What The Cameras Don't Show You On Martha And Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party

The world's favorite odd couple, Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart, took their friendship to a new level when VH1 announced they would be co-hosting a cooking show in 2016. The rapper and marijuana enthusiast would take one half of the studio kitchen, and the gold-standard bearer of homemaking would take the other, coming together to host their celebrity friends for a meal. Coming from two wildly different backgrounds, "Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party" explores how the entertainment icons approach the same cooking assignments. In an episode celebrating Taco Tuesday, for example, Martha brought cow tongue to the table, while Snoop's creation made ketchup the star ingredient.

Unlike other cooking shows, the selling point of "Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party" — and, in the third season, "Martha & Snoop's Potluck Party Challenge" — is that it's not entirely scripted. The audience gets to see how the seemingly mismatched pair interact with each other, and enjoy naturally flowing celebrity banter. Still, there are things that viewers of the show don't necessarily catch on camera. Here's some behind-the-scenes info on this strange, endearing VH1 original series.

According to House Digest, Snoop Dogg first appeared on "The Martha Stewart Show" in 2008, when Martha taught him how to make her signature mashed potatoes with cream cheese. A year later, the two met on her set again to bake brownies with a touch of green — sprinkles, that is. It wasn't until 2015 that they reunited next, when Comedy Central decided to gather A-Listers to roast pop star Justin Bieber. After that, they refused to let each other go.

Snoop later told NBC that Stewart totally stole the show that night. "In that moment," he says in the interview, "I knew I wanted to be alongside this lady for the rest of my life." (Apparently, he's a real sweetheart!) Stewart says in the same interview, "I like his laid-back energy. I like his outspokenness. I like his sense of timing, and I really like to watch him cook."

It's always disappointing when viewers find out that their favorite on-screen pair don't actually like each other in real life, but fans of "Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party" can rejoice in the knowledge that these two really do go together like PB&J.

Stewart and Snoop have a wonderful working relationship, not only when they're together, but when they're apart. The show's executive producer, SallyAnn Salsano, tells Vice in an interview that they truly value each other's opinions. She says, "If I ask Martha something, she would go, 'That's okay, does Snoop want to do that?' And if I asked Snoop something, he would say, 'What did Martha say?' They have such an admiration for each other, it was unbelievable."

Actors and TV personalities get replaced all the time, but Salsano knows that would never even be an option for "Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party." The VH1 show only works because these two people are involved. Salsano feels that truth in her soul, telling ABC News in an interview, "I'm not gonna put a different chef in. I'm not gonna put a different rapper in. It's not like, 'Oh this is the new formula!'" For her — and every other witness to the friendship — it's an irreplaceable match made in Hollywood heaven.

This one may come as a bit of a surprise. After all, the "Drop It Like It's Hot" rapper is as famous for his love of weed as he is for his music. But when production designer James Pearse Connelly introduced a collection of botanical prints to the set, the one of a marijuana leaf was quickly axed. In an interview with Apartment Therapy, he says, "A lot of people loved it but it was cut on the first day of shooting for being a bit too much. Ah well!"

As marijuana becomes increasingly socially acceptable with every passing year, a youthful audience may scratch their heads and roll their eyes at that decision. Perhaps it was out of consideration for some of Martha's longtime fans. Whatever the reason, Snoop's favorite plant is not allowed on set.

The two sides of Martha and Snoop's studio kitchen are representative of their respective personalities; naturally, they couldn't look more different. While Stewart's half of the kitchen is a cozy mid-century design with plenty of white, Snoop's domain is more of a late night ride, with shades of purple and black. That's because James Pearse Connelly, the production designer, chose the 1964 Chevy Impala — the long, flat, boat-like low rider car often seen bouncing in hip hop videos — as inspiration.

Attentive viewers will notice that while the front panel of her kitchen island is laden with cookware, Snoop's sports a car grill and headlights. "When you think about Snoop and Martha together at a kitchen island," Connelly tells Apartment Therapy in an interview, "you imagine Snoop on one side and Martha on the other, and the kitchen becomes another character."

Fun fact: Snoop prefers to get paid for his performances in cash. Not so fun fact: The Italian TSA does not like when Snoop gets paid in cash. In a deleted scene from the show, Snoop tells his BFF over a glass of red wine that his money (and being Snoop Dogg, one can only assume there was a lot of it) was seized at an airport in Italy.

According to the rapper, the Italian authorities took his cash away after bringing him to a back room for inquiry. They did this, Snoop says, because he didn't declare the money beforehand. Martha, confused by what she's hearing, opines, "I think it was dishonest. I don't think they can take your money." To which her co-host replies, "They took it, and they still got it!" It looks like it can be hard to be a gangsta, even when you're Snoop Dogg.

Divisions among Americans in the past several years have sharpened to their most drastic point since, many say, the Civil War. In a country so fiercely split on major social and political issues, onlookers see Martha and Snoop's relationship as a guiding light. In this era of irreconcilable differences, it has been refreshing to watch two high profile celebs from opposite ends of the Hollywood spectrum enjoy and learn from each other. Famed drag queen RuPaul, once a guest on their show, tells ABC News, "It's always interesting to see people from different worlds come together and meet in the middle. They've aligned their frequency. And I think that's a lesson for everyone in the world today."

Similarly, Executive Producer SallyAnn Salsano tells Vice that the duo are "a representation of how this country should be getting along." She adds, "Let's all love each other for who we are, and appreciate it about each other, and have a good time."

One of the reasons the stars' friendship surprises people is that they are 30 years apart in age. In reality, the three decade difference is part of what makes Snoop and Martha's partnership work so well. "She's the big sister I never had," he tells NBC. "Being able to correct me, to teach me, to show me how to be better, to give me something to aspire to be. We need that in life."

It's not just admiration, but respect that keeps their bond strong. Stewart, 80, acts as a mentor to her 50-year-old partner, both in a practical culinary sense and in a personal sense. The blinged out pillar of hip hop actually possesses a deep humility and a willingness to always improve himself. For her part, Stewart enjoys having him as her friend, her student, and her junior. She even got him a ColecoVision video game console for his birthday when she learned it was the one gift he always wanted as a child but never received!

It's difficult to imagine that someone so laid back would be highly detail oriented, but Martha admits that it's one of the qualities she admires most about Snoop. "He's so particular," she says in the NBC interview. "His little tiny bits of this and that, and it all finally comes together."

When playing the "Best Friends Challenge" with Snoop on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," she says of his cooking, "He always adds something regular, [something] common to his food and it makes it taste so good." Whether that's adding corn flakes to fried chicken or creating the ultimate munchies, a mac and cheese waffle with pickles and bologna, his childlike instincts are infinitely endearing to her. Remember those ketchup tacos? One would think a professional cook like Stewart would find it an appalling bastardization of the traditional Mexican dish, but she loves his cooking style!

Snoop and Martha concoct delicious cocktails during every episode of the show before they get down to the business of cooking. From sangria to lime coolers to cotton candy garnished margaritas, imbibing in alcohol is one of their favorite shared activities. But the two don't just raise their glasses on set for the cameras, they also drink together off the clock for fun — and bragging rights, apparently.

On "Untold Stories of Hip Hop," the rapper confirms that Stewart is the only woman who can drink him under the table. "Facts," he says. "That motherf***er's a racehorse with drinking."

In a separate interview with ABC News, Stewart reveals how each of them responds to hangovers. "We have different ways to cope with our alcoholic intake," she says. "I take a nap. He has something else." It doesn't take a genius to figure out what that "something else" may be.

Martha doesn't think badly of weed or people who smoke it, but she personally doesn't like to indulge in the green. According to Hollywood Reporter, she even made a promise to herself at the onset of the show that she wouldn't enter his trailer. "I've never gone as far as the first steps into his trailer," she says. "All the guests go into his trailer, by the way. But not Martha."

But that self-made pact doesn't amount to much, since she claims one doesn't even need to enter Snoop's trailer to feel the effects. "I get kind of high from secondary smoke," she admits. "I'm not a smoker myself, but the smoke is quite thick around the set."

On the set of "Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party" was not the first time the cooking star got high from just being near Snoop. On "Late Night with Seth Meyers," Stewart revealed that sitting next to the rapper during the four hour taping of Justin Bieber's roast was "just as powerful" as if she were smoking the blunts herself.

While having lunch one day with her daughter, her friends, and Snoop in Bedford, New York, a large rock fell on Martha's foot. In an interview, she tells Hollywood Reporter that It caused her so much pain that she thought it was broken. Snoop immediately ran to his car to get her CBD ointment to apply to the area. (CBD, or cannabidiol, is a non-psychoactive compound in the cannabis plant.)

Her foot healed so quickly that she was amazed. "My toe got better within two days," she recalls. "The nail never even turned black or fell off. I think it all had to do with this fantastic ointment that he gave me."

It was then that Stewart really began to explore the benefits of CBD, and being the lifestyle mogul that she is, seriously started looking into creating her own products. So in 2020, she partnered with Canopy Growth to create a new line of CBD-infused gummies, oils, and soft gel capsules in flavors like blood orange, Meyer lemon, and black raspberry. She and her team say it is "the purest CBD product on the market."

In a deleted scene from "Martha & Snoop's Potluck Party Challenge," a competition version of the show featuring celebrity teammates and judges, the hosts and their guests get talking about family recipes. Guest Toya Wright divulges that her mother, an excellent home cook back in Louisiana, refuses to pass down her incredible gumbo recipe. Snoop jumps in, explaining that his grandmother was the same way with her Mississippi Tea Cakes recipe until just before she passed. When Martha asks, "What are tea cakes?" her co-host reminds her, "I made you some!"

For those who didn't grow up with Southern cooking, tea cakes are fluffy buttermilk cookies served with tea or coffee. Snoop finally learned how to make them — his most cherished food — and he wanted to share that token of love with his friend and co-host. It's yet another example of a touching moment between the two icons that could easily be missed. We should all be so blessed to have a friendship like theirs!