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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

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Ina Garten
Age: 76
Born: 1948
Born: February 2
Author
Chef
Writer
Brooklyn
New York
Ina Rosenberg Garten
Actually
Serve
Everything
Later
Going
Turn
Deciding
Make
Days
Meal
Decision
Dishes
Break
Prepare
Five
Meals
Turns
Planning

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My mother would never let me in the kitchen. I always wanted to cook, but I was never allowed to. Her view of the world was, Cooking is my job, and studying is your job. I think, in retrospect, she didn't like the chaos. She was very orderly. It had to be her way.
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I get up every day, do the best that I can do, and go home and have a good time.
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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.
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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.
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The most overrated tool: a pasta maker. Why make it when you can buy it? It's a lot of work!
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You don't have to do everything from scratch. Nobody wants to make puff pastry!
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In the summer you want fresh, light and sort of quick things in winter you want things that are comforting, so your body really tells you you want to go towards potatoes, apples, fennel, things that are warm and comforting. And loin of pork.
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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.
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All my life I dreamed of an apartment in Paris where I could cook, and now I have one, on the Left Bank.
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I always like to have flowers on the table. I think they make it look special.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Grilled cheese and tomato soup is the ultimate comfort meal.
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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.
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I don't like sitting at a table that's too large, where everyone is too far apart. That's a party killer.
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I love to take something ordinary and make it really special.
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When I wrote 'Barefoot in Paris,' I wanted to make simple recipes that you could make at home that tasted like French classics.
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I've lived in the Hamptons since 1978, when I first bought my store Barefoot Contessa.
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Food is not about impressing people. It's about making them feel comfortable.
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