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

FAQs

What is Ina Garten's favorite dinner? ›

The one meal Ina simply couldn't live without is roast chicken. She even cites it as one of the reasons her husband, Jeffrey, proposed marriage in 1968.

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. And her love of the stuff is well-documented.

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.

After her husband had completed his military service, the couple went on a four-month camping vacation in Europe including time in France which sparked her love for French cuisine. During this trip, she was introduced to open-air markets, produce stands, and fresh cooking ingredients.

Vichyssoise. Well-known as one of Julia Child's favorite dishes, this chilled leek and potato soup is startling in its simplicity. Aside from the leek, potato, and water, Child's version of the soup calls for barely any additional ingredients.

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.

Fish head stew is a no. As for herbs, she absolutely despises cilantro, and you won't find much of it used in her recipes. Beverages that she's not okay with are pumpkin spice lattes, because they don't taste enough like coffee, and kombucha, because she's not a huge fan of fermented fare.

When it comes to two cooking legends, Ina Garten and Julia Child, their minds agree on a strong distaste for one ingredient: cilantro. It seems that both chefs have a particularly strong distaste for the herb, also known as coriander.

It's called beurre de baratte with flaked sea salt, and it's just so delicious.” If you want to start your day the way Ina Garten starts hers — and who doesn't? — this magical butter is produced in Normandy by acclaimed French cheese-and-butter maker Rodolphe Le Meunier.

Betty Crocker's Cookbook (originally called Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book) by Betty Crocker (1950) – approx. 65 million copies.

Is Ina Garten a chef or a cook? ›

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.

Although Garten stepped back from her store, she retained ownership of the property and built herself an office right above the old shop. That's where she wrote her debut cookbook, "The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook." The shop closed in 2004, facing competition from another specialty grocery store.

Garten is Jewish by birth and heritage, as is her husband, but rarely refers to her religion and ethnicity, though they are showcased through the inclusion of classic Jewish cooking in her television show and cookbooks, when she makes such dishes as rugelach, challah, and brisket.

“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…”

To give you an idea of how much Garten enjoys their burgers, it's the only fast food chain she'll eat. Another fun fact behind her love for In-N-Out has to do with her culinary hero Julia Child, who also loved eating there. If Julia Child loves it, count us in.

Currently, Jeffrey serves as the Dean Emeritus at the Yale School of Management and teaches courses on the global economy. According to his faculty page, prior to joining Yale, he worked for multiple White House administrations, served in the U.S. Army Special Forces and was a managing director on Wall Street.

After testing recipes for her various projects all day, she wants something simple and easy when it comes to dinner. However, unlike the general populous who may turn to delivery or microwaving leftovers, she prefers to make something that is quick and ready straight out of the oven: Enter, the roast chicken.

Despite warming hearts and stomachs worldwide with her classic, "foolproof" recipes, Ina Garten— better known as the Barefoot Contessa— has never actually owned a restaurant.