The 51 Best Ina Garten Recipes of All Time (2024)

FAQs

What does Ina Garten eat every day? ›

Her eating, she says, is “pretty orderly, actually”: “I have toast and coffee for breakfast;” tea every day at 10:30 a.m. — not a minute earlier or later; soup for lunch (Italian wedding soup, on the day of the recording); and for dinner, she and her husband, Jeffrey, go out with friends or order in.

Flay and Garten have been friends and colleagues for decades, so it's no surprise that Flay has such respect for her person and her cooking. And Garten has returned that love in kind. In an interview with the Food Network, Garten waxed impressed about the staggering achievements and stamina of Flay.

Go-To Dinners

Cooking night after night during the pandemic inspired her to re-think the way she approached dinner, and the result is this collection of comforting and delicious recipes that you'll love preparing and serving.

Garten answered her fan from Nebraska's pressing question by suggesting she start with "The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook." Garten wrote, "I always recommend that beginner cooks start with 'The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook,' which is filled with the easy recipes that I used to make at my specialty food store in East Hampton ...

Not just any old oatmeal will do when it comes to the Barefoot Contessa. "I've had the same thing for breakfast every single day for ten years: coffee and McCann's quick-cooking Irish oatmeal," Garten told Bon Appétit in a 2017 article.

So when a man from Enterprise, Alabama wrote Garten to ask what brand of butter she used for cooking, she responded with great intel all of us could use: She often goes with Cabot Creamery's butter — before diplomatically adding that “there are many good brands of butters available.”

But we'd guess that not many of us spend as much time in our kitchens as Ina Garten, the Food Network personality and cookbook author who goes to work in her kitchen all year long.

Her fame may be relatively quiet — she doesn't have a line of cookware, there isn't a namesake restaurant — but make no mistake: Ina Garten is a powerhouse celeb chef. Fans know her story well: From a White House budget analyst to specialty food-store owner, her path to stardom has been slow and steady.

Before becoming a celebrity chef, Garten worked for the government. In the late 1970s, Garten lived in Washington, DC, and worked for the White House Office of Management and Budget. According to Insider, Garten worked under both Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, helping to write the nuclear energy budget.

Like her predecessor Julia Child, Ina started out as a civil servant. She analyzed nuclear policy for the Ford and Carter administrations. But even before that, she showed classic signs of late blooming.

Why is she called Barefoot Contessa? ›

Barefoot Contessa Draws Its Name from a '50s Film

“So many people ask, 'What does Barefoot Contessa mean? '” Garten wrote on her blog back in 2018. “It was the original name of my specialty food store after a movie with Ava Gardner and Humphrey Bogart. But for me, it means being both elegant and earthy…”

1. Modern Comfort Food: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook (2020)

If you're looking for a Barefoot Contessa-approved set, check out the Maison pattern from Crate and Barrel, a mainstay Ina has said she owns over the years. Another, pricier option is the White Dinnerware set from Pillivuyt, a French brand Ina recommends for serving ware as well.

Modern Comfort Food: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook (2020)

We think Ina's newest cookbook is her best yet.

However, that doesn't mean Garten won't eat out from time to time. While it may seem like you're likely to find her in a fancy restaurant eating a meal that's comparable to what Garten can whip up in her kitchen, you might actually catch her in a fast food restaurant, namely Shake Shack.

Oxo Good Grips Food Scale

Ina uses this Oxo food scale to keep everything precise — and delicious.