Quote

I measure everything, because I always think that if I've spent so much time making sure this recipe was exactly the way I want it, why would I want to throw things into a pot?

Ina Garten

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Ina Garten
Age: 76
Born: 1948
Born: February 2
Author
Chef
Writer
Brooklyn
New York
Ina Rosenberg Garten
Time
Sure
Think
Making
Recipe
Thinking
Everything
Recipes
Much
Pot
Way
Measure
Always
Throw
Things
Spent
Would
Exactly

More quotes by Ina Garten

Image
I love to take something ordinary and make it really special.
Ina Garten
Image
If it's a cocktail party, I generally make five or six different things, and I try to choose recipes that feel like a meal: a chicken thing, a fish or shrimp thing, maybe two vegetable things, and I think it's fun to end the cocktail party with a sweet thing.
Ina Garten
Image
They say that gardens look better when they are created by loving gardeners rather than by landscapers, because the garden is more tended to and cared for. The same thing goes for cooking. I only cook for people I love.
Ina Garten
Image
Take one flower that you like and get lots of them. And don't try to 'arrange' them. It's surprisingly hard to do a flower arrangement the way a florist does one. Instead, bunch them all together or put them in a series of small vases all down the table.
Ina Garten
Image
I always like to have flowers on the table. I think they make it look special.
Ina Garten
Image
I try to greet my friends with a drink in my hand, a warm smile on my face, and great music in the background, because that's what gets a dinner party off to a fun start.
Ina Garten
Image
You can get bogged down in a recipe that's got a lot of steps and a million ingredients, and it takes all day to make. And then you realize, you've just got one dish. For Thanksgiving, you want an abundance of choices, and so you want dishes that you can put together really quickly, but that doesn't mean less flavor.
Ina Garten
Image
I get up every day, do the best that I can do, and go home and have a good time.
Ina Garten
Image
When I thought my professional career was over, it hadn't even started yet.
Ina Garten
Image
Grilled cheese and tomato soup is the ultimate comfort meal.
Ina Garten
Image
Food is not about impressing people. It's about making them feel comfortable.
Ina Garten
Image
The dirty little secret is that I grew up in a household where there were no carbohydrates allowed, ever. No cookies, no bread, no potatoes, no rice. My mother was very extreme in terms of what she served. Since I left home more than 40 years ago, I've been making it right for myself.
Ina Garten
Image
I always have music. I love it to be very upbeat. When you're having drinks, I like something like Cesaria Evora. During dinner, I like the much more traditional - old Frank Sinatra and things like that.
Ina Garten
Image
The thing about all my food is that everything is a remembered flavor. Maybe it's something I had as a child or maybe it's something I had in Milan, but I want it to taste better than you ever thought.
Ina Garten
Image
One of the great gifts that you can give people is to cook for them.
Ina Garten
Image
I use other cookbooks for inspiration. I must say I tend to cook from my own cookbooks for parties.
Ina Garten
Image
I've lived in the Hamptons since 1978, when I first bought my store Barefoot Contessa.
Ina Garten
Image
Every once in a while, a cookbook comes along that simply knocks me out.
Ina Garten
Image
The planning is everything. Deciding which dishes you're going to prepare can turn into the make-or-break decision five days later, when you actually serve the meal.
Ina Garten
Image
My favorite fall or winter lunch is big steaming bowls of soup. I usually invite people for around 12:30 and have two hearty soups like shrimp corn chowder and lentil sausage soup, which can be made a day or two ahead.
Ina Garten