For Ina Garten, some foods can soothe the soul. "I love remembered flavors," she says. In fact, she firmly believes that almost any dark mood can be lightened by a crispy roast chicken, a baked-from-scratch cookie, or a well-mixed co*cktail. "If I'm truly, deeply miserable, a whiskey sour always does it," she says with a laugh. "It's my crankiest happy place."
Of course, nothing banishes the blues like a slice of chocolate cake. Ina, known to most as the Barefoot Contessa, has included a cocoa-rich, birthday-worthy confection in every one of her dozen books, including her latest, Modern Comfort Food, which is a deep dive into the idea of cooking and eating as solace and joy.
Cozy cuisine is not exactly new territory for the contessa. "I think comfort food is whatever you had as a kid, and that sort of cooking is what I've been doing all these years anyway," Ina says. Though her recipes might have their genesis in familiar ideas, that's only a jumping-off point. "I always look at a standard recipe and ask myself two things: One, how can I make this taste better? And two, how can I make this easier to cook?" she says.
During the pandemic, Ina cooked up comfort in her East Hampton, New York kitchen where she spoiled her adored husband, Jeffrey, with treats like lobster pot pie and their favorite low-effort special-occasion dinner: a decadent cheese and charcuterie board for two. But she also found fun in a more unexpected place: Instagram, where she's delighted her millions of followers with simple recipe ideas and sometimes hilarious co*cktail demos. (If you haven't watched her mix the world's largest cosmopolitan, you're in for a treat.)
"When the pandemic came around, my friend said, 'Maybe you should see if people on Instagram have cooking questions,'" she says. "And I was like, I don't know the answers. But I thought I'll just post a picture of my pantry and see what happens." What happened was an ongoing virtual dialogue about everything—including the monotony of unloading the dishwasher and how to use up all those dried beans everyone stockpiled. "These conversations ended up being really satisfying for me because [they gave] me purpose at a time when we are all incredibly anxious," she says. "[They became] a comfort—Instagram and lots of grilled cheese sandwiches."
Ina Garten Recipes from Modern Comfort Food
These desserts from Ina are all the comfort you need to turn a down day right side up or make a good day great.
Ina's approach to banana pudding? "I thought, Let me see if I can raise the bar," she says. In her version, gingersnaps replace the usual vanilla wafers and vanilla bean, and a few tablespoons of Mount Gay rum flavor the pudding.
Sour cream in the batter (for an extra-moist texture) and high-quality semisweet chocolate in the icing are Ina's upgrades to the iconic New York treats, which eat more like little cakes.
This total misnomer dates back to the 1880s when cakes and pies were baked in the same type of pan. Ina's modern twist is decadent with an orange juice-Grand Marnier syrup soaking the vanilla cake and another shot of the orange liqueur in the pastry cream.
The pastry cream and cakes can be made ahead and refrigerated separately, but prepare the glaze and assemble 1 hour before serving. Don't refrigerate the assembled cake before serving or beads of condensation will form on top.
An Ina Garten chocolate cake is not your usual chocolate cake. According to Ina, this dense, rich cake is somewhere between a chocolate torte and a molten cake. And it includes just a dash of instant coffee granules to deepen the flavors.
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English Lemon Posset
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Ina's version of this English nursery dessert goes decidedly grown-up when spiked with limoncello liqueur. "It's the easiest thing in the world to make," she says of the pudding-like treat. "And it's really, really good."
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Salted Pistachio Meringues
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The technique behind these oversize puffs, which have a crisp exterior and marshmallow-like center, comes from chef Yotam Ottolenghi. The secret: Heat the sugar in the oven before whipping it with the egg whites. And a word of caution from Ina, "Don't make meringues on a rainy day. They'll come out sticky."
Born Ina Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York City and grew up in Stamford, Connecticut, Garten was one of two children born to Charles H. Rosenberg, a surgeon specializing in otolaryngology, and his wife, Florence (née Rich), a dietitian.
East Hampton, New York, U.S. The show's title, which comes from the Italian word for countess, was originally used by Garten in her best-selling cookbook, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook (1999). The cookbook was in turn named after Garten's specialty food store, which she bought already named in 1978.
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.
Barefoot Contessa hasn't produced new episodes since 2021, and anyone who still has cable knows that Food Network doesn't show Garten's TV shows as often as we'd like. However, Garten recently announced that she's working on new episodes for the cooking network.
Ina and Jeffrey Garten have been married for over 50 years, having tied the knot in 1968. Throughout their marriage, the couple have lived in many places together including Paris, Washington, D.C., Manhattan and East Hampton, New York.
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.
Vincenzo is impotent due to a war wound. In a bid to produce an heir for his linage, Maria sleeps with their chauffeur. Consumed with jealously upon discovering the affair, Vincenzo kills her and her lover without ever knowing she was pregnant.
The child's wish was to meet Garten because he would watch her show from his sickbed. Various blogs, articles and other media state Garten rejected the request because of scheduling conflicts.
The Barefoot Contessa, Food Network star Ina Garten, just purchased this Upper East Side stunner from another domestically minded woman—Nancy Novogrod, former editor in chief of House & Garden and Travel + Leisure magazines, reports StreetEasy.
Ina Garten has built an incredible career, which started with writing budgets at the White House. With the support of husband Jeffrey, she then ran a grocery store that launched her cooking journey. Garten has since written 13 cookbooks, and "Barefoot Contessa" has been on TV for 20 years.
Her fame may be relatively quiet — she doesn't have a line of cookware, there isn't a namesake restaurant — but make no mistake: Ina Garten is a powerhouse celeb chef. Fans know her story well: From a White House budget analyst to specialty food-store owner, her path to stardom has been slow and steady.
Currently, Jeffrey serves as the Dean Emeritus at the Yale School of Management and teaches courses on the global economy. According to his faculty page, prior to joining Yale, he worked for multiple White House administrations, served in the U.S. Army Special Forces and was a managing director on Wall Street.
But anyone who has ever viewed a season of The Barefoot Contessa or any of her other food programming probably is also well aware she's in a very happy long-term marriage, and her husband, Jeffrey Garten, has made more than a few appearances on her various shows.
He also served in the United States Army from 1968 to 1972, during the Vietnam War, holding the rank of Lieutenant in the 82nd Airborne Division and Captain and aide-de camp to the commanding general of the US Special Forces.
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.
He was a member of the U.S. Army Special Forces, has worked for the government in a pretty impressive capacity — he is the former Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade. He is now a revered professor and Dean Emeritus at the Yale School of Management, where he lectures about the global economy.
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