Here's What Martha Stewart Really Thought About The Food In Prison

A new Netflix documentary focusing on the queen of home decor, crafting, and cooking, aka Martha Stewart, just dropped and has already climbed to number four on Netflix's Top 10 movies list as of October 31, 2024. Directed by R.J. Cutler, whose recent documentaries have focused on popular figures including Billie Eilish, John Belushi, and Elton John, "Martha" pulls back the curtain on the notoriously polished, storied, and financially savvy figure in the entrepreneurial world.

The documentary was released on October 30. It had barely been out for a day before Stewart, who gave Cutler an all-access pass to her life, took public umbrage with certain parts of the film. For one, she told The New York Times that she felt there was too much coverage of her 2004 insider trading trial. "It was not that important," she explained. "The trial and the actual incarceration [were] less than two years out of an 83-year life. I considered it a vacation, to tell you the truth." 

Despite her frustration over the focus on her trial and subsequent prison sentence, Stewart still gives some interesting insight into her five months behind bars. The documentary reveals diary entries she wrote while in prison, with one passage describing her meals. "What worries me is the very poor quality of the food," she wrote, "And the unavailability of fresh anything, as there are many starches, and many carbs, and many fat foods. No pure anything." Stewart goes on to say that everything she was served was subpar, including the coffee. "We had the worst coffee imaginable," she said, adding, "I wasn't the biggest coffee drinker anyway. But boy, that coffee was terrible."

Despite her more refined palate, Martha Stewart isn't totally off base with her assessment of prison food. The Vera Institute of Justice summed up the culinary conditions of prison in a 2024 article titled "Cheap Jail and Prison Food Is Making People Sick. It Doesn't Have To." According to Vera, the average state spending on prison food per day per person is less than $3, with a large percentage of incarcerated persons reporting being served spoiled food. 

While it might be no surprise that Stewart, the woman who made a career out of dispensing culinary tips for home chefs and creating delightful dishes, didn't love or even like the food in prison, it does spark an important conversation about our institutional failure when it comes to providing the most basic means of survival for those who are incarcerated.

Despite Stewart's reticence to focus too much on her trial and the fallout, there's no denying that she made lemons out of lemonade with her cheeky career comeback, famously teaming up with rapper Snoop Dogg to host a cooking series in 2016 and often making jokes about her time in prison. For a more intimate look at Martha's life, both in prison and out of it, check out the documentary "Martha" now streaming on Netflix. Early reviews are in and they're looking pretty favorable.