The Celebrity Chef Martha Stewart Called 'Not Charming'

During the pandemic, many people found themselves with time on their hands. Some of them baked, while others chowed down on store-bought snacks. Drew Barrymore, however, was all about self-improvement, and in early 2022 she shared a summary of her achievements with social media: drinking more water, spending time outdoors, reading for at least half an hour, and getting at least eight hours of sleep. Ina Garten responded with her own list, which included streaming videos, playing sudoku, and drinking large cosmos (a reference to a 2020 Instagram video where she makes a cocktail with three cups of booze despite admitting that "nobody's stopping by"). Her fans may have been amused, but Martha Stewart did not share the sentiment.

As Stewart told People, "I do not agree about taking to drink to cope with things like the pandemic. To me that's not charming." Instead, she said she preferred to focus on hard work and productivity. Ironically, one of the projects keeping her so busy was launching her own celebrity wine brand called Martha's Chard.

Stewart may have been justified in expressing concern about endorsing alcohol use during a difficult time. According to Harvard Medical School, women, in particular, were at risk, with a drinking rate that soared 84%. Still, it seems as if neither lifestyle guru is a big boozer. Stewart nurses a glass or two of wine in the evening, adding ice to take up some of the room, while Garten told Page Six: "I think I spend more time talking about cocktails than I do actually drinking them. I have a little glass of wine and that's basically all I need, and a cocktail once in a while."

Decades before Martha Stewart piled on Ina Garten for her purported pandemic drinking habits, the two were good friends. They became acquainted when Stewart started shopping at Garten's gourmet store (she was a fan of the lemon bars). In time, Garten would find herself a guest in Stewart's home (where she was super-impressed by the domestic diva's homemade spun sugar), and Stewart was instrumental in helping her get her first cookbook published. Stewart even tried to land Garten what would have been her first TV show back in 2000, although "Someone's in the Kitchen With Ina" never made it out of pre-production. Garten almost gave up on the medium altogether, but she changed her mind two years later when "Barefoot Contessa" made its Food Network debut.

So where did things start to go wrong for these famous friends? The way Garten recalls it, Stewart stopped spending as much time in the Hamptons, so they simply drifted apart. As Stewart told The New Yorker, however, there may have been a darker reason: "When I was sent off to Alderson Prison, she stopped talking to me. I found that extremely distressing and extremely unfriendly." While Garten insists that this isn't the case, Stewart doubts the two will ever rekindle their friendship. Not that she's all that bothered by the loss — not only did she come out of prison with some interesting recipes, but she now has a new bestie in former cooking show co-host Snoop Dogg.