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Do you ever look at Martha Stewart and wonder, “Can she really be real?” Her life seems so perfect and enchanted, surrounded as she is by beautiful things and beautiful people and, most importantly, beautiful food. Nevermind her incredible, radiant skin. I can’t tell you what Stewart is like behind closed doors, but I can tell you that in real life, she truly does glow. That’s because I got a once-in-a-lifetime chance to dine at The Bedford by Martha Stewart inside the Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino at an event hosted by the queen herself, and saw first hand that she really is the GOAT.
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The whole experience was surreal. I got to see that even close-up, Stewart looks totally composed and ethereally glow-y at all times. The room we dined in at The Beford was designed to look just like Stewart’s own regal brown dining room at her country home in Bedford, New York, down to the virtual windows that looked out on to life-sized pictures of her Fresian horses grazing in the pasture, surrounded by fence posts that Stewart told us were antiques sourced from a farm near Toronto. It was Bedford-ception, but a dream I was happy to be caught in. But the best part of all was the food.
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I got to taste several items from The Bedford’s menu, from the signature Meyer Lemon Drop cocktail to the rich brown butter pierogi that are inspired by a recipe of Big Martha’s — that’s Stewart’s mother. Stewart told us, “Mother made great pierogi, and my record for those was 21!” She even claims she could still eat that many today, because “that’s probably my favorite recipe.”
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I tried a creamy crème brûlée with a textbook-perfect crackly top, and a series of passed appetizers that were almost too gorgeous to even eat (my destruction was rewarded with bright, balanced flavors). But the absolute stand-out of the meal was something that came to the table first: a bread basket so ornate and artistically presented that it stole the show before I even took a bite.
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The basket was filled with two towering oval crisp breads embedded with paper-thin slices of zucchini, cherry tomatoes, onion, sage, and potato, seasoned with a shower of sea salt crystals. There were two thick squares of sour cherry focaccia topped with rosemary, and some pillowy, butter-topped and salt-flecked Parker House rolls. Everyone turned their heads when the bread started coming out, and Stewart told us that was the point.
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Apparently, when the restaurant first opened, someone told Stewart, “No one is going to pay $15 for a bread basket.” But Stewart assured them that for this bread basket, they certainly would. Sure enough, every time a bread basket was brought to someone’s table, it would inevitably set off a flurry of orders, thanks to customers who were bowled over by its presentation. Now, it’s the best selling item on the menu.
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But as with all things Martha Stewart, it’s not just about appearance — every item in the basket was delicious. The toasted, crispy edges of the flatbread were balanced with tender slices of vegetables and the perfect amount of seasoning; the thick, airy slices of focaccia were sweet, sour, and salty in a way that kept me going back for bite after cherry-studded bite; and just as you might expect from Stewart, the Parker House rolls were classically perfect, rich and flaky yet light enough to melt in your mouth (even after getting dragged through the pool of browned butter at the bottom of my pierogi dish).
If you can’t make it to the Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino where The Bedford by Martha Stewart is located, there is a recipe for both sour cherry and rosemary focaccia and Parker House rolls on Martha Stewart’s website. Shake up a few of Stewart’s Meyer Lemon Drop cocktails, start baking, and soon you can dream that you’re at Martha Stewart’s The Bedford (the restaurant or her actual house, it’s up to you!) too.
Before you go, check out our slideshow below:
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