Our Day with Martha Stewart

"Yep, we were eating eggs from Martha Stewart’s farm, cooked by Martha Stewart."

Back in 2014, Daniel and I were lucky enough to have the opportunity to visit Martha Stewart’s offices in NYC and view a taping of her show, Martha Stewart’s Cooking School (Click here to read a recent blog post in which I described our experience at February’s South Beach Food and Wine Festival and how Daniel and I left with an invitation from Martha Stewart).

The day began at about 10:00 am when we were graciously welcomed in by some very nice people at Omnimedia. We were treated to a wonderful breakfast, and were told that the episode being filmed today was all about mushrooms (yum!). As we sat in this room overlooking the Hudson, munching on croissants and flipping through a few Martha Stewart books filled with large, beautiful photographs of some of her fabulous creations I thought out loud; What a great way to start the day, right?

Before long, a very friendly member of Martha’s staff took us on a tour of the offices. It was so interesting to see the headquarters where all the creation takes place: the magazines, books, photographs, product development, all happen under this roof. I especially loved to see where some of the “magic” is hidden, such as the massive library of exquisite props for photography and TV (I bet all my fellow bloggers wishes they had one of these at their disposal!).

We concluded our tour at the entrance to the studio where filming was currently underway. Along with our host, we quietly tip toed in to the studio where Martha was finishing up a buckwheat mushroom crepe and fried egg right before a pause in taping. We were introduced to a few of the key players sitting right beside the set, and then to Martha herself who asked us, “Are you hungry?” “Always,” I replied, which really is true, but especially so when I knew that the dish was prepared by Martha Stewart. As Daniel and I ate our second delicious breakfast of the day, our host informed us, “those eggs came from Martha’s farm this morning”. Yep, we were eating eggs from Martha Stewart’s farm, cooked by Martha Stewart. To say that we realized how lucky we were at that moment would be an understatement.

Over the next 3 hours, we sat right near the entrance to the kitchen set where Martha prepared two more mushroom dishes, watching all the steps in preparing the meals, smelling all the smells. It really was incredible to watch an expert at work, and absolutely fascinating to see the way TV is made. One of the things that really impressed us was how involved Martha is in every aspect of her business. It was clear to us that she feels passionately about doing her best to inform and help her audiences in doing what they love to do.

All in all, the day was an absolute dream. All of the people at Omnimedia were so kind and accommodating to us during our time there. The Smart Baker would love to work with them in the future.