It seems that Ina Garten and Martha Stewart’s long-rumored feud has been put to rest.
“Can I just say I admire her enormously? I think what she created is stunning, and she did it with vision,” Garten, 78, told The New York Times in a Saturday, August 29, profile, when asked about the two lifestyle stars’ rumored falling-out. “I mean, we’re friendly, there’s no antipathy.”
The two women first crossed paths in the early 1990s when Stewart, now 85, went shopping at Garten’s now-closed Barefoot Contessa shop in East Hampton, New York. Almost a decade later, their bond allegedly fractured. Stewart claimed in 2024 that Garten “stopped talking” to her when she was sent to prison. (The Martha Stewart Living alum was found guilty on felony charges of conspiracy to obstruct and of making false statements to federal investigators. She was sentenced to five months in prison before being released from jail in March 2005.)
Garten, for her part, had long disagreed with Stewart’s version of events. While speaking with The Times for its “The Interview” profile, Garten also revealed when she last saw Stewart.
“She moved to Bedford,” Garten told the outlet, referring to Stewart’s upstate New York compound. “She used to live in East Hampton, so we saw each other then.”
While Garten and Stewart have remained focused on their respective careers, the Barefoot Contessa has long tried to distance herself from any comparisons to her onetime pal.
“I [recently told Alison Roman] that she and I are kind of in a continuum that started with Julia Child, who wanted to teach people how to cook with real food,” Garten noted. “When everybody was making boxed macaroni and cheese, she wanted you to appreciate a really good beef bourguignon. And then, Martha came along and elevated home arts to something really worth doing well: Set a beautiful table, make it a wonderful dinner, carve out a pumpkin for the pumpkin soup. I came along and said, ‘OK, maybe don’t carve out the pumpkin. Set a nice table, but it doesn’t have to be over the top, and make a lovely dinner and serve it.’”
According to Garten, cookbook author Roman, 40, has since “came along” and instructed fans to “forget” about setting the table and instead focus on having “a good time.”
“I think everybody’s getting a little simpler and simpler, but at the end of the day, we all like the same thing, which is gathering people around a table,” she said, noting that she has no ill will with Stewart once claiming to have never made one of Garten’s recipes. “Certainly hers to decide. I didn’t know what to make of [her comments]. I’ve certainly made lots of hers.”
