Ina Garten Quotes

• You don’t have to do everything from scratch. Nobody wants to make puff pastry!

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  Tags in Everything, Want

• When I wrote ‘Barefoot in Paris,’ I wanted to make simple recipes that you could make at home that tasted like French classics.

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  Tags in Simple, Wanted

• They say that gardens look better when they are created by loving gardeners rather than by landscapers, because the garden is more tended to and cared for. The same thing goes for cooking. I only cook for people I love.

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  Tags in People, Created, Garden, Better

• There’s something really wonderful about a party where you help yourself. Of course, first you get what you really want. But ‘family style’ service also really encourages people to connect with one another.

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  Tags in People, Wonderful, Party

• The thing about all my food is that everything is a remembered flavor. Maybe it’s something I had as a child or maybe it’s something I had in Milan, but I want it to taste better than you ever thought.

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  Tags in Something, Better, Child

• The most overrated tool: a pasta maker. Why make it when you can buy it? It’s a lot of work!

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  Topics in Work

  Tags in Overrated, Buy

• The most important thing for having a party is that the hostess is having fun. I’m very organized. I make a plan for absolutely everything. I never have anything that has to be cooked while the guests are there. The only thing I might have to do is take something out of the oven and carve it.

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  Tags in Important, Organized, Guests, Might

• The dirty little secret is that I grew up in a household where there were no carbohydrates allowed, ever. No cookies, no bread, no potatoes, no rice. My mother was very extreme in terms of what she served. Since I left home more than 40 years ago, I’ve been making it right for myself.

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  Tags in Secret, Making, Myself

• Take one flower that you like and get lots of them. And don’t try to ‘arrange’ them. It’s surprisingly hard to do a flower arrangement the way a florist does one. Instead, bunch them all together or put them in a series of small vases all down the table.

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  Tags in Arrangement, Together, Flower

• People have more fun if they don’t eat so much they have to be taken home in an ambulance.

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  Tags in People, Fun, Home

• Never let ’em see you sweat. Guests feel guilty if they think you’ve worked too hard to make dinner for them – which of course you have!

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  Tags in Think, Guests, Guilty, Worked

• My mother would never let me in the kitchen. I always wanted to cook, but I was never allowed to. Her view of the world was, ‘Cooking is my job, and studying is your job.’ I think, in retrospect, she didn’t like the chaos. She was very orderly. It had to be her way.

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  Topics in Job, Mother

  Tags in Wanted, Studying

• My favorite fall or winter lunch is big steaming bowls of soup. I usually invite people for around 12:30 and have two hearty soups like shrimp corn chowder and lentil sausage soup, which can be made a day or two ahead.

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  Tags in People, Favorite, Around

• My extravagance is my garden – it’s the first thing I look at every morning when I wake up. It gives me so much pleasure.

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  Tags in Morning, Pleasure

• Instead of going out to dinner, buy good food. Cooking at home shows such affection. In a bad economy, it’s more important to make yourself feel good.

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  Tags in Affection, Important, Good

• In the summer you want fresh, light and sort of quick things; in winter you want things that are comforting, so your body really tells you you want to go towards potatoes, apples, fennel, things that are warm and comforting. And loin of pork.

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  Tags in Things, Light, Winter, Fresh

• If you think about a Thanksgiving dinner, it’s really like making a large chicken.

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  Tags in Think, Making

• If it’s a cocktail party, I generally make five or six different things, and I try to choose recipes that feel like a meal: a chicken thing, a fish or shrimp thing, maybe two vegetable things, and I think it’s fun to end the cocktail party with a sweet thing.

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  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Different, Thing, Generally

• I’ve taught myself how to use good, fresh ingredients and to prepare them as simply as possible by cooking only to enhance their intrinsic flavors.

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  Tags in Myself, Possible, Good

• I’ve lived in the Hamptons since 1978, when I first bought my store Barefoot Contessa.

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  Tags in Store, Lived

Ina Garten (36)

Birth:	2nd February, 1948
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Author, Chef, Television Presenter

About

Ina Rosenberg Garten was born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. She is an American author, chef, host of the Food Network program Barefoot Contessa and a former staff member of the White House Office of Management and Budget. 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. 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.

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Deaths

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