Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Food Network, Cooking
Likes: Cooking shows
Dislikes: Martha the Stiff TV Host, Mario Batali
Hates: Bobby Flay

The Story So Far...
There aren't many people out there who don't know Martha Stewart, but for those who don't, she's a TV cooking and craft show host whose projected image of relaxed perfection earned her a huge audience of fans and a near-equal number of detractors. She also went to jail for some stock-market funny business. Warner Brothers teamed up with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia to bring her TV series to DVD, putting out eight releases so far. DVDTalk has reviews of three of them: Martha's Favorite Family Dinners | Martha's Holidays 2005 | Martha's Baking Favorites

The Show
I freely admit that I am a Food Network junkie. If there is nothing else on TV, I can be relatively confident that I will find something to watch on the Fat Guy Porn channels (though as the network continues to hand out show after show to their tried and true hosts, they become more and more overexposed.) As good as the channel is though, and as much as I appreciate "Iron Chef America," "Unwrapped" and "Good Eats," the one thing Food Network is missing (besides an inability to say no to Emeril) is the Domestic Diva known to one and all as Martha Stewart. As someone who's not her biggest fan, I won't hold it against them, but for purposes of completeness, she probably should be among her peers at the network.

Though her show isn't on Food TV, this DVD is the next best thing, as it features Martha cooking alongside several of their stars, as well as a few big names from PBS and the gourmet world. Seeing the best in the business, people who are stars on their own, playing special guest to Martha, is part of this disc's charm, but it's also good as an all-star cooking special. Five areas of edibles are covered here, including American, Italian, French, Mexican and Asian. I can't think of anything left out that was a must-have (except perhaps German), as these choices cover a pretty good cross-section of international tastes, with three chefs for each.

For myself, things get off to a bad start, as Martha jumps into American cuisine with Bobby Flay, an arrogant barbecue chef who rubs me the wrong way. I'm sure his food tastes great, including the oven-roasted ribs he makes here, but just seeing him makes me annoyed. Tom Douglas is a more enjoyable chef to watch, though I don't think I'd touch his olive-stuffed flank steak, and the same goes for Jasper White's New England Clam Chowder.

The Italian section features the biggest names of the five areas, but once again, I run into a chef I don't particularly enjoy in Mario Batali and his Spaghetti alla Carbonara. Batali is a bit too overbearing for my tastes, and his food has never done much for me. I'm far more interested in public television star Lidia Bastianich's Spiedini alla Romano. These skewered and fried mozzarella and bread stacks look delicious and don't seem difficult at all to make. The same can't be said for the Lemon Chicken made by Frank Pellegrino of Rao's, but it is doable in most kitchens.

French cooking has never been a favorite of mine, and the traditional recipes prepared, including Cote de Boeuf and Coq au Vin, don't make my mouth water. The Shrimp with Orange Dust though, cooked by New York chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, is intriguing. If you're a regular of big-time restaurants like Balthazar or Mercer Kitchen, the chefs here will impress you, otherwise it's just a bunch of no-names. The same goes for the accomplished Mexican chefs, who whip up tamales and chiles anchos rellenos, but one of the recipes I'd most like to attempt is Jose Hurtado's calamari, which looks fantastic.

A trio of Asian recipes put a cap on things, with a variety of foods. San Diego restaurantress Su-mei Yu shows Martha how to make Pad Thai, Eileen Yin-Fei Lo explains how to make Pork Buns, and sushi legend Nobu walks her though hand rolls. Despite the exotic nature of these foods, they seemed relatively easy to make, especially the hand rolls. It may just be the skill of the chefs, but it will make you want to try it out, which is just what the best cooking shows do.

The DVD
Disc Four of The Cooking Collection, "Martha's Guests: Master Chefs" is a one-disc release, packaged in a clear keepcase, with the sections listed on the inside front cover. The disc opens with a simple, animated full-frame main menu with options to play the segments and adjust the subtitles. The segments are broken down first by ethnicity, then into individual recipes and chefs. There are no audio options, but subtitles are available on the segments in Spanish and French, along with Closed Captioning.

The Quality
The full-frame video keeps up the level of quality seen in previous releases from this collection, as the episodes have good color and detail in a very sharp image. Some softness still exists in the wide shots of the sets, but close-ups are crisp, and there's not a spot of dirt, damage or compression artifacts. This is an excellent visual presentation.

The audio is delivered by a Dolby Digital 2.0 track. As one would expect, there's nothing dynamic or dramatic about the sound on this DVD, but it's technically solid and everything, including the dialogue and incidental music, sounds good.

The Extras
It seems like they are cutting back a bit on these Martha DVDs, as there are no DVD extras on this release. Pop the disc into your DVD-ROM drive, and you get access to printable content from the disc's segments, like recipes and instructions. It's really unfortunate, as the blooper reels included with previous releases were the best part of those DVDs.

The Bottom Line
If you like Martha, and want to watch her work on a wide range of meals, with a sprinkle of celebrity chefs to boot, this disc isn't a bad choice. There's plenty of content, with over two hours of footage, and the direct access to recipes and instructions make it even easier to try the meals that interest you. The lack of extras, after the previous discs' interesting content, is a definite disappointment, but there's plenty to enjoy otherwise and it all looks and sounds nice. Martha fans will get the most out of this release, and cooking fans should give it a rental if curious about how to make Spiedini or Cote de Boeuf like a pro.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.