Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2909 in Books
• Published on: 1999-04-06
• Released on: 1999-04-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Amazon.com
Lauren Bacall gets cranky when Barefoot Contessa, an East Hampton specialty food store/institution for more than 20 years, is sold out of Indonesian Ginger Chicken. She can now thank her lucky stars that exuberant owner Ina Garten has written The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook and included this recipe. Ms. Bacall is sure to be pleased to discover how easy it is to achieve such fantastic flavor. Simplicity is something of a bottom line at Barefoot Contessa. "Food is not about impressing people," Ina Garten says. "It's about making them feel comfortable."

Aimed at the cook who intends to entertain, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook draws on Garten's experience as a caterer, as well as her knowledge of what customers really want to eat when they arrive at her shop. She has culled her favorite recipes and has included timesaving tips, always striving for ease and simplicity. Neither cooking nor entertaining should be a chore, according to Ina Garten, and her lovely cookbook is a case in point.

This is an intensely illustrated cookbook that shows the foods to best advantage (and makes it a lovely gift book). Presentation counts for a great deal, and Garten's food styling adds to any food platter. But just as relevant are photos that bring in the spirit of fresh, locally grown produce. There's the local poultry producer proudly holding a laying hen in case anyone should wonder where the eggs come from.

Starting with appetizers, Ina Garten isn't afraid to include such basics as hummus and guacamole: she knows from experience that her versions make a profound impact. There are French Onion Soup and Corn Cheddar Chowder, Baked Virginia Ham and Salmon with Fennel, Roasted Carrots and Caramelized Butternut Squash--and then one killer dessert after another. Included, too, are some breakfast specialties. Any upscale bed and breakfast could have this book in the kitchen and get rid of all others.

This isn't a cookbook about getting outrageous with food. The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook is about warming the hearts and souls of your guests with familiar food raised to a gourmet level. --Schuyler Ingle

From Booklist
Long Island's summer foodie crowd flocks to the Barefoot Contessa for the kinds of upscale eats that are required for the endless rounds of parties. Garten's creations satisfy her customers, and this cookbook makes it easy to understand why. Savory dishes such as turkey meatloaf and lobster potpie are sure to be crowd pleasers. Potato-fennel gratin improves simpler spud creations; one can go over the top with buttery, creamy Parmesan smashed potatoes. Croissant bread pudding provides a rich ending to a grand dinner. For those entertaining overnight guests, Garten offers a handful of trendy breakfast scones. A chapter on finger foods provides the basis for grazing or for summer lawn cocktail parties. Garten's use of extra-large eggs as her standard measure may cause some cooks to encounter difficulties in reproducing some recipes. Mark Knoblauch

Review
"I enjoy Barefoot Contessa both for its presentation, which is just about the best I've ever seen, and also because the food tastes like home cooking--because it is. I'm drawn in as much by its personality as I am by what they have to offer."--Steven Spielberg, director, DreamWorks SKG

"Like Ina Garten herself, this stunning, lively new book is about style, simplicity, comfort, and good times among family and friends. Her natural approach to food is frank and forward, and you are sure to treasure each tip, each story, each recipe."--Patricia Wells, author of At Home with Patricia Wells: Cooking in Provence

"No store more fully embodies the easy, stylish elegance of the Hamptons than Barefoot Contessa. And no one understands what successful entertaining is all about better than Ina Garten. Born of retailing, her wonderful accessible recipes have been tested on you and me for a very long time and they really work. Bravo!"--Eli Zabar, owner of E.A.T., The Vinegar Factory, Eli's Bread, Across the Street, and Eli's Manhattan

Customer Reviews

Great Food in No Time at All!
I have recently become a fan of The Barefoot Contessa (Ina Garten) and wanted to own one of her lavishly illustrated coffee table cookbooks. I checked them all out of my local library and settled on this, her first book--not because it is better, but because it contains more of the recipes I am interested in. The photos are lovely, directions easy to follow and taste is superb, plus they are not time consuming to prepare.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who just wants a better way to roast a chicken, make delicious French Onion Soup, roast vegetables and more. Be sure to try the fresh corn salad. Yummy!

Ina offers many helpful entertaining, decorating and shopping tips as well. You can't go wrong with this book.
The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

great delivery
No sooner did I place this order, I was making wonderful food. The price could not be better and the service was prompt. I still can't believe the products are by far the most cost efficient.

Awesome Cookbook
This is one of the best cookbooks I have ever purchased. The recipies are easy to follow and the results are great.