S T Y L E  &  D E S I G N
Who Will Be The Next Domestic Diva?
With Martha Stewart mired in legal troubles, a cadre of successors is lining up to take her place. The good thing: perfect is passe. Marion Hume surveys the field of top contenders
By Marion Hume

Monday, February 9, 2004

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Donna Hay slips a silky panna cotta out of a ramekin and onto a snow white plate. A drizzle of espresso syrup and, snap, her food photographer gets the shot. Hay, still unsatisfied with the way it looks, studiously removes a drop of syrup with a Q-Tip. No wonder Martha Stewart once offered her a job. But the 34-year-old Australian, who oversees a Sydney-based multimedia lifestyle business that includes a magazine, best-selling cookbooks and an upcoming line of housewares, declined the homemaking maven's offer.

Like most of the Martha wannabes who have been grabbing the spotlight since Stewart was indicted, Hay has a decidedly different gestalt. She may be a driven, ambitious perfectionist, but Hay would never embroider a sampler or make marshmallows at home. Her success is based on the premise that you can cook with as many shortcuts as possible. And that's a good thing.

The crop of contenders that has sprung up in the wake of Martha's mess is staggering. As well as "Down Under Martha" (Hay), there's "lowbrow Martha" (Semi-Homemade's Sandra Lee), "pioneer Martha" (MaryJane Butters of Moscow, Idaho), "Gen X Martha" (Katie Brown) and, following the launch of her Kmart clothing and home collection, Thalia Sodi, who will debut a magazine this month that will crown her "Latina Martha." There's even a host of "anti-Marthas," including Dan Ho, whose Rescue magazine is pitched to those in "Martha recovery." While they all tout their own particular niche, what they share is tricks to fake the painstaking perfectionism that earned the queen of lifestyle her crown.

And television audiences are responding. On Home & Garden Television and the Food Network, among the fastest-growing ad-supported cable networks, the nonperfectionist programming is scoring the highest ratings. The Food Network's roster of shows launched in 2003 reads like a self-help catalog for cooking enthusiasts: Easy Entertaining and Everyday Italian as well as Lee's Semi-Homemade.

Even without ImClone, perfection is, it seems, an outmoded goal in an anxious world. "We're getting more realistic about what we can achieve. We don't want to be perfect homemakers. We just want to be surrounded by family and love and safety," says Shoshana Berger, dubbed "cheeky Martha" for her magazine, ReadyMade, which includes such tricks as how to turn an old blender into a lamp.

When it comes to shortcuts, Sandra Lee wrote the book--or two--the first of which quickly became a best seller. Lee, who was raised in Sumner, Wash., appears on the Food Network, cheerily adding a can of Campbell's mushroom soup to ground turkey and calling it Stroganoff. The 36-year-old's Semi-Homemade philosophy preaches the use of 70% prepared products and 30% fresh foods, plus a dash of ingenuity, yet this gleeful application of packaged food is far from half-baked. Lee has a multimedia deal with Miramax that includes television, books and merchandise.

Dan Ho says he was a slave to the Martha aesthetic until he realized that in addition to running a restaurant, he was working as the unpaid stylist of his life. The 37-year-old "cured" himself by "deconstructing the notion of the American Dream home." He and his wife, a chef, sold their home and restaurant in Michigan and moved to Maine, where Ho founded Rescue magazine. After two issues, Rescue has a circulation of 45,000, indicating that there are others like him. He says his current abode does not resemble a tear sheet from a shelter magazine, and as for what's cooking, this former fan of vine-ripened tomatoes and truffle oil now advocates Kraft macaroni and cheese.

It is all about being kinder, to others and to ourselves. While style has entered every crevice of our lives and there is no stuffing it back in the closet, even Carson Kressley of Bravo's Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is hardly Tom Ford when it comes to chic. But the show--which has been picked up by networks around the globe--works because Kressley's snappy banter is underscored with tolerance and generosity.

While Ted Allen, the Queer Eye food and wine connoisseur, won't let straight folks serve up Cheez Whiz, Semi-Homemade's Lee swears by it as a flavor base. "It's about getting that 'from scratch' result without all the energy and effort," claims Lee. It is also about priorities. "Life is the blink of an eye," she says. "When you realize how short it ultimately is and how really insignificant perfection is, that doesn't mean you don't want to do things well, but you want to do them faster so you can take a bath, drink a glass of wine or read a book."

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