Ina Rosenberg Garten ( ; born February 2, 1948) is an American television cook and author. She is host of the Food Network program Barefoot Contessa and was formerly a staff member of the Office of Management and Budget.

Among her dishes are Perfect Roast Chicken, Weeknight Bolognese, French Apple Tart, and a simplified version of beef bourguignon. Her culinary career began with her gourmet food store, Barefoot Contessa; Garten then expanded her activities to many best-selling cookbooks, magazine columns, and a popular Food Network television show.

Early life

Ina Rosenberg was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York City. Her grandparents immigrated to the United States from Russia. Rosenberg grew up in Stamford, Connecticut, Her home life was difficult, with her father prone to violent outbursts towards his children; she later reflected, "I think he loved me, but he wanted me to be who he wanted me to be, without any consciousness of who I am." Garten's mother (an intellectual with an interest in opera) discouraged Ina from helping in the kitchen, instead directing her towards schoolwork. Garten described her father as a socializer and admits she shares more characteristics with him than her mother. Both of her parents were initially critical of her decision to embark on a career in food but later became more supportive.

Career

On December 22, 1968, Jeffrey and Ina were married in Stamford and soon relocated to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. She began to dabble in cooking and entertaining in an effort to occupy her time; Jeffrey served a four-year military tour during the Vietnam War. She also acquired her pilot's certificate. 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. Upon returning to the U.S., she began to cultivate her culinary abilities by studying the volumes of Simone Beck, Louisette Bertholle and Julia Child's influential cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Garten was originally employed by the Federal Power Commission and later at the White House Office of Management and Budget. Eventually she was assigned the position of budget analyst, which entailed writing the nuclear energy budget and policy papers on nuclear centrifuge plants for presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

While she worked at OMB, Garten also taught herself to cook and entertain while buying and renovating old houses in the Dupont Circle and Kalorama neighborhoods. Incidentally, as of 2006 she had not seen the film.

Three years later, Garten had moved Barefoot Contessa across Main Street to a larger property, and, in 1985, she opened a second location at the newly vacated premises of gourmet shop Dean & DeLuca in the Long Island village of East Hampton. In contrast to Westhampton's seasonal beach atmosphere, East Hampton houses a year-round community, providing a larger customer base. In East Hampton, Garten expanded the store over seven times its original size, from its original to more than . In this new, larger space, the store specialized in delicacies such as lobster Cobb salad, caviar, imported cheeses, and locally grown produce.

As the business grew, Garten employed local chefs and bakers including Anna Pump (who later bought Loaves & Fishes Specialty Food Store and the Bridgehampton Inn). Celebrity clientele such as Steven Spielberg praised the shop in the press.

In 1996, after two decades of operating Barefoot Contessa, Garten again found herself seeking a change; she sold the store to two employees, Amy Forst and Parker Hodges. Garten did not reopen the shop but kept the property for potential new tenants. , it houses a Rag & Bone location. immediately requiring second and third print runs after the initial printing of 25,000 cookbooks were sold. In 2001, she released Barefoot Contessa Parties!, which also garnered praise and generated high sales; Barefoot Contessa Family Style followed in 2002. The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook and Parties! were nominated for 2000 and 2002 James Beard Awards in the Entertaining & Special Occasion Cookbooks category. Parties! was a surprise entry—Garten was perceived as too inexperienced to compete with nominees such as French chef Jacques Pépin and international wine expert Brian St. Pierre.

Her cookbooks have many color photographs, , Garten has published thirteen cookbooks with more than 14 million copies in print.

The richness of Garten's recipes has long been noted, with The New Yorker calling her "America's reigning queen of tastefully-deployed butterfat". In response, Eric Felten of The Wall Street Journal called the report "an assault on cookbooks that dare to venture beyond lentils."

Barefoot Contessa on Food Network

Garten established herself with her cookbooks and appearances on Martha Stewart's show, and then moved into the forefront in 2002 with the debut of her Food Network program.

Her show features her husband and their friends and generally only hosts celebrities who are her friends. Barefoot Contessa has approximately one million viewers tuned in per episode and has posted some of Food Network's highest ratings.

In 2005, the show was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in the category of Best Service Show. In 2009, the show and Garten were once again nominated for Daytime Emmy Awards in the categories of Best Culinary Program and Best Culinary Host, and Garten won her first Emmy in the latter category.

In the same year, Garten announced that she had signed a three-year contract with Food Network to continue her cooking show, and will release two more cookbooks following Barefoot Contessa at Home. Garten was reportedly awarded the most lucrative contract for a culinary author to date, signing a multimillion-dollar deal for multiple books. She has also been approached several times to develop her own magazine, line of furniture, set of cookware, and chain of boutiques (reminiscent of Stewart's Omnimedia), but has declined these offers saying she has no interest in further complicating her life. In 2023, Barefoot Contessa, Go-To Dinners sold more than 800,000 copies and rose to number one on the New York Times bestseller list.

In 2022, Garten launched Be My Guest on Discovery+ and the Food Network. In this show, she hosts celebrities for visits.

Barefoot Contessa Pantry

In 2006, Garten with her business partner Frank Newbold, launched her own line of packaged cake mixes, marinades, sauces, and preserves branded as Barefoot Contessa Pantry. This was done in conjunction with Stonewall Kitchen. She launched a small line of note cards and journals to complement her books, and wrote the forewords for Kathleen King's Tate's Bake Shop Cookbook and Rori Trovato's Dishing With Style. One of her recipes, 'lemon roast chicken with croutons', was featured in The Best American Recipes 2005–2006. Another of Garten's dishes was selected for Today's Kitchen Cookbook, a compilation of the most popular recipes featured on the daily news program The Today Show. For Thanksgiving 2010, her recipes were featured by Google on their homepage. In June 2012, she started a Facebook blog and three weeks later had over 100,000 followers.

Awards and honors

Garten was selected for the inaugural 2021 Forbes "50 Over 50" list of entrepreneurs, leaders, scientists and creators who are over the age of 50.

Personal life

Her husband Jeffrey Garten was Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade in the Bill Clinton administration from 1993 to 1995. He was the dean of the Yale School of Management from 1995 to 2005. He can also frequently be seen on her cooking show, assisting his wife with simple tasks or sampling the dishes she has created. They divide their time living in Manhattan, East Hampton, and Paris. In 2004, she hosted a benefit for Planned Parenthood. However, she has generally avoided speaking publicly about politics, telling The New Yorker in 2024, "I don't think I would change people's minds".

Garten has written a memoir with Deborah Davis, titled Be Ready When the Luck Happens, published in October 2024.

Works

Books

  • The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook (1999), Clarkson Potter,
  • Barefoot Contessa Parties! Ideas and Recipes For Easy Parties That Are Really Fun (2001)
  • Barefoot Contessa Family Style: Easy Ideas and Recipes That Make Everyone Feel Like Family (2002)
  • Barefoot in Paris: Easy French Food You Can Make at Home (2004)
  • Barefoot Contessa at Home: Everyday Recipes You'll Make Over and Over Again (2006)
  • Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics: Fabulous Flavor from Simple Ingredients Clarkson Potter. 2008. .
  • Barefoot Contessa: How Easy Is That? Clarkson Potter. 2010. .

Magazine columns

  • "Entertaining is Fun!" (Martha Stewart Living 1999–present)
  • "Entertaining." (O, The Oprah Magazine 2003–present)
  • "Ask the Barefoot Contessa." (House Beautiful 2006–present)

Television

  • From Martha's Kitchen: Ina Garten's Kitchen Clambake (2000)
  • Barefoot Contessa (2002–2021)
  • Chefography (2006-2010)
  • 30 Rock (2010-2011)
  • Be My Guest (2022–present)

References

Sources

  • Barefoot Contessa official site
  • Ask the Barefoot Contessa in House Beautiful
  • Ina Garten at the Chef and Restaurant Database
  • Barefoot Contessa in the UK
  • Biography on Encyclopedia.com
  • Recipes on FoodNetwork.com