Ina Garten
Author of the Barefoot Contessa Books & Television Host
Ina Garten, the celebrated specialty food store maven and bestselling cookbook author, was once a nuclear budget analyst at President Carter’s White House...
Ina Garten, the celebrated specialty food store maven and bestselling cookbook author, was once a nuclear budget analyst at President Carter’s White House. Garten left Washington, DC in 1978 to buy a 400 sq. ft. store called Barefoot Contessa in the Hamptons – eighteen years later, Barefoot Contessa had grown to a 3,000 sq. ft. store in East Hampton, New York and Garten decided it was time to shake things up. She sold the store to her chef and manager and began to write cookbooks.
Ina Garten’s first book, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, was published in 1999 and was one of the best selling cookbooks of the year. She has since gone on to write several phenomenally successful cookbooks, including Barefoot Contessa Parties!, Barefoot Contessa Family Style, Barefoot in Paris, Barefoot Contessa at Home, and Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics. Her book, Barefoot Contessa, How Easy is That?, was published in the fall of 2010 and became an instant bestseller. Garten has been a monthly columnist at House Beautiful and in prior years at Martha Stewart Living, and O, the Oprah magazine. Her latest book, Barefoot Contessa: Foolproof is a New York Times Best Seller.
In 2002 Food Network approached Ina Garten to do a cooking show based on her cookbooks and her love of entertaining. She was reluctant but decided to challenge herself to do 13 shows. That was ten years ago and her Emmy-winning cooking show, Barefoot Contessa, is one of the highest rated shows on Food Network.
Onstage, Ina Garten delivers a charming insider’s view of the world of the Barefoot Contessa and the pleasures of good food, cooked with love and intention. She lives in East Hampton, New York with her husband, Jeffrey.
