MIAMI – This year’s recent South Beach Wine & Food Fes­ti­val was a royal occa­sion, in more ways than one.
“Viva Espana!” was a culi­nary cel­e­bra­tion and key theme headed up by the King and Queen of Spain at this four-day, non-stop, over-the-top annual event packed with noisy par­ties, glitzy graz­ing and back-to-back cook­ing demos by celebrity chefs.
Spon­sored by the Food Net­work and Food & Wine mag­a­zine among oth­ers, this star-studded feast on the beach is never dull.
This year, things got off to a con­tro­ver­sial start when famous New York chef Mario Batali intro­duced Spain’s King Juan Car­los and Queen Sofia at a swanky gala din­ner.
Angry at exu­ber­ant din­ers who would not lis­ten when it was his turn to speak, Batali chided them vocif­er­ously with the f-word, three times. His and their unruly behav­iour was likely the result of alco­holic bev­er­ages that flowed freely through­out the sold-out fes­ti­val.
How­ever, Martha Stew­art – the come-back queen of cui­sine – was all regal ele­gance, seren­ity and charm when I met her two days after the Batali deba­cle for a one-on-one inter­view in the green room adjoin­ing one of the giant tast­ing tents erected on the sand in the heart of South Beach.
Dressed casu­ally in tapered beige pants and a grey T-shirt with match­ing cardi­gan, she was a dif­fer­ent – and much nicer — woman than the one I’d met in Toronto ear­lier in her career.
Stewart’s rise to fame began in 1982 with the pub­li­ca­tion of Enter­tain­ing: a glossy coffee-table tome that launched her as an arbiter of taste for home­mak­ers.
By 1987, she was well on the way to becom­ing a brand and revered guru on the top­ics of food, home décor and gar­den­ing. That year, I inter­viewed her in Toronto where she was pro­mot­ing her sec­ond major book: Wed­dings.
That Martha Stew­art was impe­ri­ous, uptight and humour­less. She lived up to her rep­u­ta­tion as a con­trol freak per­fec­tion­ist who was dri­ven to the point of obses­sion. In a nut­shell, she came across as a bril­liantly capa­ble over-achiever tout­ing a san­i­tized though styl­ish lifestyle rife with pas­tels.
Many, like me, had a love-hate rela­tion­ship with this fiercely ambi­tious woman whose career con­tin­ued to soar in the 1990s.
Then there was the infa­mous crim­i­nal case. In 2004, she was con­victed of obstruc­tion of jus­tice and per­jury in a stock mar­ket scan­dal. Five months of prison fol­lowed; so did five months of home con­fine­ment and two years pro­ba­tion.
In a Christ­mas mes­sage from jail, she issued a com­pas­sion­ate plea for reha­bil­i­ta­tion and prison reform to help women whose lives were “devoid of care, devoid of love, devoid of tran­quil­ity.”
As she stretched out her hand and fixed her dark brown eyes on me in the green room that day, I knew this was a kinder, gen­tler woman than the perfectly-coiffed blonde babe with the forced smile on the cov­ers of her early books.
She was eager to tell me about her new projects.
No longer allowed to be its CEO, she is still “deeply involved on a day-to-day basis” with Martha Stew­art Liv­ing Omn­i­me­dia. She owns a radio chan­nel, is still the mar­quee writer for Martha Stew­art Liv­ing mag­a­zine, is devel­op­ing a house­wares line for Macy’s, pro­motes “healthy aging” with Mount Sinai Hos­pi­tal in New York and has an eco-flooring com­pany called FLOR that makes recy­cled car­pets.
A favourite project of hers is The Martha Stew­art Show that airs on Fine Liv­ing and on day-time CBC tele­vi­sion. It is enter­tain­ing and author­i­ta­tive as per Stewart’s mis­sion: “I want to pro­mote and pro­vide the best how-to infor­ma­tion for home­mak­ers ever.”
An avid reader and detail hound who sleeps about five hours a night, she told me this: “I’m very picky, quality-conscious and research-oriented. I’m visual and cre­ative. Peo­ple trust me – I’m them. If I like some­thing, they seem to like it.”
What Stew­art doesn’t like is the trend to real­ity food shows on TV.
“They drive me nuts,” she says. “I know where the enjoy­ment comes from but I hate the slop­pi­ness and demean­ing aspect.”
I men­tion Gor­don Ram­say. She doesn’t respond directly but does say this: “The vio­lence doesn’t inter­est me. I don’t have time for schlock art.”
Top-notch chefs like Amer­i­cans Daniel Boulud, Eric Ripert, Rick Bay­less and Jean-Georges Von­gerichten, she adds, do inter­est her. So does Type-A British chef and mol­e­c­u­lar gas­tron­o­mist Hes­ton Blu­men­thal.
She also has plenty of time of time for Emeril Lagasse: the lively New Orleans chef who vir­tu­ally launched the U.S. Food Net­work in the early ‘90s with his ebul­lient behind-the-stove per­for­mances.
The two have long been bud­dies and last year, while he took a hia­tus from the spot­light, Stew­art bought all Lagasse’s assets except the sev­eral restau­rants he still owns.
That evening, Stew­art was emcee of a trib­ute din­ner hon­our­ing Lagasse. She lauded him for being an edu­ca­tor, a pas­sion­ate foodie and a man who loves to embroi­der, then announced they had plans to go deep-sea fish­ing later that night.
Lis­ten­ing to our con­ge­nial host, I mused that prison had gen­tly hum­bled her. And, at age 67, she may be more proof that wis­dom comes with age.
Stew­art demo’d these recipes after our inter­view. They are from her super new book Martha Stewart’s Cook­ing School (Pot­ter; $52).
Boiled Lob­sters
Stew­art advises look­ing for lob­sters that are “not only alive but lively” and pur­chas­ing them no more than a day before serv­ing.
Coarse salt
4 lob­sters (about 1½ lb/750g) each
Melted but­ter
Lemon wedges
Fill large stock­pot three-quarters full with cold water. Bring to boil. Add a gen­er­ous amount of salt, at least ½ cup in a 4-gallon/15-litre pot.
Plunge in live lob­sters head-first. Cook, uncov­ered, until they turn bright red, 8 to 14 min­utes, depend­ing on size. With tongs, trans­fer to plat­ter. Let rest until cool enough to han­dle. Serve with melted but­ter and lemon wedges.
Lob­ster Rolls
Shelled meat of 4 cooked lob­sters
2 tbsp may­on­naise
½ tsp chopped fresh chives
½ tsp chopped fresh tar­ragon or chervil
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
Kosher salt and freshly ground pep­per to taste
8 split hot dog buns
2 tbsp melted but­ter
Cut lob­ster meat into small chunks. Add to bowl. Stir in may­on­naise, chives, tar­ragon, lemon juice, salt and pep­per.
Brush hot dog buns with melted but­ter. Cook in hot skil­let until golden brown. Spoon about ½ cup lob­ster meat into each bun.
Makes 8 rolls.

The annual South Beach Wine & Food Fes­ti­val took place this year from Feb­ru­ary 19–22 in Miami.
As usual and even in tough eco­nomic times, this glitzy, pricey, never-dull four-day event spon­sored by, among oth­ers, the Food Net­work and Food & Wine mag­a­zine, was sold out.
Attended by more than 30,000 peo­ple and founded by a fel­low called Lee Schrager in 2001, it is the biggest culi­nary cel­e­bra­tion of its kind in North Amer­ica.
Watch this space for news on my inter­view with Martha Stew­art at this annual fest — an event I’ve attended for the past five years.
She and famous New Orleans celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse, who are friends and busi­ness part­ners, were front and cen­tre this year.
Martha hosted a trib­ute din­ner hon­our­ing Emeril who has been on hia­tus for a while. My the­ory is that his health hasn’t been too good. I say this judg­ing by his bloated appear­ance. How­ever, he was in fine form at a lively cook­ing demo dur­ing which he wow’d the crowd with his clever antics.
Here are a few spots you should def­i­nitely try for spe­cial­ties I’ve sleuthed when in South Beach:
Devito, 150 Ocean Drive: Yes, you guessed, this is Danny Devito’s restau­rant and one of the newer spots on the Ocean Drive strip. I rec­om­mend lunch — it’s extremely rea­son­able — and try­ing the lob­ster bisque and/or one of their amaz­ing main-course sal­ads. They serve you deli­cious, free antipasti and por­tions are large. The com­fort­able arm­chairs on the on the cov­ered patio are a plus.
Joe’s Stone Crab Take-Away, 11 Wash­ing­ton Ave., is a casual cafe and take-out empo­rium adja­cent to the vet­eran and always-packed restau­rant of the same name. This is the per­fect place to sam­ple a slice of the best Key Lime Pie I’ve found in the Miami area.
Mar­tinez, 4000 NE 2nd Ave. Located in the Design Dis­trict — about 20 min­utes from by car from South Beach — this is the newer of two Miami restau­rants owned by tal­ented chef Michelle Bern­stein. I found the wel­come warm and ambi­ence extremely pleas­ant. The tapas dishes fea­tured here were uneven but I would def­i­nitely return for the beans with duck sausage and divinely creamy flan (the Latino ver­sion of creme caramel) made from her mother’s recipe.
News Cafe, 800 Ocean Dr., is a 24-hour land­mark on the South Beach restau­rant strip known for its hearty break­fasts, excel­lent Chur­rasco Steak and deli­cious bread pud­ding. It’s the best place I know to people-watch from a side­walk or patio table as the friendly staff wait on you. This is where Gianni Ver­sace had his last morn­ing cof­fee on the day he was mur­dered — a rather grim claim to fame.
Puerto Sagua, 700 Collins Ave. A cou­ple of blocks from the News Cafe is this cheap-and-cheerful, bustling Cuban eatery. Always busy, it’s a great place for grilled fish, a sand­wich or — my favourite — the roast chicken spe­cial ($7.95 as I write). This fill­ing meal is a large piece of suc­cu­lent chicken accom­pa­nied by a large mound of white rice, sticky fried plan­tains and a bowl of black beans. The staff are friendly and efficient.