Every age gets the household goddess it deserves.
The '60s had Julia Child, the sophisticated French chef who proved as permissive as Dr. Spock. She was messy and forgiving. For Child was also something of a sensualist, a celebrant of appetite as much as a pedant of cooking. In the '90s, and probably well into the next century, we have Martha Stewart, corporate overachiever turned domestic superachiever, Mildred Pierce in earth-toned Armani. Martha is the anti-Julia.