The Barefoot Contessa celebrates new cookbook
It’s hard to imagine a more Zen kitchen guide than Ina Garten,
On her Food Network show “Barefoot Contessa,” the selftaught cook and entertaining guru is so calm and seemingly unflappable that those who consume a more steady diet of high-energy cooking shows like “Chopped” or Matty Matheson’s “It’s Suppertime!” might dismiss her out of hand as
Actually, the Emmy- and James Beard Award-winning author has just as much passion as anyone on TV. And her ability to teach novices and seasoned home cooks alike how to get a dependably delectable dinner on the table is unparalleled, say her legions of fans. She’s just less in-your-face about it.
Or maybe, it’s that the self-described anxious cook is too busy battling a bad case of the nerves whenever she’s in front of the camera to be exuberant.
“I’m a wreck!” she confesses with a laugh on a recent phone call from her home in the New York beach town of East Hampton. “Under the surface I’m like a cat on a hot tin roof.”
She’s more at ease behind a computer screen, writing one of her many cookbooks. The latest is “Cook Like a Pro,” which hit store shelves last October, quickly
became a New York Times bestseller and in 2019 is the focus of a series of on-stage interviews. They include a talk moderated by writer Jennifer Wallace at Heinz Hall, Downtown, on Feb. 26.
An audience Q&A will directly follow the interview, during which Ms. Garten’s devotees — which include nearly 2 million Instagram followers and 1.4 million Facebook fans — can ask not just cooking or entertaining questions but anything they want, including the all-time favorite: Where’s (her husband) Jeffrey? Answer: back in New York.
“It’s very free-ranging and hopefully really fun and interesting,” Ms. Garten says, noting how at a recent talk in Marin County, Calif., one burning question was how to cut hydrangeas so they don’t wilt.
“Cook Like a Pro: Recipes & Tips for Home Cooks” is her 11th cookbook. It follows the series of the same name that last year won her a 2018 JBA for best Television Program, in Studio or Fixed Location, and was filmed in her well-appointed kitchen in the Hamptons.
Like all its predecessors, it’s a stunner: Simple but still subtly sophisticated. Each of its 85 never-beforepublished recipes is illustrated with an image so mouth-watering you’ll instantly want to make it. Scattered
throughout are some of the “pro” tips she’s learned in professional kitchens over the years that have made her a more confident cook. She also dishes up advice on what to make ahead to streamline the process.
“I wanted people to feel that they know how to cook,” she says, which for some people starts with learning, say, how to tell fresh basil from dried, cut cauliflower without getting it all over the counter (from the stem end, not the top) or carve corn off the cob (into a towel so the kernels don’t bounce across the kitchen).
To that end, all her recipes are tested multiple times over the two years it takes to write a cookbook so that she’s sure even a beginning chef will be able to make them.
“My goal is when you get dinner on the table, everyone says, ‘You made this yourself?’ “she says.
Cooks who aren’t familiar with her brand might be surprised to learn that the Brooklyn, N.Y., native started her career in government, as a staff member of the White House Office of Management and Budget in the early ‘70s. It wasn’t until she left Washington, D.C., in 1978 to purchase a specialty food store called Barefoot Contessa in New York’s Westhampton Beach that her life became all about food.
“I was always searching for flavor and for delicious food, and I love to entertain,” she says, “and cooking is a really important part of that.”
She started writing her Barefoot Contessa series of cookbooks back in 1999, she says, because most people don’t have the luxury of having a grandmother or mother with them in the kitchen to teach them. She didn’t want cooking to become a lost art. She also didn’t buy into the then-popular notion that cookbooks should teach you how to cook everything, or make you page through hundreds of recipes. Because really, how many recipes will you make in a lifetime?
“I thought people just needed 80 recipes that were really well tested,” she says, using ingredients easily found in a grocery store. “I wanted people to be able to go home and make a perfectly delicious dinner based on familiar flavors, but have it taste even better than you think.”
Too many cookbooks are restaurant cookbooks, she says, and that doesn’t always translate to home cooking.
Whereas a meal out should be surprising, “You want something a little more comforting and delicious at home,” she says.
While she takes her work seriously, she’s not afraid to poke a little fun at herself, as evidenced by a video of her day drinking with comedian Seth Meyers that appeared on “Late Night With Seth Meyers” on Feb. 7. “He’s such a doll,” she says, even if he breaks every cooking rule by not measuring ingredients. Her relatability, lack of vanity and humor, in fact, play a big part in her popularity.
“In real life I’m exactly like I am on TV,” she says.
She laughs when asked if she ever thought she’d find so much celebrity as a TV cook and author. Her show “Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics” is now in its 13th season on Food Network. “No!” she responds. That said, she loves that people love her work.
One of her favorite things, she says, is when people come stop her on the street and thank her for teaching them how to cook.
“When you cook, everybody shows up,” she says.