The 51 Best Ina Garten Recipes of All Time (2024)

FAQs

What does Ina Garten eat every day? ›

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. And her love of the stuff is well-documented.

For over 20 years, Ina Garten has shared her comforting and foolproof recipes with the world through her beloved cookbooks and "Barefoot Contessa" show. But before becoming a Food Network star, Garten wrote budgets at the White House and ran a Hamptons grocery store.

Garten ran the Barefoot Contessa store for 18 years — eventually moving it from Westhampton Beach to a bigger location in East Hampton — before she sold it to two of her employees in 1996. Three years later, Garten published her first cookbook with recipes from her store. Then, Food Network came calling.

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.

Ina Garten says In-N-Out Burger is the only fast food restaurant she'll visit. And for good reason!

Garten is Jewish by birth and heritage, as is her husband, but rarely refers to her religion and ethnicity, though they are showcased through the inclusion of classic Jewish cooking in her television show and cookbooks, when she makes such dishes as rugelach, challah, and brisket.

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.

Garten then decided to discontinue her studies at Syracuse University and focused on cooking for her husband. However, Jeffrey pushed her to pursue her passions for business and cooking, and she later earned her degree from Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

Ina husband, Jeffrey, is also a financial powerhouse. According to Celebritynetworth.com, Jeffrey is worth $100 million, mostly thanks to his former jobs as managing director of Lehman Brothers and Blackstone Group.

I really learned how to cook by working my way through every recipe in both volumes of Julia Child's The Art of French Cooking. You worked at the White House in the 1970s.

Which president did Ina Garten work for? ›

One of those places was Washington, D.C., where Garten worked as a budget analyst for presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

Martha Stewart and Ina Garten were friends before her appearance on Martha Stewart Living. "I first met Ina Garten about 10 years ago while I was shopping in the Barefoot Contessa," Martha Stewart shared as she introduced viewers to her longtime friend on the 1999 episode of "Martha Stewart Living."

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.

At 15, she met her future husband Jeffrey Garten, on a trip to visit her brother at Dartmouth College. After high school, she attended Syracuse University majoring in economics, and later went to George Washington University School of Business.

Oxo Good Grips Food Scale

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

One of her favorite go-to comfort foods is a classic peanut butter and jelly sandwich. There are few pairings more perfect, which is why it's been a childhood staple for generations. Garten has a simple tip that takes peanut butter and jelly sammies to the next level: toasted bread.

After taking a closer look, here's what you need to know about her home pantry. First, think of any nut variety, and Garten probably has it on hand. We see almonds, pecans, walnuts and more sitting on her shelves from the brand Citarella. These sit alongside a classic jar of Skippy creamy peanut butter, of course.

In a new interview for Julia Louis-Dreyfus' podcast, Wiser Than Me, Garten admitted that it "wasn't a struggle at all" to decide against having children. "I had no interest in having children," she told Louis-Dreyfus. "I had a terrible childhood, and it was nothing I wanted to recreate.