Who Will Be The Next Domestic Diva?

By Marion Hume

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."

All that is forbidden is snobbery. Lee, who was forced to cook for her four younger siblings at the age of 9 because their mother was seriously ill, has since used trial and error to make quick fixes taste better. She'll add cream cheese, sugar and flour to store-bought slice-and-bake cookies to make them tastier--while making life easier so that "even Mom, when she doesn't have time because she's working her little tushy off, can roll it out with the kids and enjoy the fun part." At a time when we are judged more by the love we share than by what we have and want--according to the newly minted lifestylers--it is no surprise Oprah is extending her reach in the market, publishing two issues of a home-design magazine this year.

On the newsstand, even the style-bible niche is shifting. ReadyMade magazine may appear, at first glance, to be reminiscent of that ultimate style-over-substance title, Wallpaper* (published by Time Inc., which also publishes TIME), but instead ReadyMade--with a circulation of 70,000--is aimed squarely at those who don't aspire, who don't want to buy anything. Except, of course, they do. Mirroring Martha's association with Sherwin-Williams, ReadyMade is working with Urban Outfitters to develop a co-branded line of paint. While the under-35 set might sniff at the consumption of the boomers, 25-to-34-year-olds wield about $176 billion in annual spending power, according to the Conference Board.

Down in Australia, Donna Hay's aesthetic is the opposite of defiantly shabby. The world of her books, including Off the Shelf and Modern Classics, and of an eponymous magazine--which has achieved cult status among U.S. foodies despite being so out of season with the northern hemisphere--is more minimal than Martha's. But any hint of unpalatable perfection is punctured by the Aussie herself, whose longtime companion, Bill Wilson, is the local butcher.

Those in the know place her as a key contender, despite her not having that essential ingredient: her own TV show. "The next Martha? Who knows. Not impossible," says Ruth Reichl, the editor in chief of Gourmet magazine. "She's the only one who is a cook, a stylist and a businesswoman." Barbara Fairchild, the editor in chief of Bon Appetit, is equally impressed. She describes Hay as "such a down-to-earth person. She's not Martha, and I think a lot more people can identify with her. She struck me as someone who would be pretty easy to get along with."

Hay has powerful international support. It was Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert's eldest son and the deputy chief operating officer of News Corp., who grasped her potential. Besides the books, published worldwide by HarperCollins, and the magazine, published by News Magazines in Australia (both divisions of News Corp.), Hay has a pan-Australian newspaper column, which reaches roughly one-third of the nation's population. All of this while helping Wilson on their farm near Sydney.

MaryJane Butters ("pioneer Martha") can tell you how to raise a pig. A few years back, she was camping out under the elements because she couldn't afford to rebuild her cottage after it burned down. Today she has a $1.3 million, two-book deal with Random House's Clarkson Potter. In her first title, due out in 2005, Butters, who made not having to leave her farm to do a book tour a condition of signing the deal, is expected to address everything from livestock to slipcovers.

Sandra Lee's forte does not include pig rearing, and the home-craft maven, who made her mark on QVC selling curtains, doesn't sew a stitch if she can avoid it. Yet Semi-Homemade is broad in other directions, encompassing, for example, romance in a "Sexy in Seventeen Minutes" feature in its online magazine. There she advises fans to spend minute 14 brushing Pixy Stix candy powder over chest and cleavage to "take even the busiest multitasker from tired to tantalizing." Such are the warmth and zeal of Lee that you almost believe her.

But some personality-led brands have had their perils. Rosie O'Donnell and Martha have taught us that. "By definition, they offer more risk," Murdoch says, speaking of Hay, "but with someone like Donna, they offer opportunity." What might hold Hay back is a natural reticence. She refuses, for example, to appear on the cover of her magazine. "But I'm not shy," she insists. "I'm shy compared to Jamie Oliver."

Lee is neither shy nor wary that in building herself into a brand, there's a risk that, should it go wrong, it will be she who gets ripped apart. "You know one of the great things that just happened with Martha?" responds the woman dubbed "the next Martha" so often it is almost an adjunct to her name. "I always look at the brighter side and now I know exactly what not to do." Lee relishes what lies ahead. "I think there's always been a brand or an identity that people can relate to, whether it's Betty Crocker or Julia Child or Martha Stewart or Sandra Lee. You need to be able to identify with people who make sense to you. You can't identify with Mr. Clean!"