Ina Garten is a much beloved chef on the Food Network channel. She’s also a cookbook author and food writer, as well as producer of a line of gourmet kitchen products. She previously owned a specialty food store in the Hamptons called The Barefoot Contessa, which eventually became the name of her cooking show. While she’s been in the public eye for quite a few years, there are still a few interesting facts about her that aren’t common knowledge.
Ina was born Ina Rosenburg in Brooklyn, NY but she was raised in Stamford CT. She met her husband, Jeffrey Garten, when she was only fifteen while visiting her brother at Dartmouth. They were married in 1968 and appear to have a long-lasting and loving marriage. Jeffrey is often included in Ina’s cooking show and her Barefoot in Paris cookbook is dedicated to him.
Ina Garten fell in love with France and French cooking much the way Julia Child did. She and Jeffrey traveled through France for four months after his four year tour in Vietnam. The trip lit an early fire under her and inspired her future passion for French food and cuisine.
Garten and her husband lived in Washington D.C. where she worked as a budget analyst under Ford and Carter. However she never felt that the job was the right fit. On a spur of the moment bit of serendipity she came across a small food emporium for sale in the Hamptons and made an offer. Much to her surprise she found herself the owner of a business; The Barefoot Contessa, named after a movie starring Ava Gardner.
Martha Stewart and Eli Zabar, of Zabar’s deli fame, were her early mentors. They taught her about cooking and owning a business. Ina was solely self-taught in cooking up to that point, and had a natural talent. She made a success out of The Barefoot Contessa and moved it to a larger building in East Hampton. She parlayed the small store into a thriving business that drew tourists and celebrities alike. The Barefoot Contessa was actually used as one of the settings in Something’s Gotta Give, with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton.
Ina sold The Barefoot Contessa in 1996 and decided to write a cookbook. After a mild success with The Barefoot Contessa Cooks and The Barefoot Contessa Parties! The Food Network approached her about hosting a show. The Barefoot Contessa premiered in 2002, and in 2005 she signed a contract for three more years.
Her cooking show exemplifies the qualities of fresh quality ingredients and an earthy country style French food philosophy. She includes many of her friends on the show, many of whom are openly gay. While Garten has not commented on remarks that she is a “gay icon” she referenced it in a cookbook. In a partial quote she said, “families now aren’t necessarily like Ozzie and Harriet…it’s about people who are bound together by love and a sense of being responsible for one another…it’s spouses with no children, like Jeffrey and me…at the end of the day, all we have is love.”
Cooking is one way to express love, and Ina Garten does that in her show, her cookbooks, her magazine articles, and her daily life. Her cooking style and her life are a great example of living simply, helping out friends, and just loving each other.
