Martha Stewart is a busy woman, but that's nothing new for the food, style, and housekeeping maven. Among other ventures, she recently wrapped her first season of Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party, a variety show she hosts with the rapper Snoop Dogg, and she has partnered with the Marley Spoon subscription recipe box service to feature many of her recipes. She sat down with Town & Country to talk about all of this, as well as plying Snoop with alcohol on set, stealing her housekeeper's American cheese slices, and her worst dating experience.
What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned about Snoop Dogg as a person from working with him?
He has an intense sense of loyalty to the people he works with, to his friends—he has an amazing number of friends. He stands up for what he believes really strongly.
Do you have a preferred cocktail?
I like cocktails. I’m actually the cocktail mistress of the Martha & Snoop show. I make up all the cocktails and I feed them to Snoop, who’s not really a drinker, so he gets totally drunk off of them. I make the best bourbon sour, the best margaritas, really good saketinis, and kir royales, but Caipirinhas are my favorite drink.
How’s dating life going for you?
I don’t have that much time for casual dating...
Do you care about whether or not the person is a good cook or keeps a clean house?
Not really. It’s more like, how much time do I want to spend with that particular person? How interesting is that person to me?
What's the worst date you’ve been on?
I went to the lounge area at Le Bernardin with this guy. He had to go somewhere afterward, and I had to go somewhere after. It wasn’t a first date, but it was like a second or third date. We each had places to go; he did not ask me to go with him to the second place. We had cocktails and a little caviar or something. Then he just got up and said he had to run, and he ran out and didn’t pay! And I thought that was extremely rude.
Do you have a go-to guilty pleasure food?
My guilty pleasure is not at all interesting: It's a spoon of really good organic peanut butter, or a slice of American cheese from my housekeeper’s drawer. I steal American slices sometimes—in the plastic, it’s so horrible. But it’s such a good snack. I eat pickled herring as a late-night snack before I go to bed because it’s savory and good. I like liverwurst, and I know how bad it is now. I love squeezing it out of the tube and just eating calves' liverwurst.
Why have meal subscription kits like Marley Spoon become so popular?
Because they save so much time. I’m all about saving time in the most important places so you make time for other things.
What are some of your basic summer grilling tips?
There are lots of rules about grilling. One is not to overcook. Another one is to build the best fire and use the best grill you can afford. Have you seen the Big Green Egg grill? It’s beautiful. You can bake in it, make pizzas in it, roast in it, and grill on it. It’s a very lovely grill. I want them to make it blue for me, but they haven’t agreed to do that yet. I’ve been begging them to do it. I’m not a huge aficionado of grilling because I don’t like smelling like smoke after grilling. I have to go take a bath.
What’s your earliest food memory that really stands out for you?
At my friend's house growing up they had white bread, which was so delicious, and we’d slather that with "sandwich spread"—mayonnaise with relish in it. We weren't allowed to have soda in my house, but my friend Peggy's father worked for Coca-Cola, so we would sneak over to her house and have a glass full of ice with Coca-Cola and a big, big swirl of Reddi-wip on top. We called it our Coke float. It was so great. There was also an Irish family that lived across the street, and I remember the baked potatoes that sat on top of the gas stove with a thick, insulated bottom. I remember eating them and thinking, 'This is the best thing in the world.'
