The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook
Published April 6th 1999 by Clarkson Potter, Hardcover 256 pages
For more than twenty years, Barefoot Contessa, the acclaimed specialty food store, has been cooking and baking 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, but they taste even better than you would expect. Her Pan-Fried Onion Dip is the real thing, with slowly car-amelized 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!
With Ina Garten and The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, you have the perfect recipe for hosting parties that are easy and fun for everyone--including the cook.
User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Rating: really liked it
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.
Rating: really liked it
Love Ina!
Rating: really liked it
The recipes in this book turn out perfectly EVERY time and I've made over half of them. Buy it.
Rating: really liked it
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 (!!).
Rating: really liked it
Listen, the woman knows her way around the kitchen and she's not afraid of a stick of butter, which I like in a chef.
Paula Deen doesn't skimp on the butter either, but usually whatever she is cooking ends up getting deep fried and then used as a delivery system for some kind of mayonnaise product too -- and I just can't hang with that.
Whereas Ina will definitely butter you up, she at least has the common decency throw on some fresh herbs and add some roasted vegetables so even your cholesterol feels like good and evil have once again been righted in the world.
Less guilt is all I'm saying. Less guilt.
Rating: really liked it
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!!!
Rating: really liked it
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....
Rating: really liked it
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?
Rating: really liked it
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.
Rating: really liked it
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.
Rating: really liked it
Gotta love the Contessa! Simple, accessible ingredients, delicious food -- full of the love of feeding loved people.
Rating: really liked it
Still go back to this one, the coconut cupcakes are the best!
Rating: really liked it
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.
Rating: really liked it
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.
