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.

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.

Six years, five months and three days. That's how long it took to cook every single one of Ina Garten's 1,272 recipes from her books and television show.

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.

The Simplest Dish In The World To Make, According To Ina Garten. After testing recipes for various projects all day, Ina Garten prefers to make something simple, quick, and ready straight out of the oven. Her favored dish is roast chicken. To make a roast chicken, preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics is the essential Ina Garten cookbook, focusing on the techniques behind her elegant food and easy entertaining style, and offering nearly a hundred brand-new recipes that will become trusted favorites.

Barefoot Contessa Foolproof (2012)

In particular, Foolproof was the number-one cookbook in the country the year it came out, selling nearly half a million copies, and it's still top-rated by fans, on both Amazon (4.7 out of 5 stars) and Goodreads (4.27 out of 5 stars).

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.

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.

What was Ina Garten before she was a chef? ›

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.

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Ina Garten's net worth in 2024 is estimated at $60 million. When combined with that of her husband Jeffrey, that amount is estimated at a whopping $120 million.

Oxo Good Grips Food Scale

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

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.

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.