The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

by Ina Garten, Martha Stewart (Foreword)

Ina Garten and The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook provide the perfect recipe for hosting parties that are easy and fun for everyone--including the cook.For more than twenty years Ina Garten's, Barefoot Contessa, the acclaimed specialty food store, has been turning out extraordinary dishes for enthusiastic customers in the Hamptons. For many of those years, people have tried to get the exuberant owner, Ina Garten, to share the secrets of her store. Finally, the energy and style that make Barefoot Contessa such a special place are shown here, with dozens of recipes and more than 160 breathtaking photographs, in The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook.        Ina's most popular recipes use familiar ingredients and yield amazing results. Her Pan-Fried Onion Dip is the real thing, with slowly caramelized onions and fresh sour cream. Tomato soup is created from oven-roasted tomatoes and fresh basil to intensify the flavors. Meat loaf is as good as your grandmother's, but it's healthier because it's made with ground turkey and fresh herbs. The light and flaky Maple-Oatmeal Scones are baked with rolled oats, whole wheat, and real maple syrup. Now these and other famous Barefoot Contessa recipes can be prepared at home.        Ina says that before she owned a specialty food store she often spent a week making dinner for six friends. Her experience at Barefoot Contessa has given her hundreds of ideas for creating wonderful parties in a few hours. And they're all in this book. Crab Cakes with Rémoulade Sauce can be stored overnight in the refrigerator and sautéed just before the guests arrive. Cheddar Corn Chowder can be made days ahead, reheated, and served with a salad and bread for a delicious autumn lunch. The ingredients for Grilled Salmon Salad can all be prepared ahead and tossed together before serving. The batter for the Raspberry Corn Muffins can be mixed a day before and popped into the oven just before breakfast.        Ina Garten teaches us how to entertain with style, simplicity, and a relaxed sense of fun. There are notes throughout the book for giving cocktail parties, lunches, and dinner parties where everything is done before the guests arrive. And there are easy instructions for creating gorgeous party platters that don't even require you to cook!

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Reference, Foodie, Food and Drink

250 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 6, 1999

About the author

Ina Garten is a New York Times bestselling author and the host of Barefoot Contessa on Food Network, for which she has won four Emmy Awards and a James Beard Award. She lives in East Hampton, New York, with her husband, Jeffrey.

Reviews

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a simple well-tested cookbook. Preparations had the right amount of details and shortcuts where appropriate. Ina knows how to take care of her home cooks.

Here are the dishes I've tasted and the cookbook club cooks who made them:


Sheela - Lobster Salad in Endive: You can't go wrong with quality lobster. No leftovers with this one.

Molly - Rosemary White Bean Soup: Pureed and delicous. Really an amazing soup and surprisingly right for a summer's evening.

Gretchen - Grilled Tuna Nicoise Platter: Very beautiful presentation and quite delicious. I still dream about the french potato salad and that heavenly vinaigrette. I was grateful for the leftovers. They made me happy.

Me - Fresh Fruit Tart: Ina can turn anyone into a baker with her simple and well-tested recipes. I looked like a star with this one. My first pastry cream. The crust was more of a shortbread than a pie crust and was challenging to cut and present.

Additional thoughts:
I've made the Key Lime curd tart on a couple occasions and it is always a star in the center of the table. Key lime never lets me down.

[Colleen Chi-Girl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought I'd write a quick review that I apparently missed writing when I first bought this gem of a cookbook. It was my go-to cookbook for the soups, side dishes, and desserts, which is what I enjoy making. But I remember her maple scones the most and the corn chowder. Since this first cookbook, she has published many others that might be even better!

My two favorite recipes remain: her brownie recipe (!) and her Lemon Bars w/a shortbread crust (!!).

[Toni · Rating 4 out of 5]

First published in 2013, I couldn’t pass up an ebook deal to get this iconic cookbook.

Great photos, good recipes and helpful advice.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

During a particularly challenging time in my life, I found and fell in love with Ina. Many of her recipes are staples in my cooking repertoire, and I have yet to find a Barefoot Contessa cookbook that I don't thoroughly enjoy. Great for ANY kitchen and cook!!!

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

The recipes in this book turn out perfectly EVERY time and I've made over half of them. Buy it.

[Reen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Ina!

[Sandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a few confessions to make. I love cooking. I love baking. I love discovering new recipes. I love cookbooks. Perhaps the most surprising confession? I rarely will buy a cookbook.

I borrow many (many) cookbooks from the library, finding a recipe here, a recipe there. However, very few cookbooks engage me enough to want to own the book forever and try the majority of recipes between its covers.

Family, friends and colleagues regularly share recipes with me, which I love. Sometimes I use good old Google to locate a recipe, especially if I’m trying to finish up something or other that is lingering in my pantry. There is an exception to my cookbook buying “rule”, well, a couple really. One exception is the cookbooks of Ina “The Barefoot Contessa” Garten.

Read the rest of my review and see which of Ina's recipes is a "must try" (there are so many!!) on my Bake the Cake blog. https://bakethecakedotblog.wordpress....

[Courtney Sidoli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found at Tj Maxx for 8 dollars!! Had to have one of her cookbooks after reading her book. I have enjoyed the recipes I have tried!

[Halen James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel poor.

[Bandkh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. Everything I've made from it has worked. The dishes are accessible if a bit old fashioned, but don't let the "old fashioned" comment put you off. By "old fashioned" I mean comfort food, probably too high in calories to eat every night but delicious none the less. This lady knows her stuff and her recipe writing style is friendly and chatty. As for the recipes themselves, her Cheddar Corn Chowder has warmed us on many a cold night, her Roasted Brussels Sprouts finally convinced my family that these much maligned vegetables are not meant to be eaten as a punishment and her Maple-Oatmeal Scones made me a favorite invitee to any "bring a plate" function. Did I say I love this book?

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

My go to guacamole recipe and summer tomato soup recipe (roasted tomato basil soup - the reason that I have a kitchen garden!!) come from this book. They are absolutely delicious and these two recipes alone are worth the price of this book. You know when you have a recipe so good that you don't even bother ever looking for another? Well that's how it is with these two.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute go-to, from the day I started cooking in earnest up until now, when I barely have to look at recipes to make a really cool meal. Ina Garten has taught me so much about cooking, picking the right ingredients, and putting together a visually stunning home-cooked meal and table. The grilled lemon chicken salad in this book - yum - I think I could eat once a week and never get tired of it!

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes I like to read a cookbook cover to cover and tab all of the recipes that inspire me. This one ended up with a lot of tabs. I love our collective aunt Ina’s approach: imbuing a few fresh ingredients with interesting texture/flavor combinations that I wouldn’t necessarily have thought of myself.

[Sungyena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ina Garten is the most comforting and the perfect source of kitchen coddling that I need in 2021. “We are all taught to dress with an interesting assortment of textures - a silk blouse with a wool skirt and chenille sweater, for example. I think of mixing vegetables with the same eye for color and texture.” For a 22yo book, still holds up!

[Laurie Fieldman · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all time fav cookbooks!

It is an adventure cooking from this book- forced me out of my comfort zone.
Make me grateful for taking the 'risk.'

The two pages for the chocolate cake and homemade icing are worth the work and one of the best tasting cakes I've ever made!

[Lucie Moulton]

I own over a hundred cookbooks as a 👩🏼‍🍳. I consult them regularly for inspiration mostly. I return again and again to the simplicity and fresh flavors of TBC. These books were part of my culinary collection early on, and I frequently refer back to the recipes.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gotta love the Contessa! Simple, accessible ingredients, delicious food -- full of the love of feeding loved people.

[García Galván · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many delicious recipes in a simple book like this, without a doubt the author is a magnificent cook. Congratulations.

[Jeanette Durkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book!

This is a great cookbook! It's filled with lots of delicious sounding recipes and pictures, which I love! I will definitely be trying some of these recipes!

[SharonO · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've never been one to fangirl over any celebrity and while I watch Food network I dislike how all shows are now some kind of competition and not really about cooking. I don't think I ever watched Barefoot Contessa on TV, except for the times when she was a guest on some other show. Last month I listened to the audiobook of her autobiography and it was enjoyable. I am a collector of cookbooks and I decided that this first one of hers was one I wanted to add to my collection. I haven't cooked anything from it yet, but will give a few things a try soon. The book is a little dated but the recipes appear to be ones that will stand the test of time. I found a used copy of it online that is in like new condition.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’d long wanted my own copy of this well-known and much-lauded cookbook. Reading it cover to cover did not disappoint one bit. I am already eager to try several of the recipes, with a few adjustments and clever twists from Ina’s more recent cooking shows. I don’t collect cookbooks as a rule, but this was one I��d heard was fun to read and had beautiful pictures. All true, and will be a resource I keep close at-hand in my kitchen for every season.

[Joni Carlton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful recipes

[Hannah G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I promise I’ll use the good olive oil.

[Jan Hewitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still go back to this one, the coconut cupcakes are the best!

[Melani · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is a great one. The cheddar corn chowder is A+++ delicious and I make it quite often. I have opened this book many times, sometimes just to look at the pictures and sometimes because I actually want to cook something from it. It's a well loved, and well used book in my collection.

My one complaint about this book is the amount of food the recipes make. I frequently halve them and have more then enough for four people, and since it's just me I always have a ton of leftovers. I think the above mentioned corn chowder serves 20 in the book? It's some crazy ridiculous number like that. It's obvious to me that she just took the recipes from her catering/restaurant days and didn't modify them much for the home cook. It's not a problem exactly, but it does bump this one down to four stars.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ina Garten's cookbooks do everything you need. If I didn't have any technique in the kitchen and had to pick a cookbook to last forever (or in this case, a series) it would be hers. Rich, lovely recipes that are very approachable. Beginners can follow along; experts can take some of her suggestions and run with them. I almost always get rave reviews for anything I make from these books and I have made or eaten a large portion of them. It is very hard to find cookbooks that can provide you recipes for every course without compromising the dessert. Not our dear Mrs. Garten - the baking recipes in this books are EXCELLENT.

She's right, you know; the world can be a better place with an extra pound of butter and some hellman's mayo.

[Susan Ciliberti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found many recipes that were upscale versions of basic traditional foods - such as French Potato Salad and Grilled Lemon Chicken with Satay Dip. Many interesting options and they are not overly difficult. One of my favorite sections was the breakfast muffins and scones. I am looking forward to making several of these recipes. There are many photos which make the dishes even more tempting to make - like the Fresh Fruit Tart. I enjoyed this cookbook very much.

[Linda Hartlaub · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is, I believe, Ina Garten's first cookbook and is basically the recipes from her store. There are very few stories, photos are passable and some are less than a sixth of a page. This is before Ms. Garten came into her own as a writer, and before she let her personality shine through. What is so wonderful about her ocokbooks is the joy she brings. This book doesn't have it. I'm glad she kept at it, though. It shows how much an author, even a cookbook author, can grow through their career.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cook 3 meals a day for my family, and I love the Barefoot Contessa Cookbooks. She's got great advice on preparing things ahead of time, how to cook for a larger group, and putting together a complete meal. Her recipes are best for people who are already pretty comfortable in the kitchen, and the baking is less reliable than the savory foods, but every one of her cookbooks is worth having.

[Sharon Huether · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook By Ina Garten This is a beautifully illustrated cookbook. The colored pictures have really helped my in food presentation. I continue to make the home made granola receipe, it's very good. I've watched Ina on the cooking channel, so having her cookbook is fun.