Barefoot Contessa
Barefoot Contessa is a program on Food Network hosted by Ina Garten. The show's name came from the upscale specialty food store, owned by Ina Garten, which has since closed.
The show is set in Ina Garten's mansion home in East Hampton. The show follows a similar format to other "lifestyle" cooking shows found on the Food Network, catering to people looking to easily entertain while enriching their palates with little expertise.
A typical episode would have Ina preparing a multi-course meal for friends, colleagues, small parties and, often, just for her husband Jeffrey, retired professor at Yale School of Management. When the show first started, Jeffry was at Yale during the week, but returned home every Friday night. Many of the shows feature special coming home meals. Her recipes often include fresh herbs, which she hand-harvests from her perfectly manicured estate garden.
Often, her recipes will require an excursion, where one can witness her driving in her BMW or Mercedes to various East Hampton specialty stores, (including Barefoot Contessa before the shop closed). Sometimes she might ask Jeffrey or her guest to pick up various ingredients or gourmet desserts from one of the local shops.
The show is highly entertaining with much educational value. Ina focuses on deconstructing complex French recipes like Boeuf Bourguignon while disseminating the joys of luxury, and simply "treating yourself". Ina's focus is to prepare food such that the cook doesn't spend all her time alone in the kitchen while guests are there. Most of her recipes are easy to cook and fans have many favourites that they make over and over again.
The show is mostly filmed in her own kitchen with fast moving camera shots and many close ups of perfectly-ripened fruits, eggs falling from the shells, or caramel sauce melting and sizzling in a shining steel pan. Barefoot Contessa is a good example of the genre known as food porn, along with shows such as Nigella Bites and Everyday Italian. These shows create palate-pleasing foods with stunning visual presentation.
Current cookbooks include:
- The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook (1999)
- Barefoot Contessa Parties! Ideas and Recipes for Easy Parties That Are Really Fun (2001)
- Barefoot Contessa Family Style: Easy Ideas and Recipes That Make Everyone Feel Like Family (2002)
- Barefoot in Paris (2004)
They are available along with other merchandise.
- Barefoot at Home is expected to be published in October 2006.
The show was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in 2005.
External links
- Barefoot Contessa on The Food Network
- Barefoot Contessa - Ina Garten's website
- Contessa's Kitchen - a message board intended to be a sanctuary for those that love to cook, admire the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten, and those with curious culinary minds.
Barefoot Contessa is also the name of a band, a Vancouver clothing shop, and a 1954 film.