha and what they’re doing now – four decades later. It’s a nostalgic trip down the memory lane that started it all. Be sure to listen.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hi, This is Martha Stewart, and I'm coming to you
from Terrain, a nature inspired home and garden shop in Westport,
Connecticut and one of my favorite places to buy plants
and just look around and see what's new in the
world of home decorating. I'm here celebrating something extremely exciting,
the re release of my very first book, Entertaining. This
(00:29):
book originally came out on December thirteenth, nineteen eighty two,
almost forty three years ago. After being out of print
for some years, it is out again in bookstores everywhere.
And it all started right here in this Connecticut town
along the Long Island Sound, just an hour outside of
New York City, depending of course, on the traffic. Joining
(00:51):
me today are some of those who helped me create Entertaining.
Elizabeth Hawes Weinstock was supposed to come. Elizabeth really helped
me hone the text of the book, and she lives
in Martha's vineyard and just didn't make it to the
plane in time. Sorry, Elizabeth. Corey Tippin, one of my
(01:11):
head waiters. Can't wait to talk to Corey. Nisi Fernandez,
my first real housekeeper who then went on to become
the most fabulous flower decorator and also contributor of many
many recipes that we included in our books. Nice to
see you, Nissi. Jeff Katz, who was Were you a headwaiter?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
So I guess, but didn't we all kind of do
everything to.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Give you all jacks of all trade?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Right?
Speaker 1 (01:39):
But your name was Jeff Vicky Slowed, so nice to
see Vicky. Vicky was responsible for much of the calligraphy.
She just was such a creative, fabulous person. Louise Felix,
who was like second mother to the gang. You'd really
kind of bost everybody around really nicely. You were great.
(02:02):
Sarah Gross, who's sitting next to me, who you look
pretty much the same, Sarah, and you sound the same,
and it's nice to see you here. And she's responsible
for some of the more delicious recipes in the books.
And Ellen Byron, who's on zoom Hi, Ellen Hi, So
she can't really interact with us, but it's nice to
(02:23):
have her here on zoom. And my sister in law,
Rita Christiansen, flew up from Florida today to be with us,
and it's so nice that you're here and sitting around us.
We have my niece Sophie, we have my niece Christina,
all of whom they have contributed to the publications in many,
(02:44):
many different ways. And Judy Morris, she came in nineteen
ninety two, So ten years after this momentous event of
publishing my very very first book. It's nice to talk
to all of you again, and thank you very much
for joining me on my podcast. Is really great. So
all of you were part of the original crew who
(03:05):
contributed to the parties that became the entertaining book. So
please if you each pick up microphones and introduce yourself. Sarah,
tell us what your role was in making this book
and how we came to work together, and what you're
doing now.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
I answered the infamous ad in the paper for the
market Basket.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
That's how I met you.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Market Basket was my very first shop in Westport, Connecticut,
part of a larger store called the Common Market, which
was the first store to sell Ralph Lauren clothing to
the public. Remember that boy, look what's happening so well?
Speaker 3 (03:43):
And that was an incredible store, I mean, with the
first of his kind, first of his kind, similar to.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
This little shop, that little big shop that we're sitting
in right now called terrain, which is part of anthropology now,
but lifestyle, gorgeous, innovative products.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Anti and cheese, food, food.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Cosmetics, you know, beautiful stuff. Yeah, it was a great story.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
So what did you do for me?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Originally?
Speaker 3 (04:10):
I originally worked in your basement kitchen cooking.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Oh yeah, you made cookies for the store.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
I made cookies for the story. Yes, I made cookies
for the store. I made chocolate bunnies for the store.
I made Hawa Tasahara bread for the store.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Yeah. That was fun too.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
So yeah, then when you started catering, we started cooking
out of your kitchen in the basement and learned how
to make French bread and those wonderful walnut rolls.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
My daughter still, Alexa, still talks about the costs on
we made, wow, because she says they were the best
costs on she ever had.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Well, Laura had worked in a French bakery. So yeah,
that's when we started baking the bread.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Right, remember, right, is there a go to story that
you tell your friends about working with me? Was? I mean,
what do you really tell your friends? I want to
know this stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
I tell you my friends that I really wouldn't have
gone on to do what I do if it wasn't
for you know, answering that ad in the paper.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Currently, what are you doing?
Speaker 4 (05:09):
I'm retired.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
I were retired. Yeah, you're not allowed to retire. Well,
I'm doing lots of other things. But I went on
from working with you to have a catering business and
a successful catering and event planning business.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
For thirty five years.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Oh it's so great.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
So yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
And then I opened up a little kitchen that I
rented out to people who did organic, none GMO food
for people who could afford couldn't afford otherwise. I rented
out for thirty five dollars an hour kind of thing.
So a lot of the people who are at the
farmer's markets now started in my kitchen.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yeah, you kept in the food world.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
But the things I remember from working for you, you know,
when I started my business, one of the most important
things was the precision that you demanded of everyone.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Oh good, I'm happy to hear her say that. Yeah no,
but it's it's nobody was to be a slob.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
No, And I mean we couldn't carry a stew Leonards
bag or anything with any kind of logo on it
to a job.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
How the cars were packed.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Were you know why? You know why about the cars
because I don't know if any of you worked at
that one party where we had uf which are meringues
in trays of a beautiful kremong glaz. They have to
sit in the kremong glazz so they don't dissipate. So
and they were in the back of my big suburban
and there was an instantaneous accident, yeah, Route ninety five
(06:33):
and I had to stop short and all the eof
lunge late flew out of the paths and I was
on my way to Birgdarf Goodman, a big fancy lunch
at bir Dwarf Goodman, and we couldn't serve the Oh god,
I would have missed that one. So that's why packing
was very very important. And the wedding cakes, remember they.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Had transporting them.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Oh, transporting wedding cakes was a nightmare until we finally
figured out how to do it layer by layer with
chopstick that we would insert in between the layers so
that they were here.
Speaker 5 (07:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
I figured out a lot of stuff.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
And we would make the cakes and then at night
you did the butter cream, the Italian butter cream.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
I did it at night, all night long.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
So we would come in and the cakes would all
be be made, and I remember chilled.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
They had to make my first one, you know, without
you a thing.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Did you have a good time?
Speaker 6 (07:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Difficult?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
We did that though. Who does that now?
Speaker 1 (07:25):
No wedding cake?
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Who makes their own brands now?
Speaker 7 (07:28):
No?
Speaker 1 (07:28):
On? Well, thank you that's so great.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
But I thank you because I really would have gone
on to do what I did without you, really.
Speaker 6 (07:36):
So thank you. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Our next is Vicky. I still call you Vickyna grin,
but it's Vicky Slow And so what are you doing now, Vicky?
Speaker 7 (07:45):
I'm a full time grandma.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Oh you are? How many grandchildren?
Speaker 4 (07:48):
I have four?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Oh lucky you. I only have two. And I was
at the market basket. Yes, but you were very important
in terms of the esthetic because I love your esthetic
always and you were always making things look so so beautiful.
So I'm sure we use lots of your ideas in
the photographs and the styling of the food. We've had
(08:11):
so much fun lately. Because I can't remember the page number,
but in this book is there is on a big
I think assortment of crudite. There's a giant mound of butter.
Do you remember the butter mounds that we used to
make fruit butters? Yeah, well, some our fruit, but some
were just mounds of normandy butter. And I went to
a party last year at Chris Hesni's house and he
(08:32):
had this fabulous, fabulous new caterer working for him and
he said, oh, she's an artist, which you see what
she's doing. And she had a giant mound of butter
and lots of cut bread all around it, all this
nice artisanal bread. And I just laughed to myself because
they're in nineteen eighty two. It's in the picture in
(08:53):
the book. And I don't know where I got that
idea from the mount of butter. Do you remember where
we got that idea from? I have no idea, but
but we did it because it was lavish and it
was beautiful, and people felt like there's a sense of
generosity on the table with all that butter. It's probably
twelve pounds of butter in that now. So are you
(09:13):
still cooking up a storm?
Speaker 7 (09:15):
Well, yes and no. But I I was gonna say
is that there was always that feeling of abundance, a
cornucopia that I learned from.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
You, right, And your flower arrangements. Two were very beautiful.
You did very good flower arranging. I don't remember, Oh
you did? You did? You did lovely things.
Speaker 7 (09:32):
Do you remember a bright blazing blue day with mounds
of fresh, fuffy snow and I brought that basket over
to your house with a chocolate sufle roll and some
napkins and all handmade stuff. As your interview for the
ass also answered the same ads.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Oh, I don't remember. I have to dig up that ass.
I have to find that for my autobiography. I don't remember.
Speaker 7 (09:59):
You told me that the dogs ate the chocolate raw.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
They did, and I was wondering if they had gone sick. No,
they didn't get sick. Oh my gosh, what a beautiful
it was a beautiful grateful. I remember you being very
shy and very liat and perfect for the job. Perfect.
I was perfect for the job. Perfect. You had lotched
the offer.
Speaker 7 (10:18):
It's really grateful to learn to learn how to be
in this world.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
You Martha, well, thank you, thank you, thank you. Louise Felix,
tell me how we got together.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
We got together.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
It's like six degrees of Martha Stewart though, truly.
Speaker 8 (10:32):
And it was from Sarah and I remember that I
showed up and I was an awe because visually it
was so impactful. And then to see someone who was
just so relaxed in an environment that I wasn't used to,
and so I was so taken with it as I
(10:52):
was the entire time I was working with you. It
was just always informative, educational.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
But what did you say? All the great houses we
got to go.
Speaker 8 (11:01):
In to transform, and Steve Warner's apartment in New York,
I'll never forget that one that was a humding and
that was a doozy mark. It was always exciting, I
must say that, and it was always educational. I never
left a situation working with you without having something that
(11:22):
I didn't have before. And whether it was courage, inspiration, aspiration,
it was remarkable just and I say this truly from
my heart though, it was remarkable how deeply it affected me,
because it really has carried me along with all the
memories that I had.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Well, you're in several of the pictures in the book,
the group pictures. Which party is do you remember particularly well?
Speaker 8 (11:48):
My one of my favorites was I think I think
it got into that book. Oh, Tom brokaw up in
west and over the bridge and through the woods, like
it was almost like a holiday thing and just going
to and you.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Know, they stayed friends. They stayed with my friends Tom
and Meredith.
Speaker 8 (12:04):
Yes, I'm sure, because that there was this very viable
thing that I saw you do, which was to connect
with people who you were catering. It was amazing that
there was this kind of equality in the effort. I
just have to add the things that I gathered was
not recipes as much as uh and this is such
(12:26):
a schmooz, I might add, but it was like courage,
courage without fear, and that inspired me in many of
my efforts.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
And well, you had to be courageous, I mean you
had to be sort of less courageous and very fearless
to do the kinds of parties that we did with
the staff we had and feed a thousand people at
the end show in New York City.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
Yes, yes, that was there. And the crapes, I mean unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Crapes being cooked on site, live chickens and cages and
veils of hay. Yeah, it was really wild, and we
brought in all the vegetables from the garden. It was different.
They and people still talk about it. They s showed me.
My friends at the Folkart Museum still remember that we
did such a thing, and it was sort of like
the start of something different and new country to the
(13:15):
city really and farm to table. And I was the
East coast Alice Waters who was doing her thing at
the same time that I was doing my thing. Allis
and I often talk about it when we meet. I
remember when I first went to Alice waters restaurant Chapanie,
and she knew who I was. I had just written
this book, so she knew who I was. And she
(13:36):
liked the book, she said, and she brought me out
this most special thing, which was a parchment lined pocket
of aluminum foil with little tiny potatoes just had been
roasted in butter and salt and pepper. She said, this
is my favorite thing. And I said, oh, we were
thinking the same.
Speaker 6 (13:54):
You know.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
It was very very farm to table way back then.
All of that. Okay, well, thank you, Louise. So Nissi Fernandez,
you could do you could do everything, but you did.
You came from I think you came from Betsy Winstock.
Didn't you come from Davis and Betsy? You started in
my house. I think two days a week, and I
had never had a housekeeping before one day, one day
(14:17):
a week, okay, one day a week and I and
then I finally got her to work full time. And
took a couple of years, but finally she worked full time.
And then she brought her sister Ulalia to work for
me too because we really got busy. Ye, and I
still have her brother, Fornet Fernando, Fernando Ferrari still works
(14:39):
for me. I looked all the people that came from
Brazil because they knew how to cook fijuada, They knew
how to cook the best. Do you remember Nisi's fishuada?
I mean and her seltpee con that's in my Quick
cook Quick cook d you know I want I want
more selt pe cone, which is a cold chicken, well
(15:00):
sort of room temperature chicken salad with little slivers of
fried potato and beautifully roasted slivered chicken. Oh it was
so good. I love that so much. And then Nissi
went off and she decided to be a restaurant tour Yeah,
so she opened a Brazilian restaurant in Bridgeport, where there
(15:20):
was a very large population of Brazilian people. So started it,
and you worked so hard. She had breakfast, lunch, and dinner,
which I told her was crazy. I said, you know
you're not gonna you're you're gonna get exhausted. Remember I
told you that.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Yeah, you used to get this seven o'clock in the
morning until twelve, right.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Oh yeah. But the NISSI had, she she adopted all
my like my birds. I had parrots and parakeets. And
do you have any birds now?
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (15:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Still I have two the parts, the kids.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Oh oh okay, babies, the originals. Yeah. And that you
got me into birds in my house and uh yeah,
remember and then I had all those red canaries, and
I had blue canaries and parakeets and and now I
have peacocks and geese and all because of you, Nissy.
I would never have had all those, but you did
(16:21):
all that. You influenced me tremendously. And her work ethic,
tireless work ethic that was mesy, never never would not
leave a dirty dish in the sink, would not so organized.
And you're I need you back again. You have to
come back. Are you Are you old enough? No, you're
not old. You're not too old. Not too old. We
(16:44):
all need ten nieces the best time. Yep, it was
a very good time. Well, thank yous, Corey, Corey Tippin'.
So what did you do for me? When did you
(17:05):
come and how did you come?
Speaker 6 (17:06):
Okay, So I don't know if you remember this, but
I can tell you the exact date we met and
how we met. So I had just come from New York,
I moved. I begged my mother and if I could
stay in her garage apartment in Westport. So I came
to my sport. I walked out the door and my
next door neighbor happened to come from California and he
(17:29):
had a sportswear company. So they made me kind of
the visual image for their business. But they I also
became like an art director and I was like, come on,
we got to do promotional stuff.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Corey has always been extremely stylish.
Speaker 6 (17:44):
Thank you, even wearing a secondhand tuxedo. I remember you
running your fingers up and down the car and saying, oh,
that's Satin's divine. But anyway, to get back to how
we met. The that I worked for, I said, let's
we need to do some publicity shops. And I said, well,
aren't there any models that have retired and moved out
(18:07):
here to the country, and one of the assistants said, yes,
there's this a woman named Martha Stewart and she used
to be a model and blah blah blah, and I said, great,
let's call her. So we called you. You came into
the shop in Westport that made the clothing, the sports wear,
and you struck a deal and you said, okay, I'll
(18:27):
be in the picture, but you have to outfit all
the catering girls. So I don't know if you remember this. Yeah,
and you've got this guy to give to outfit the
whole catering business. And then we did the photo shoot
and I had you show up at the Hunt Club
in front of the polo ponies. After the photo shoot,
(18:49):
you and I started talking when you were wandering around
in the Hunt Club, and you said, what do you
doing on the weekends? And I said, well, I don't know.
Why don't you come and work for me? And I said,
well what do you do? You said, I have a
catering company. And I was like, well, I don't really
know what that is. And you said, well you can
be a bartender. And I thought I'd spend enough time drinking.
(19:10):
I can flip over to the other side of the
bar and start servying. And that's how we met.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Oh good well, you were you have you were a
very long lived waiter bartender. Whatever you did anything I
asked you to do with great a plume.
Speaker 6 (19:24):
And there was nothing that you ever asked us to
do that you could not do yourself. It was always
that was all.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
I always feel that way I run it. I've always
tried to run an egalitarian business. So if there's something
on the floor, I pick it up. I don't wait
for somebody else to pick it up. I've always said that, right,
And you see, I would do everything anybody else would
do as long as it gets done.
Speaker 6 (19:48):
That's how we learned.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Good well, I'm glad you remember that.
Speaker 6 (19:51):
But thirteen years later, after the catering goes, just then
came back and worked for you on your television show. Yes,
you did on the magazine and we did many, many
fabulous shows with Oprah TV special. Do you remember when
Oprah came well, I remember we went to her.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Well, she came once to us too.
Speaker 6 (20:10):
I remember we went to her. We did a Christmas special, Oh.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Yeah, in Chicago when we went to Chicago.
Speaker 6 (20:15):
Then we did a wedding special and the ad was
so great because it was like, do you, Martha take
Oprah Winfrey to be your partner in entertaining? And then
you gave it really blank, I do. And I was like, if.
Speaker 5 (20:32):
Only this marriage was for real, God could have ruled
the world the.
Speaker 6 (20:36):
Two of them.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Well, she went on to rule the world. Don't worry
about Oprah.
Speaker 6 (20:40):
Yeah, but you're nudging in there.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
I still I still have the tape of my first
appearance on her radio show down in Maryland when she
and it was I have all that stuff. So it's
such an interesting and interesting history. What are you doing now?
Speaker 6 (20:59):
So I took a step back from working very hard.
For twenty five years, I had my own business. I
was a photo stylist, Corey Grantippen Style. I worked in antiques.
I worked with a great friend of ours that we
have together that runs the Antique Artists and Center fabulous woman.
And now I married to Christopher over there and we
(21:22):
travel a lot. I go to Pilate's good constantly look
and I studied French upright good.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Yeah. So now we're moving on to Jeff Mattz. How
did you come to work for me?
Speaker 2 (21:38):
I too, came through Sarah.
Speaker 9 (21:41):
I had met her brother Adam in New York and
we became friends. And I had actually at the time
was working as a line cook at the Westport Ocean House.
I was looking for a place to stay and Sarah
and Adam's parents graciously offered me a spot there when
I was cooking late at night. So one thing led
(22:02):
to another, and Sarah at one point said, hey, you know,
I'm doing some work in the caring business.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
You're already in the restaurant business. What do you say?
And I say, sure, let's do it.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
So what was the first party? There was the party?
The first party you were?
Speaker 2 (22:18):
I can't remember.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I think that's when I needed a lot of people.
I need a lot of people. And maybe that's why
I put the ad in the paper, was for that
particular party, because that was like a thousand guests. Yeah, awful,
an awful lot of people came to that.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Yeah, that would certainly make sense.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
But but then you went and became an architecture, right.
Speaker 9 (22:35):
So I continued on with my studies and languished under
the thumb of other architects, who are if you ever
work for another architect, don't so I finally seized my
opportunity to open my own business, and I've had a
very nice run. It was a little slower now than
I would like, but that's okay. I've written a couple
(22:55):
of books in the downtime.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
Man.
Speaker 6 (23:00):
In Georgia's wedding, I was not the.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Best man, but I was, was I? Rita? I was
in the wedding, which we haven't talked about yet, but anyway.
Speaker 9 (23:09):
Another fantastic thing about all the people I met working
with Martha was that I became friendly with her brother George,
and ultimately the coincidence was marrying Rita, who I had gone.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
To high school with.
Speaker 9 (23:22):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Oh, I didn't know that. Oh.
Speaker 9 (23:24):
I kind of got involved for when they were dating,
and we remained friends. And yes, I was in the wedding,
which is also chronicled in the book and with af
fur their Ado, here's Rita.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Oh Hi, Rita, Rita may the trip from Florida. What
town do you live in?
Speaker 10 (23:40):
Fort Myers?
Speaker 1 (23:41):
She lives in Fort Myers, fighting hurricanes, et cetera, et cetera.
Ady three oh boy last year and I kept calling Rita,
are you okay? Are you okay? And Rita did marry
my baby brother, George, who at the time was a
builder in Fairfield. And how did you meet George.
Speaker 10 (24:02):
At a disco rollerblading party?
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Disco had that right, and I could not do it.
Speaker 10 (24:10):
And he was helping me and holding my hand all
right time.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
And they fell in love and got married in my
backyard and we grew special flowers for their wedding, knowing
that it was going to occur. And that was a
beautiful wedding. That was a beautiful wedding, so beautiful, So rita.
But when did you come to work for me? After
you got married, I came to work for you.
Speaker 10 (24:32):
I did a little freelance work after Kirk was born.
Were in the middle of an audit and I helped
you with the audit.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Here was that eighty four eighty four?
Speaker 10 (24:41):
So after the book, yes, and then I started working
for you in eighty five.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Those audits weren't they fun? No?
Speaker 10 (24:48):
Oh god, no, not fun. And then I worked for
you for thirty two years, So.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Thirty two years and did a lot of good for
my company. You did, indeed, wow, So you lived through
all these contractual book projects that we did. You went
through the IPO of the company. Later on, when we
had our magazine and our kmart contracts and all of that,
and Rita just calmly just sat in her office and
(25:18):
did all this mountains of work. Really amazing, amazing.
Speaker 10 (25:24):
Learned a lot.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Yeah, we did learn a lot together and a part.
So much stuff went on and working with all the
different employees. Do you know we counted up last year
We've been trying to count how many people actually worked
for Martha Stewart Living and we've come up with more
than twenty seven hundred people. Yeah, it was such a
great place. And keeping a magazine a vibrant the way
(25:47):
we did for forty years was really incredible too. Yeah,
we've done a lot. We've done a lot and Rita
you have to see in the book her wedding.
Speaker 10 (25:56):
It was fantastic food.
Speaker 6 (25:58):
Oh, it was so good. I remember all those dishes
that we did for your wedding. We dragged him out
on the lawn and you had a photographer there and
he shot every single fabulous thing that was served. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
I love the bridesmaids dresses, those beautiful aqua chiffon dresses
and flowered in the hair, and the big white tent beautiful.
Speaker 10 (26:23):
Yeah, and I sun flowers, bud.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
That easter field for your wedding. I remember mowing it
and mowing and mowing it so the grass was not
too long. Everything was perfect. What day of the what
month was that?
Speaker 10 (26:36):
August?
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Oh? August? It was so nice. Yeah. So, now that
we've gone around the table, which is not a round
table but a long rectangular table, who wants to tell
some funny stories because people love to hear memories.
Speaker 6 (26:57):
I do have a couple. Okay, now we're on the
subject of George. George said, one afternoon when we were
getting ready for a party, would just go next door
and pick some sunflowers. They won't mind. So next door
was very real Westport character. This woman. She had a
(27:17):
lot of property, and she draw them in and I
go out there with my clippers and clipping, and suddenly
I heard these shots going on. She had a bb gun, like,
get off my property.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Oh god, I didn't. And by the way, I did
not tell them to go and pick the sunflowers.
Speaker 6 (27:36):
George, Okay, maybe it was like his idea of practical joke.
Speaker 5 (27:41):
But later he was stung by hundreds of bees.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
And he was allergic.
Speaker 6 (27:47):
Yes, and he was sitting there, oh yes, and we
were feeding him shots of whiskey.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
No no, and we got it. We had to get
an ePIE pen and everything he was he was allergic
as my husband was allergic to bees.
Speaker 6 (27:58):
And you stay away from the right. And then one
other funny thing that happened. You had a client, PepsiCo,
Oh yeah, which was a huge corporation.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Oh the Luau. Do you remember the Luau?
Speaker 5 (28:10):
And the gardens were done by an exceptional man.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
I forgot his Russell Page.
Speaker 6 (28:16):
It was Russell Page who actually did the sculpture garden.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Oh yes, that whole sculpture garden. Oh yeah. I became
friends with the CEO and his wife and hated a
lot of their personal dinner parties after we did the Luau.
And I now work for Pepsi every now and then,
doing a commercial for like crot Well. But they brought
me the blue out picture last year. He still had
(28:41):
it in their archives. Had very nice picture of us
cooking the pigs over the fire.
Speaker 6 (28:47):
Remember, So there was a lot of downtime when we
were there. And Bertie who we all.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Loved, Bertiekins, she was the great flower arranger. Yeah she's lovely,
yea daughter.
Speaker 6 (29:00):
So we snuck off and we were smoking pot and
you came around the corner and you caught us, and
instead of berating us, you know what you said, I said,
give me a puff. Yeah, they said give me some.
So today it's kind of irrelevant, like who cares. But
back in those days it was like it was against
(29:24):
the law. We were breaking the law what you were
very cool about. And one more thing, can I tell
you about my favorite party?
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yes? Which on?
Speaker 5 (29:33):
So we did a party for Klaus Oldenburg and his wife.
Speaker 6 (29:37):
Oh yes, it was fabulous and it was in the
old whitney downstairs where the restaurant was.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
So it wasn't Klaus Oldenburg, yes, no, no, it was
it was Roy Lichten. Fine, Roy Lichten, because and you
did all the great you I remember everything. Do you
let me pictures of that?
Speaker 6 (29:57):
I wish idea we did.
Speaker 5 (29:58):
It's still life.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
I can't find any pictures of the roy Lichtensteine dinner
because there was a big retrospective upstairs at the Whitney
of Roy. And now I'm I'm friends with his wife
and my boyfriend, my ex boyfriend collected lots of very
really important Lichten signs who I never bought one stupidly,
and we are the tables, The big buffet tables were
(30:20):
all just sort of like Tableaux vivant of lichten Sex.
The Still Lives with the gloves painted gloves. Remember, yes,
we did it.
Speaker 5 (30:29):
I recreated his his artist oil box.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
With and we had paint. We had paint squirting out
of tubes, oil paints, and we had goldfish and they
were his paints too. There were same colors of paint
that he used, the primary colors.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
And he came down and you shook our hands instead.
Speaker 6 (30:46):
How much he loved me.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
He loved it.
Speaker 6 (30:48):
And his wife was lovely, so lovely.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Yeah, no, they were. They were very fun. And that
was That was one of my favorite parties. And then
were you there for the Paloma Picasso party at the
on Fifth Avenue. We did it at the Sacred Heart School.
Luckily red and black. It was all because she her
colors were red and black and she was just launching
her perfume with my brother in law, George Friedman, and
(31:15):
and we catered her dinner and it had to be
all red and black. So we had salmon and caviar.
Everything was red, and we had a filet of beef
and something else, something else black. I can't remember what,
but anyway, she Ime went to a party a couple
of months ago at Gagosian and there's Poloma Picasso and
I went up to her to say hello, and she said,
(31:35):
I know you, and you catered my first party in
New York. She remembered everything, but it was memorable that party.
It was totally memorable. Well, you have a very good memory, Corey.
Speaker 5 (31:47):
I do about that time because it was so inspirational.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Well, I love that you were.
Speaker 5 (31:52):
We were young, we were.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Young and energetic.
Speaker 11 (31:57):
I said, it was super inspirational. I'm doing what I
did now because of what I learned from you and
working those parties. I write culinary, cozy mysteries because I
got assembled all that knowledge and kept it in my
brain and harkened back to it all the time.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
You know, it's time to end our conversation. One more story.
Why do you talk about the Nomes Party? So before
the book was written, and the reason I got the
publisher of this book to want to publish my first
cookbook was because I catered the Nomes party for Alan Murkin,
right which and Alan Murkin was publishing Clarson Potter and all.
(32:36):
And this is before and Crown before the merger with
random houses a long long time ago. And Alan was
so impressed with the Gnomes party, and you took that
was the Omlink party.
Speaker 4 (32:47):
That was the Omelin people, right, six hundred people at.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
The US Customs House at the tip of Manhattan.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Right, and and with mermaids.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
All the waitresses we were dressed as mermaids. They're brought
were big collop shells from the Coq Quil san Jaq.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Yeah, we wired them together and that's what they did
that back then, no one, nobody did that. And you
were all sitting the Customs house has beautiful alcoves in
the walls and those stone walls, and I put the
waitresses in the or they were actually again live people,
just sitting as decoration decoration, and they were sitting in
the alcoves making believe they were fairies because it wasn't
(33:27):
the Nomes book. It was the Fairies Book, okay, by
the same author Reenport's lead the Duck writing before right,
So on that note, I mean, we could go on
and on and on and on and talk about all
these fabulous stories, but I'm glad that you do remember them.
I'm glad that it had an effect on your life
and on your work, and it's so nice for me
(33:48):
to hear all that.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
I'm glad and you did entertaining because half those recipes
I never had, even though I'm.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
So you know, well, thank you so much for joining me,
and this has been very fun and very meaningful for
all of us, and I hope for the readers of
the book. I'm proud that the book has had such
an enduring success. I'm very pleased that Clarkson Potter chose
to reissue it this year in fact simile, which means
it's exactly the same as the original, and it's still
(34:18):
dedicated to my husband Andy, my ex husband. I took
his name out in later editions, but not in this one,
because this is the original and it's now available again
wherever you purchase books. So I hope all of you
will add it to your collections and that it inspires
a whole new generation to embrace entertaining. So thank you
(34:41):
so much, thanks for taking the time. It really means
a lot to be really okay,
Hi, This is Martha Stewart, and I'm coming to you
from Terrain, a nature inspired home and garden shop in Westport,
Connecticut and one of my favorite places to buy plants
and just look around and see what's new in the
world of home decorating. I'm here celebrating something extremely exciting,
the re release of my very first book, Entertaining. This
(00:29):
book originally came out on December thirteenth, nineteen eighty two,
almost forty three years ago. After being out of print
for some years, it is out again in bookstores everywhere.
And it all started right here in this Connecticut town
along the Long Island Sound, just an hour outside of
New York City, depending of course, on the traffic. Joining
(00:51):
me today are some of those who helped me create Entertaining.
Elizabeth Hawes Weinstock was supposed to come. Elizabeth really helped
me hone the text of the book, and she lives
in Martha's vineyard and just didn't make it to the
plane in time. Sorry, Elizabeth. Corey Tippin, one of my
(01:11):
head waiters. Can't wait to talk to Corey. Nisi Fernandez,
my first real housekeeper who then went on to become
the most fabulous flower decorator and also contributor of many
many recipes that we included in our books. Nice to
see you, Nissi. Jeff Katz, who was Were you a headwaiter?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
So I guess, but didn't we all kind of do
everything to.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Give you all jacks of all trade?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Right?
Speaker 1 (01:39):
But your name was Jeff Vicky Slowed, so nice to
see Vicky. Vicky was responsible for much of the calligraphy.
She just was such a creative, fabulous person. Louise Felix,
who was like second mother to the gang. You'd really
kind of bost everybody around really nicely. You were great.
(02:02):
Sarah Gross, who's sitting next to me, who you look
pretty much the same, Sarah, and you sound the same,
and it's nice to see you here. And she's responsible
for some of the more delicious recipes in the books.
And Ellen Byron, who's on zoom Hi, Ellen Hi, So
she can't really interact with us, but it's nice to
(02:23):
have her here on zoom. And my sister in law,
Rita Christiansen, flew up from Florida today to be with us,
and it's so nice that you're here and sitting around us.
We have my niece Sophie, we have my niece Christina,
all of whom they have contributed to the publications in many,
(02:44):
many different ways. And Judy Morris, she came in nineteen
ninety two, So ten years after this momentous event of
publishing my very very first book. It's nice to talk
to all of you again, and thank you very much
for joining me on my podcast. Is really great. So
all of you were part of the original crew who
(03:05):
contributed to the parties that became the entertaining book. So
please if you each pick up microphones and introduce yourself. Sarah,
tell us what your role was in making this book
and how we came to work together, and what you're
doing now.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
I answered the infamous ad in the paper for the
market Basket.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
That's how I met you.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Market Basket was my very first shop in Westport, Connecticut,
part of a larger store called the Common Market, which
was the first store to sell Ralph Lauren clothing to
the public. Remember that boy, look what's happening so well?
Speaker 3 (03:43):
And that was an incredible store, I mean, with the
first of his kind, first of his kind, similar to.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
This little shop, that little big shop that we're sitting
in right now called terrain, which is part of anthropology now,
but lifestyle, gorgeous, innovative products.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Anti and cheese, food, food.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Cosmetics, you know, beautiful stuff. Yeah, it was a great story.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
So what did you do for me?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Originally?
Speaker 3 (04:10):
I originally worked in your basement kitchen cooking.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Oh yeah, you made cookies for the store.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
I made cookies for the story. Yes, I made cookies
for the store. I made chocolate bunnies for the store.
I made Hawa Tasahara bread for the store.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Yeah. That was fun too.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
So yeah, then when you started catering, we started cooking
out of your kitchen in the basement and learned how
to make French bread and those wonderful walnut rolls.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
My daughter still, Alexa, still talks about the costs on
we made, wow, because she says they were the best
costs on she ever had.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Well, Laura had worked in a French bakery. So yeah,
that's when we started baking the bread.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Right, remember, right, is there a go to story that
you tell your friends about working with me? Was? I mean,
what do you really tell your friends? I want to
know this stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
I tell you my friends that I really wouldn't have
gone on to do what I do if it wasn't
for you know, answering that ad in the paper.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Currently, what are you doing?
Speaker 4 (05:09):
I'm retired.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
I were retired. Yeah, you're not allowed to retire. Well,
I'm doing lots of other things. But I went on
from working with you to have a catering business and
a successful catering and event planning business.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
For thirty five years.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Oh it's so great.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
So yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
And then I opened up a little kitchen that I
rented out to people who did organic, none GMO food
for people who could afford couldn't afford otherwise. I rented
out for thirty five dollars an hour kind of thing.
So a lot of the people who are at the
farmer's markets now started in my kitchen.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yeah, you kept in the food world.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
But the things I remember from working for you, you know,
when I started my business, one of the most important
things was the precision that you demanded of everyone.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Oh good, I'm happy to hear her say that. Yeah no,
but it's it's nobody was to be a slob.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
No, And I mean we couldn't carry a stew Leonards
bag or anything with any kind of logo on it
to a job.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
How the cars were packed.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Were you know why? You know why about the cars
because I don't know if any of you worked at
that one party where we had uf which are meringues
in trays of a beautiful kremong glaz. They have to
sit in the kremong glazz so they don't dissipate. So
and they were in the back of my big suburban
and there was an instantaneous accident, yeah, Route ninety five
(06:33):
and I had to stop short and all the eof
lunge late flew out of the paths and I was
on my way to Birgdarf Goodman, a big fancy lunch
at bir Dwarf Goodman, and we couldn't serve the Oh god,
I would have missed that one. So that's why packing
was very very important. And the wedding cakes, remember they.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
Had transporting them.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Oh, transporting wedding cakes was a nightmare until we finally
figured out how to do it layer by layer with
chopstick that we would insert in between the layers so
that they were here.
Speaker 5 (07:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
I figured out a lot of stuff.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
And we would make the cakes and then at night
you did the butter cream, the Italian butter cream.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
I did it at night, all night long.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
So we would come in and the cakes would all
be be made, and I remember chilled.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
They had to make my first one, you know, without
you a thing.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Did you have a good time?
Speaker 6 (07:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Difficult?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
We did that though. Who does that now?
Speaker 1 (07:25):
No wedding cake?
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Who makes their own brands now?
Speaker 7 (07:28):
No?
Speaker 1 (07:28):
On? Well, thank you that's so great.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
But I thank you because I really would have gone
on to do what I did without you, really.
Speaker 6 (07:36):
So thank you. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Our next is Vicky. I still call you Vickyna grin,
but it's Vicky Slow And so what are you doing now, Vicky?
Speaker 7 (07:45):
I'm a full time grandma.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Oh you are? How many grandchildren?
Speaker 4 (07:48):
I have four?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Oh lucky you. I only have two. And I was
at the market basket. Yes, but you were very important
in terms of the esthetic because I love your esthetic
always and you were always making things look so so beautiful.
So I'm sure we use lots of your ideas in
the photographs and the styling of the food. We've had
(08:11):
so much fun lately. Because I can't remember the page number,
but in this book is there is on a big
I think assortment of crudite. There's a giant mound of butter.
Do you remember the butter mounds that we used to
make fruit butters? Yeah, well, some our fruit, but some
were just mounds of normandy butter. And I went to
a party last year at Chris Hesni's house and he
(08:32):
had this fabulous, fabulous new caterer working for him and
he said, oh, she's an artist, which you see what
she's doing. And she had a giant mound of butter
and lots of cut bread all around it, all this
nice artisanal bread. And I just laughed to myself because
they're in nineteen eighty two. It's in the picture in
(08:53):
the book. And I don't know where I got that
idea from the mount of butter. Do you remember where
we got that idea from? I have no idea, but
but we did it because it was lavish and it
was beautiful, and people felt like there's a sense of
generosity on the table with all that butter. It's probably
twelve pounds of butter in that now. So are you
(09:13):
still cooking up a storm?
Speaker 7 (09:15):
Well, yes and no. But I I was gonna say
is that there was always that feeling of abundance, a
cornucopia that I learned from.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
You, right, And your flower arrangements. Two were very beautiful.
You did very good flower arranging. I don't remember, Oh
you did? You did? You did lovely things.
Speaker 7 (09:32):
Do you remember a bright blazing blue day with mounds
of fresh, fuffy snow and I brought that basket over
to your house with a chocolate sufle roll and some
napkins and all handmade stuff. As your interview for the
ass also answered the same ads.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Oh, I don't remember. I have to dig up that ass.
I have to find that for my autobiography. I don't remember.
Speaker 7 (09:59):
You told me that the dogs ate the chocolate raw.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
They did, and I was wondering if they had gone sick. No,
they didn't get sick. Oh my gosh, what a beautiful
it was a beautiful grateful. I remember you being very
shy and very liat and perfect for the job. Perfect.
I was perfect for the job. Perfect. You had lotched
the offer.
Speaker 7 (10:18):
It's really grateful to learn to learn how to be
in this world.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
You Martha, well, thank you, thank you, thank you. Louise Felix,
tell me how we got together.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
We got together.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
It's like six degrees of Martha Stewart though, truly.
Speaker 8 (10:32):
And it was from Sarah and I remember that I
showed up and I was an awe because visually it
was so impactful. And then to see someone who was
just so relaxed in an environment that I wasn't used to,
and so I was so taken with it as I
(10:52):
was the entire time I was working with you. It
was just always informative, educational.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
But what did you say? All the great houses we
got to go.
Speaker 8 (11:01):
In to transform, and Steve Warner's apartment in New York,
I'll never forget that one that was a humding and
that was a doozy mark. It was always exciting, I
must say that, and it was always educational. I never
left a situation working with you without having something that
(11:22):
I didn't have before. And whether it was courage, inspiration, aspiration,
it was remarkable just and I say this truly from
my heart though, it was remarkable how deeply it affected me,
because it really has carried me along with all the
memories that I had.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Well, you're in several of the pictures in the book,
the group pictures. Which party is do you remember particularly well?
Speaker 8 (11:48):
My one of my favorites was I think I think
it got into that book. Oh, Tom brokaw up in
west and over the bridge and through the woods, like
it was almost like a holiday thing and just going
to and you.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Know, they stayed friends. They stayed with my friends Tom
and Meredith.
Speaker 8 (12:04):
Yes, I'm sure, because that there was this very viable
thing that I saw you do, which was to connect
with people who you were catering. It was amazing that
there was this kind of equality in the effort. I
just have to add the things that I gathered was
not recipes as much as uh and this is such
(12:26):
a schmooz, I might add, but it was like courage,
courage without fear, and that inspired me in many of
my efforts.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
And well, you had to be courageous, I mean you
had to be sort of less courageous and very fearless
to do the kinds of parties that we did with
the staff we had and feed a thousand people at
the end show in New York City.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
Yes, yes, that was there. And the crapes, I mean unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Crapes being cooked on site, live chickens and cages and
veils of hay. Yeah, it was really wild, and we
brought in all the vegetables from the garden. It was different.
They and people still talk about it. They s showed me.
My friends at the Folkart Museum still remember that we
did such a thing, and it was sort of like
the start of something different and new country to the
(13:15):
city really and farm to table. And I was the
East coast Alice Waters who was doing her thing at
the same time that I was doing my thing. Allis
and I often talk about it when we meet. I
remember when I first went to Alice waters restaurant Chapanie,
and she knew who I was. I had just written
this book, so she knew who I was. And she
(13:36):
liked the book, she said, and she brought me out
this most special thing, which was a parchment lined pocket
of aluminum foil with little tiny potatoes just had been
roasted in butter and salt and pepper. She said, this
is my favorite thing. And I said, oh, we were
thinking the same.
Speaker 6 (13:54):
You know.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
It was very very farm to table way back then.
All of that. Okay, well, thank you, Louise. So Nissi Fernandez,
you could do you could do everything, but you did.
You came from I think you came from Betsy Winstock.
Didn't you come from Davis and Betsy? You started in
my house. I think two days a week, and I
had never had a housekeeping before one day, one day
(14:17):
a week, okay, one day a week and I and
then I finally got her to work full time. And
took a couple of years, but finally she worked full time.
And then she brought her sister Ulalia to work for
me too because we really got busy. Ye, and I
still have her brother, Fornet Fernando, Fernando Ferrari still works
(14:39):
for me. I looked all the people that came from
Brazil because they knew how to cook fijuada, They knew
how to cook the best. Do you remember Nisi's fishuada?
I mean and her seltpee con that's in my Quick
cook Quick cook d you know I want I want
more selt pe cone, which is a cold chicken, well
(15:00):
sort of room temperature chicken salad with little slivers of
fried potato and beautifully roasted slivered chicken. Oh it was
so good. I love that so much. And then Nissi
went off and she decided to be a restaurant tour Yeah,
so she opened a Brazilian restaurant in Bridgeport, where there
(15:20):
was a very large population of Brazilian people. So started it,
and you worked so hard. She had breakfast, lunch, and dinner,
which I told her was crazy. I said, you know
you're not gonna you're you're gonna get exhausted. Remember I
told you that.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Yeah, you used to get this seven o'clock in the
morning until twelve, right.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Oh yeah. But the NISSI had, she she adopted all
my like my birds. I had parrots and parakeets. And
do you have any birds now?
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (15:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Still I have two the parts, the kids.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Oh oh okay, babies, the originals. Yeah. And that you
got me into birds in my house and uh yeah,
remember and then I had all those red canaries, and
I had blue canaries and parakeets and and now I
have peacocks and geese and all because of you, Nissy.
I would never have had all those, but you did
(16:21):
all that. You influenced me tremendously. And her work ethic,
tireless work ethic that was mesy, never never would not
leave a dirty dish in the sink, would not so organized.
And you're I need you back again. You have to
come back. Are you Are you old enough? No, you're
not old. You're not too old. Not too old. We
(16:44):
all need ten nieces the best time. Yep, it was
a very good time. Well, thank yous, Corey, Corey Tippin'.
So what did you do for me? When did you
(17:05):
come and how did you come?
Speaker 6 (17:06):
Okay, So I don't know if you remember this, but
I can tell you the exact date we met and
how we met. So I had just come from New York,
I moved. I begged my mother and if I could
stay in her garage apartment in Westport. So I came
to my sport. I walked out the door and my
next door neighbor happened to come from California and he
(17:29):
had a sportswear company. So they made me kind of
the visual image for their business. But they I also
became like an art director and I was like, come on,
we got to do promotional stuff.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Corey has always been extremely stylish.
Speaker 6 (17:44):
Thank you, even wearing a secondhand tuxedo. I remember you
running your fingers up and down the car and saying, oh,
that's Satin's divine. But anyway, to get back to how
we met. The that I worked for, I said, let's
we need to do some publicity shops. And I said, well,
aren't there any models that have retired and moved out
(18:07):
here to the country, and one of the assistants said, yes,
there's this a woman named Martha Stewart and she used
to be a model and blah blah blah, and I said, great,
let's call her. So we called you. You came into
the shop in Westport that made the clothing, the sports wear,
and you struck a deal and you said, okay, I'll
(18:27):
be in the picture, but you have to outfit all
the catering girls. So I don't know if you remember this. Yeah,
and you've got this guy to give to outfit the
whole catering business. And then we did the photo shoot
and I had you show up at the Hunt Club
in front of the polo ponies. After the photo shoot,
(18:49):
you and I started talking when you were wandering around
in the Hunt Club, and you said, what do you
doing on the weekends? And I said, well, I don't know.
Why don't you come and work for me? And I said,
well what do you do? You said, I have a
catering company. And I was like, well, I don't really
know what that is. And you said, well you can
be a bartender. And I thought I'd spend enough time drinking.
(19:10):
I can flip over to the other side of the
bar and start servying. And that's how we met.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Oh good well, you were you have you were a
very long lived waiter bartender. Whatever you did anything I
asked you to do with great a plume.
Speaker 6 (19:24):
And there was nothing that you ever asked us to
do that you could not do yourself. It was always
that was all.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
I always feel that way I run it. I've always
tried to run an egalitarian business. So if there's something
on the floor, I pick it up. I don't wait
for somebody else to pick it up. I've always said that, right,
And you see, I would do everything anybody else would
do as long as it gets done.
Speaker 6 (19:48):
That's how we learned.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Good well, I'm glad you remember that.
Speaker 6 (19:51):
But thirteen years later, after the catering goes, just then
came back and worked for you on your television show. Yes,
you did on the magazine and we did many, many
fabulous shows with Oprah TV special. Do you remember when
Oprah came well, I remember we went to her.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Well, she came once to us too.
Speaker 6 (20:10):
I remember we went to her. We did a Christmas special, Oh.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Yeah, in Chicago when we went to Chicago.
Speaker 6 (20:15):
Then we did a wedding special and the ad was
so great because it was like, do you, Martha take
Oprah Winfrey to be your partner in entertaining? And then
you gave it really blank, I do. And I was like, if.
Speaker 5 (20:32):
Only this marriage was for real, God could have ruled
the world the.
Speaker 6 (20:36):
Two of them.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Well, she went on to rule the world. Don't worry
about Oprah.
Speaker 6 (20:40):
Yeah, but you're nudging in there.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
I still I still have the tape of my first
appearance on her radio show down in Maryland when she
and it was I have all that stuff. So it's
such an interesting and interesting history. What are you doing now?
Speaker 6 (20:59):
So I took a step back from working very hard.
For twenty five years, I had my own business. I
was a photo stylist, Corey Grantippen Style. I worked in antiques.
I worked with a great friend of ours that we
have together that runs the Antique Artists and Center fabulous woman.
And now I married to Christopher over there and we
(21:22):
travel a lot. I go to Pilate's good constantly look
and I studied French upright good.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Yeah. So now we're moving on to Jeff Mattz. How
did you come to work for me?
Speaker 2 (21:38):
I too, came through Sarah.
Speaker 9 (21:41):
I had met her brother Adam in New York and
we became friends. And I had actually at the time
was working as a line cook at the Westport Ocean House.
I was looking for a place to stay and Sarah
and Adam's parents graciously offered me a spot there when
I was cooking late at night. So one thing led
(22:02):
to another, and Sarah at one point said, hey, you know,
I'm doing some work in the caring business.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
You're already in the restaurant business. What do you say?
And I say, sure, let's do it.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
So what was the first party? There was the party?
The first party you were?
Speaker 2 (22:18):
I can't remember.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I think that's when I needed a lot of people.
I need a lot of people. And maybe that's why
I put the ad in the paper, was for that
particular party, because that was like a thousand guests. Yeah, awful,
an awful lot of people came to that.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Yeah, that would certainly make sense.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
But but then you went and became an architecture, right.
Speaker 9 (22:35):
So I continued on with my studies and languished under
the thumb of other architects, who are if you ever
work for another architect, don't so I finally seized my
opportunity to open my own business, and I've had a
very nice run. It was a little slower now than
I would like, but that's okay. I've written a couple
(22:55):
of books in the downtime.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
Man.
Speaker 6 (23:00):
In Georgia's wedding, I was not the.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Best man, but I was, was I? Rita? I was
in the wedding, which we haven't talked about yet, but anyway.
Speaker 9 (23:09):
Another fantastic thing about all the people I met working
with Martha was that I became friendly with her brother George,
and ultimately the coincidence was marrying Rita, who I had gone.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
To high school with.
Speaker 9 (23:22):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Oh, I didn't know that. Oh.
Speaker 9 (23:24):
I kind of got involved for when they were dating,
and we remained friends. And yes, I was in the wedding,
which is also chronicled in the book and with af
fur their Ado, here's Rita.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Oh Hi, Rita, Rita may the trip from Florida. What
town do you live in?
Speaker 10 (23:40):
Fort Myers?
Speaker 1 (23:41):
She lives in Fort Myers, fighting hurricanes, et cetera, et cetera.
Ady three oh boy last year and I kept calling Rita,
are you okay? Are you okay? And Rita did marry
my baby brother, George, who at the time was a
builder in Fairfield. And how did you meet George.
Speaker 10 (24:02):
At a disco rollerblading party?
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Disco had that right, and I could not do it.
Speaker 10 (24:10):
And he was helping me and holding my hand all
right time.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
And they fell in love and got married in my
backyard and we grew special flowers for their wedding, knowing
that it was going to occur. And that was a
beautiful wedding. That was a beautiful wedding, so beautiful, So rita.
But when did you come to work for me? After
you got married, I came to work for you.
Speaker 10 (24:32):
I did a little freelance work after Kirk was born.
Were in the middle of an audit and I helped
you with the audit.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Here was that eighty four eighty four?
Speaker 10 (24:41):
So after the book, yes, and then I started working
for you in eighty five.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Those audits weren't they fun? No?
Speaker 10 (24:48):
Oh god, no, not fun. And then I worked for
you for thirty two years, So.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Thirty two years and did a lot of good for
my company. You did, indeed, wow, So you lived through
all these contractual book projects that we did. You went
through the IPO of the company. Later on, when we
had our magazine and our kmart contracts and all of that,
and Rita just calmly just sat in her office and
(25:18):
did all this mountains of work. Really amazing, amazing.
Speaker 10 (25:24):
Learned a lot.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Yeah, we did learn a lot together and a part.
So much stuff went on and working with all the
different employees. Do you know we counted up last year
We've been trying to count how many people actually worked
for Martha Stewart Living and we've come up with more
than twenty seven hundred people. Yeah, it was such a
great place. And keeping a magazine a vibrant the way
(25:47):
we did for forty years was really incredible too. Yeah,
we've done a lot. We've done a lot and Rita
you have to see in the book her wedding.
Speaker 10 (25:56):
It was fantastic food.
Speaker 6 (25:58):
Oh, it was so good. I remember all those dishes
that we did for your wedding. We dragged him out
on the lawn and you had a photographer there and
he shot every single fabulous thing that was served. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
I love the bridesmaids dresses, those beautiful aqua chiffon dresses
and flowered in the hair, and the big white tent beautiful.
Speaker 10 (26:23):
Yeah, and I sun flowers, bud.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
That easter field for your wedding. I remember mowing it
and mowing and mowing it so the grass was not
too long. Everything was perfect. What day of the what
month was that?
Speaker 10 (26:36):
August?
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Oh? August? It was so nice. Yeah. So, now that
we've gone around the table, which is not a round
table but a long rectangular table, who wants to tell
some funny stories because people love to hear memories.
Speaker 6 (26:57):
I do have a couple. Okay, now we're on the
subject of George. George said, one afternoon when we were
getting ready for a party, would just go next door
and pick some sunflowers. They won't mind. So next door
was very real Westport character. This woman. She had a
(27:17):
lot of property, and she draw them in and I
go out there with my clippers and clipping, and suddenly
I heard these shots going on. She had a bb gun, like,
get off my property.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Oh god, I didn't. And by the way, I did
not tell them to go and pick the sunflowers.
Speaker 6 (27:36):
George, Okay, maybe it was like his idea of practical joke.
Speaker 5 (27:41):
But later he was stung by hundreds of bees.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
And he was allergic.
Speaker 6 (27:47):
Yes, and he was sitting there, oh yes, and we
were feeding him shots of whiskey.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
No no, and we got it. We had to get
an ePIE pen and everything he was he was allergic
as my husband was allergic to bees.
Speaker 6 (27:58):
And you stay away from the right. And then one
other funny thing that happened. You had a client, PepsiCo,
Oh yeah, which was a huge corporation.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Oh the Luau. Do you remember the Luau?
Speaker 5 (28:10):
And the gardens were done by an exceptional man.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
I forgot his Russell Page.
Speaker 6 (28:16):
It was Russell Page who actually did the sculpture garden.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Oh yes, that whole sculpture garden. Oh yeah. I became
friends with the CEO and his wife and hated a
lot of their personal dinner parties after we did the Luau.
And I now work for Pepsi every now and then,
doing a commercial for like crot Well. But they brought
me the blue out picture last year. He still had
(28:41):
it in their archives. Had very nice picture of us
cooking the pigs over the fire.
Speaker 6 (28:47):
Remember, So there was a lot of downtime when we
were there. And Bertie who we all.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Loved, Bertiekins, she was the great flower arranger. Yeah she's lovely,
yea daughter.
Speaker 6 (29:00):
So we snuck off and we were smoking pot and
you came around the corner and you caught us, and
instead of berating us, you know what you said, I said,
give me a puff. Yeah, they said give me some.
So today it's kind of irrelevant, like who cares. But
back in those days it was like it was against
(29:24):
the law. We were breaking the law what you were
very cool about. And one more thing, can I tell
you about my favorite party?
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yes? Which on?
Speaker 5 (29:33):
So we did a party for Klaus Oldenburg and his wife.
Speaker 6 (29:37):
Oh yes, it was fabulous and it was in the
old whitney downstairs where the restaurant was.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
So it wasn't Klaus Oldenburg, yes, no, no, it was
it was Roy Lichten. Fine, Roy Lichten, because and you
did all the great you I remember everything. Do you
let me pictures of that?
Speaker 6 (29:57):
I wish idea we did.
Speaker 5 (29:58):
It's still life.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
I can't find any pictures of the roy Lichtensteine dinner
because there was a big retrospective upstairs at the Whitney
of Roy. And now I'm I'm friends with his wife
and my boyfriend, my ex boyfriend collected lots of very
really important Lichten signs who I never bought one stupidly,
and we are the tables, The big buffet tables were
(30:20):
all just sort of like Tableaux vivant of lichten Sex.
The Still Lives with the gloves painted gloves. Remember, yes,
we did it.
Speaker 5 (30:29):
I recreated his his artist oil box.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
With and we had paint. We had paint squirting out
of tubes, oil paints, and we had goldfish and they
were his paints too. There were same colors of paint
that he used, the primary colors.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
And he came down and you shook our hands instead.
Speaker 6 (30:46):
How much he loved me.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
He loved it.
Speaker 6 (30:48):
And his wife was lovely, so lovely.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Yeah, no, they were. They were very fun. And that
was That was one of my favorite parties. And then
were you there for the Paloma Picasso party at the
on Fifth Avenue. We did it at the Sacred Heart School.
Luckily red and black. It was all because she her
colors were red and black and she was just launching
her perfume with my brother in law, George Friedman, and
(31:15):
and we catered her dinner and it had to be
all red and black. So we had salmon and caviar.
Everything was red, and we had a filet of beef
and something else, something else black. I can't remember what,
but anyway, she Ime went to a party a couple
of months ago at Gagosian and there's Poloma Picasso and
I went up to her to say hello, and she said,
(31:35):
I know you, and you catered my first party in
New York. She remembered everything, but it was memorable that party.
It was totally memorable. Well, you have a very good memory, Corey.
Speaker 5 (31:47):
I do about that time because it was so inspirational.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Well, I love that you were.
Speaker 5 (31:52):
We were young, we were.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Young and energetic.
Speaker 11 (31:57):
I said, it was super inspirational. I'm doing what I
did now because of what I learned from you and
working those parties. I write culinary, cozy mysteries because I
got assembled all that knowledge and kept it in my
brain and harkened back to it all the time.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
You know, it's time to end our conversation. One more story.
Why do you talk about the Nomes Party? So before
the book was written, and the reason I got the
publisher of this book to want to publish my first
cookbook was because I catered the Nomes party for Alan Murkin,
right which and Alan Murkin was publishing Clarson Potter and all.
(32:36):
And this is before and Crown before the merger with
random houses a long long time ago. And Alan was
so impressed with the Gnomes party, and you took that
was the Omlink party.
Speaker 4 (32:47):
That was the Omelin people, right, six hundred people at.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
The US Customs House at the tip of Manhattan.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Right, and and with mermaids.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
All the waitresses we were dressed as mermaids. They're brought
were big collop shells from the Coq Quil san Jaq.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Yeah, we wired them together and that's what they did
that back then, no one, nobody did that. And you
were all sitting the Customs house has beautiful alcoves in
the walls and those stone walls, and I put the
waitresses in the or they were actually again live people,
just sitting as decoration decoration, and they were sitting in
the alcoves making believe they were fairies because it wasn't
(33:27):
the Nomes book. It was the Fairies Book, okay, by
the same author Reenport's lead the Duck writing before right,
So on that note, I mean, we could go on
and on and on and on and talk about all
these fabulous stories, but I'm glad that you do remember them.
I'm glad that it had an effect on your life
and on your work, and it's so nice for me
(33:48):
to hear all that.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
I'm glad and you did entertaining because half those recipes
I never had, even though I'm.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
So you know, well, thank you so much for joining me,
and this has been very fun and very meaningful for
all of us, and I hope for the readers of
the book. I'm proud that the book has had such
an enduring success. I'm very pleased that Clarkson Potter chose
to reissue it this year in fact simile, which means
it's exactly the same as the original, and it's still
(34:18):
dedicated to my husband Andy, my ex husband. I took
his name out in later editions, but not in this one,
because this is the original and it's now available again
wherever you purchase books. So I hope all of you
will add it to your collections and that it inspires
a whole new generation to embrace entertaining. So thank you
(34:41):
so much, thanks for taking the time. It really means
a lot to be really okay,
Host
Martha Stewart
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