Frugal Café Blog Zone

Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on November 23, 2010

Search engine giant Google offers an early tribute to Thanksgiving today on its homepage with some tantalizing Thanksgiving dinner-makin’ doodle art, courtesy of popular TV cook and cookbook author Ina Garten, aka “The Barefoot Contessa.”

UPDATE, November 24, 2010: Day 2 of the Thanksgiving dinner Google logo… more food art:

UPDATE, November 25, 2010: Day 3 of the Thanksgiving dinner Google logo series… the completed Thanksgiving meal:

Bio info on Ina Garten from Wikipedia:

Ina Rosenberg Garten (born February 2, 1948) is an American author, host of the Food Network program Barefoot Contessa, and former White House nuclear policy analyst. Known for designing recipes with an emphasis on fresh ingredients and time-saving tips, she has been noted by Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, and Patricia Wells for her cooking and home entertaining.

Garten had no formal training; she taught herself culinary techniques with the aid of French and New England cookbooks. Later, she relied on intuition and feedback from customers and friends to refine her recipes. She was mentored chiefly by Eli Zabar, owner of Eli’s Manhattan and Eli’s Breads, and food-show host and author Martha Stewart. Among her dishes are cœur à la creme, celery root remoulade, pear clafouti, and a simplified version of bœuf bourguignon. Her culinary career began with her gourmet food store, Barefoot Contessa; Garten then expanded her activities to several best-selling cookbooks, magazine columns, self-branded convenience products, and a popular Food Network television show.

[...]

In 2006, Garten launched her own line of packaged cake mixes, marinades, sauces, and preserves, branded as Barefoot Contessa Pantry, in conjunction with Stonewall Kitchen. These convenience foods are based on her most popular from-scratch recipes, such as coconut cupcakes, maple oatmeal scones, mango chutney, and lemon curd. Pricing of these items is comparatively expensive (for example, the suggested retail price for a single box of brownie mix is ten dollars) and they are only sold through upscale cookware and gourmet shops such as Crate & Barrel, Sur La Table, and Chicago’s Fox & Obel Market Cafe. She plans to expand this brand in the near future if the first line of products is very successful.

Garten was interviewed in 2001 by Christopher Monte Smith for BookSense.com. Here’s a few snippets of that interview:

For more than 20 years, Ina Garten has run The Barefoot Contessa specialty food shop in East Hampton, New York. In 1999, her first book, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook,
became a sleeper bestseller from coast to coast. BookSense.com caught up with Ina while she was on tour for her new follow-up title on home entertaining, Barefoot Contessa Parties!


You worked at the White House in the 1970s. During which administration? What was that like?

I worked in the White House from 1974 to 1978 during the Ford and Carter administrations. I worked in the Office of Management and Budget on nuclear energy issues. It was very exciting for the first few years because your work was going directly to the President. However, after four years, I realized that although I was working on projects that were $20 billion in size, nothing had happened in four years. I needed to run something that I owned and that I could make my own decisions with. Plus, I needed immediate feedback. I’ve found in the food business that I can decide at 8am if I want to see if people will buy sticky buns; we make them, and by 5pm I know if it was a good idea.

How did you get from the White House to the Barefoot Contessa?

In 1978, I came across an ad in The New York Times “Business Opportunities” section for a specialty food store for sale in the Hamptons, so I decided to investigate. It was love at first sight. I had no idea at the time how to run a business or how to buy food wholesale, but I knew this was for me. I made what I thought was a low offer — I believed I’d have time to rethink while we negotiated — and we drove back to Washington. The owner called the next day and accepted the offer!

Isn’t “The Barefoot Contessa” a movie?

Barefoot Contessa is the name of a movie from the 50s with Ava Gardner and Humphrey Bogart. It’s about being elegant and earthy and I think that’s what we are. The food is very good and very simple, which I think is also very elegant.

From GlamNest:

There something about Ina Garten that’s puts us at ease. She’s soft spoken, sweet, and has a smile that lights up the camera. Her classy and classic approach to cooking is somehow both approachable and enviable. On her Food Network show, she invites us into her beautiful Hamptons home to watch her cook up hearty, soul-satisfying foods for family and friends. She picks fresh ingredients from the garden and makes things look so impossibly simple and appealing. I guess that’s why she’s the Barefoot Contessa.

The following cooking video demos with Ina, while not necessarily for Thanksgiving dinner, offer easy-to-make recipes and cooking tips. Give them a whirl after the holidays (although, her lemon yogurt cake, blueberry crumb cake, chocolate ganache cupcakes, or pumpkin mousse parfait demonstrated in the videos could easily be one of your Thanksgiving desserts).

Barefoot Contessa – Perfect Roast Chicken – Food Network (2009)

Barefoot Contessa – Going, Going, Gone – Lemon Yogurt Cake

The Barefoot Contessa – Pumpkin Mousse Parfait – Food Network

In this next video, Ina makes Black Forest ham, Gruyere, and Dijon mustard in a puff pastry.

Barefoot Contessa – Ham and Cheese in Puff Pastry – Food Network (2009)

The Barefoot Contessa – Blueberry Crumb Cake – Food Network

The Barefoot Contessa – Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes – Food Network (2010)

Barefoot Contessa’s Shares Her Dessert Secrets (2008)

The links below will take you to The Barefoot Contessa’s six special Google Thanksgiving dish recipes:

Perfect Roast Turkey with Herb & Apple Stuffing

Pumpkin Banana Mousse Tart

From a November 17, 2010 article posted at OC Register, TV chef Ina Garten has simple advice:

Ina Garten’s new book sold out before her signing began. Williams-Sonoma left nothing to chance, organizing myriad fans into tidy lines that snaked out of South Coast Plaza’s interior onto the sidewalk.

The much loved host of the Food Network’s “Barefoot Contessa” thinks the easiest parties are the most fun – not just for the host but for everyone. She has written seven cookbooks, and “Barefoot Contessa: How Easy Is That?” (Clarkson Potter, $35) is the latest.

I spoke with Garten fan Nichol Hibbard, a food blogger from San Dimas, who was standing at the long line’s midway point. She had arrived two hours early and thought she’d be closer to the front.

“Ina taught me about easy entertaining,” she said, adding that her first few dinner parties were disasters. “She showed me that the hostess should have fun and not be stuck alone in the kitchen. I love her fresh takes on classic dishes. She turns up the volume on flavors: If something is chocolate, it should taste like chocolate, not sugary.”

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