Ina Garten addresses Martha Stewart comparisons amid rumored controversy

Ina Garden she never saw the need to compare herself Martha Stewart – despite what everyone around her said.

“(I’ve learned) to just trust my vision,” Garten, 76, said during Tuesday’s 24 podcast appearance. “I think what works is if you’re really true to who you are. If you believe in it so fiercely, someone out there is going to believe it too.”

She added: “It’s true. It’s not like I’m going to be this energetic person… that people are just going to love. Just show who you are and do the best you can do and I think people will believe that. He respects it and believes in it.”

Garten says he sees his life as a train ride.

Related: Ina Garten and Martha Stewart Feud: We Explain It

Daniel Zuchnik/WireImage; Michael Simon/Getty Images Martha Stewart and Ina Garten are two of the biggest names in lifestyle, but their former friendship has apparently faded. They first crossed paths in the early 1990s when Stewart went shopping at Garten’s now-closed Barefoot Contessa store in East Hampton, New York. “My table was right in (…)

“People are trying to pull me off the train and I’m holding it right on the tracks,” she explained. “If I feel like I’m so confident that what I’m doing is right, I’m not going to let people take me off my game.”

Two life gurus first crossed paths in the early 1990s when Stewart, now 83, went shopping at Garten’s now-closed Barefoot Contessa store in East Hampton, New York.

“My desk was right in front of the cheese box and we just got done talking,” Garten said earlier TIME in an interview in 2017. “We ended up actually doing a benefit together where it was at her house and I was the cook, and we became friends after that.”

One day, Stewart brought a publisher to Barefoot Contessa’s base, who helped Garten secure her first cookbook deal. Each has since released a number of recipe compilations and hosted respective cooking shows.

Nearly two decades later, it was reported that Stewart and Garten were on their way out. Stewart claimed The New Yorker in September it Garten “stopped talking to me” after she went to jail. (Stewart was convicted of felony counts of conspiracy to obstruct and making false statements to federal investigators. She was sentenced to five months in prison and was released from prison in March 2005.)

However, Garten denied this alleged dropout was a consequence of Stewart’s imprisonment.

“Well, let’s just say her story isn’t entirely accurate,” Garten said earlier this month during a book event promoting her recently released memoir. “You know, that was 25 years ago. I think it’s time to let it go.”

Garten also noted Tuesday that she surrounds herself with “really creative, smart people” who help her make the best decisions for her own career.

“I tend to talk to everyone at the beginning and get everyone’s opinion,” Garten explained. “I hear and we talk and we build something. But ultimately it’s my job to choose, and once I get all the information… I know exactly what’s the right thing to do.”