Standing in front of copper pots that sit on an industrial stove, with a wall of homemade preserves behind her and old-fashioned baskets above, Martha Stewart is right where she belongs -- in her big country kitchen. She is spinning sugar, a complex task that will result in a haze of edible angel hair adorning a dessert of red currant ice cream in brandy-snap cups. As she slings the liquid sugar onto a laundry rack with a flick of her whisk, Stewart effortlessly alternates advice ("The hot sugar can get stuck in your cats' fur. Keep them out of the room") and anecdotes ("I forgot to buy regular squares of beeswax, so I am taking a little bit of the foundation that I use in my beehive"). No matter that her audience is only a camera. In fact, that is terrific: the more eyes on Martha, the better.
Stewart's audience seems to just grow and grow. Not only has she sold some 1.8 million of her sumptuous coffee-table cookbooks since her first, Entertaining, in 1982, but she has also become at 47 the guru of good taste (and taste buds) in American entertaining, looked to by millions of American women for guidance about everything from weddings to weeding. From her beginnings as a Westport, Conn., caterer, she has risen like cream, until she now supplies her expertise through a newsletter, videos, seminars and lectures. Says Stewart: "I leave a lecture with 800 or 900 new friends -- I consider them my friends -- who will buy all my books, write to me and come to my seminars."
Now she has taken on a partner: K mart, the nation's second largest retailer. They make an odd couple: K mart, long plagued by its low-rent reputation, and Stewart, whose life looks like a Ralph Lauren ad. But next spring, as K mart's first "life-style consultant," Stewart will launch under her own name a line of K mart products, including linens, dishes and flatware. This marriage stands to benefit both parties: K mart can trade on Stewart's patrician polish and she on a whole new audience.
The products will sell at K mart prices (a five-piece place setting should be about $20) and will necessarily reflect a compromise between Stewart's champagne tastes and the retailer's beer budget. Class, in most cases, carries the day, but there are exceptions. Says K mart executive Marilyn Gill: "It was difficult for Martha to understand why not everyone would want a 100%- cotton tablecloth." Looks as if practicality won that round: the cloth will probably be a blend.
Stewart's latest and largest venture provides additional ammunition for her detractors, who criticize what they see as her relentless self-promotion and a tendency to value presentation over flavor. Stewart says that if she were an insider in food circles, the voices would be muted. "People think because I haven't worked in a restaurant that I haven't paid my dues. I am not a chef, but I do my own cooking and my own creating." Self-promotion is not unhealthy, she notes, saying, "If you have an idea, you should make it your own idea, with your name, your face."