The Countertop Material Martha Stewart Prefers – Especially For Baking

It's perhaps an understatement to say that Martha Stewart is fairly well-known for her food and decorating advice. Beyond Martha Stewart's hot dog advice, she's said just as much about the materials on which you cook your food, which has extended to countertops in the past. If you've never thought about kitchen countertops before, it starts to matter once you've got your own house. When you're reworking your kitchen and your busted-up old counter's got to go, you probably want something that looks nice and keeps sturdy: everyone wants their dream kitchen to have lots of counter space, so it should be decent quality, especially if you enjoy the sort of baking that takes up the whole counter.

In a 2020 interview with Frederic Magazine, Stewart gave some thoughts on counter materials. It's worth noting that she didn't definitively pick one, because it's not such an easy question. However, she brought up zinc countertops as one of her stronger preferences, especially as a pro baker. Stewart said, "Up at my home in Maine, all my counters are covered in zinc. It's actually the baker's choice because you can roll out dough on it without using extra flour, and it won't stick." For what it's worth, she also praised stone, marble, and soapstone and criticized wood countertops for being a hassle to clean.

Compared to marble countertops, zinc isn't always a counter surface you'll hear mentioned so much. What's the appeal, then? Depending on the atmosphere you want, silver-colored zinc counters certainly have a rustic feel to them, compared to the more modern and trendy (and possibly too trendy) marble counters. Unlike stainless steel, it will naturally change appearance with cooking and food prep wear and tear, but this doesn't mean stains — zinc is fairly easy to clean, in fact. Instead, it will just look aged, and it's a soft enough metal that it's easy to customize with flourishes and fancy moldings. It is pricey though, being on the higher end of counter materials with quartz and stainless steel.

When it comes to baking, though, it can be worth all that remodeling cash. Compared to some counter materials (like granite), zinc isn't porous, which means it's solid and has no empty space inside of it where liquids and gases can get trapped or leave stains. As Stewart mentions, baking involves messing with lots of flour, powders and liquids. Zinc isn't great at withstanding heat though, so don't take anything off the tray before it's cool. Countertops aren't the kitchen fixture Martha Stewart suggests splurging on most often — that would be ovens — but if you're planning to stay in a house a while, you will be working with lots of meals on them.