Welcome to an all-out dinner party like no other
The show: Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party, Season 1, Episode 3 (Gusto/VH1) The moment: “A different level of eatery”
Martha Stewart rubs butter on a turkey. “Lay back, Tom, Mama Martha is in charge,” she purrs. The DJ spins a porno beat. Snoop Dogg cracks up. Martha shows Snoop how to make an oversized ice ball for cocktails. “That’s a big ball,” Snoop says. “Do you hold it in your hand or your mouth?” “Oh, stop,” Martha says. They sit down to eat. Martha holds her knife in her right hand and her fork in her left. “Martha, are you left-handed?” a guest asks.
“I’m eating European-style,” Martha says airily.
“She’s got a different level of eatery,” Snoop explains. “I eat East Side Long Beach style. One utensil.” Everyone laughs.
Though Snoop jokes, “I’m not high now, but whoever gave us this show must have been,” something about this pairing clicks. The premise is simple: Martha, Snoop and guests cook dishes they each like, then eat them. It’s not about Martha giving etiquette lessons to people of colour who grew up modestly and are now wealthy. It’s more democratic than that.
In the mythos of families, the dinner table is a safe place where people break bread and talk things out. This show applies that idea on a social scale.
The hip-hop musicians and BET stars whom Snoop introduces to Martha may call her gruyere popovers “fancy-ass hot pockets.” They may attend the Cordon Bleu in Las Vegas, not France.
They may have different levels of eatery. But they bring Martha into their world, too. They’re eating together and it’s working.
(Season 2 premieres Monday night.) Johanna Schneller is a media connoisseur who zeroes in on pop culture moments. She usually appears Monday through Thursday.