Ina Garten sells more cookbooks each season than some authors hope to sell, ever. For her latest, Cook Like a Pro, out October 23, the Barefoot Contessa wants us to “cook with confidence.”
“It’s a funny paradox that when something from a bakery is delicious, we compliment it by saying, ‘This tastes homemade!’ but when something we make at home is especially impressive, everyone says, ‘This looks so professional!’” Garten writes in the book’s introduction. “My goal with this book is to ensure that everything you cook looks and tastes like it was ‘homemade by professionals!’”
Garten has been writing best-selling cookbooks since 1999, but she didn’t really love the process until later. In 2015, she told Eater that she was “actually more interested in writing cookbooks now than I was when I started... I think I was really nervous about it then.”
That touch of self-doubt, that humanity, is Garten’s real secret sauce. Unlike some of her contemporaries, she’s not obsessed with perfection, and her recipes carry with them a sort of ease that was once rare in the cookbook world, where prescriptive menus and precise ingredient lists were thought to guarantee stunning results. Garten gave everyone some breathing room, and not only did they learn how to cook, they learned how to live.
Garten has just eaten lunch — “a green salad and a lemony chicken thigh” — and is settling into an afternoon of recipe writing and research when we connect by phone.
Let’s go into some basics about the book. When did you first come up with this concept for the book?
Usually some time after I start testing recipes, it kinda reveals itself. I can’t even tell you what the process is, but there was a moment when Lidey [Heuck, Garten’s assistant] was answering emails — we answer emails from people who have questions about recipes — and she said, “I don’t know if this is a smart question or a dumb question, but how do you cut cauliflower without getting it all over your kitchen?” I remember thinking, I don’t even know why she gets cauliflower all over her kitchen. And then I realized if you cut through the top of the cauliflower you get florets everywhere, but if you turn it over, and you cut out the core, and you pull the florets apart, then it comes out in really nice beautiful florets, and you don’t end up with a mess.
I realized that there are a lot of things I do instinctively, and if people knew how to do them right, they’d feel more confident about their cooking. That’s really what started the process of writing Cook Like a Pro. It doesn’t mean you’re gonna be a pro, it just means I’m gonna give you all the tips along the way that will really help you feel like you’re doing a good job. At the end of the day, I don’t care whether it’s tennis, or golf, or cooking, the more you know, the more fun the hobby, or the project.
Absolutely. Your fans will also recognize your tips and tricks from your other cookbooks.
We tested so many times you can’t even imagine. I learn something every time I make a recipe, but I always want people to feel like if they have a question [we have the answer]. If there’s a question, there’s a note on the side that says, “This is what I think it should look like,” or “Don’t peel the cucumber” — whatever it is that you had a question about [I want it to feel like] I’m right there beside you.
Here you’re really pointing out tips from chefs. One of the first names you mention in the book is Bobby Flay. When did you first meet him or speak with him about cooking?
I can’t even remember the first time I met him, but we’ve known each other forever. I think he’s an amazing cook: He’s intuitive, smart, and his food is extraordinary. Just to watch him in the kitchen without any notes, throwing things together, it’s gorgeous.
He worked on a line for a long time, he has classic culinary training, and he’s a very intuitive cook — but I’m not. I’m self taught from cookbooks, and I think I’m probably more like people at home, who are using my cookbooks. I really need a guide about how much salt and how much pepper to put in something.
Did you approach the recipe development for this book from a different perspective? Did you start on the professional end and then translate them?
I always write from a home cook’s perspective, for two reasons: One is I had a specialty foods store, and what I very quickly learned is that people wanted the kind of food that they eat at home. They wanted roast chicken, roast carrots, very simple delicious food.
But when you go to a restaurant, you want something a little more challenging: a bouillabaisse or something more unique — restaurant food. My perspective professionally has always been as a home cook; the truth is I am a home cook. I’ve just had a little more experience than most people.
Absolutely. You also mention Danny Meyer a couple of times.
Yeah, I just love him.
Have you two cooked together?
No, we’ve never cooked together. I’ve known Danny since 1985: When he opened Union Square Café, I lived a half a block away. Jeffrey [Garten, Ina’s husband] and I heard that this new restaurant was opening in the neighborhood, and we went in. It must have been day three, and Danny was there behind the desk greeting people. I remember thinking, “Wow, this is a really good restaurant.”
So I’ve known Danny since then, and I just I can’t tell you how much I admire him. He’s as serious about a Shake Shack Chicken Shack as he is about a fine dining dinner that somebody has at Union Square. What he does, he does with such a big heart, and such care, and it’s really about people. That really shines through.
With so many good restaurants, it must be hard as a cookbook author trying to think of what to say to get someone in the kitchen, no?
It’s such a unique experience now. When [people have so many options] — you can do takeout pizza, or you can go to a restaurant — when somebody really takes the time to cook, it’s different. I think the energy is different, the food is different, and the experience of sharing it with people is different.
In a time when we have so much stress in our lives — both personally, but then layer on top of that all of the political stress — I think that we really need to take care of each other. And making a good home-cooked dinner is one way to do it.
I love how you mention in the intro that one of the most important things as a host is to be at ease: Have you ever coached friends in this? What’s your trick for remaining calm under pressure?
I worry about everything. I’ve spent 40 years cooking professionally, and I’m still anxious about every dinner. I think it’s the thing that keeps my edge: I really want it to be good, and I want people to love what I do. I haven’t gotten comfortable yet, and that’s probably a good thing, not a bad thing.
Someone who makes it look easy as well is chef Yotam Ottolenghi, who you also mention in the book. Have you two cooked together?
No, we never cooked together but I’ve had dinner with him, and I adore him. Absolutely adore him. I think he’s so creative, and I love the way he melds Eastern European food with Western food and vegetables. I just think he’s unique and inspiring. Every time I read a book of his — he has one coming out in the fall called Simple, which I’m really looking forward to — it’s how he puts things together. He melds flavors that you would not normally think of putting together, and they just sing. I think he’s a genius.
Aside from Simple, are there any other cookbooks that have come out recently, or that are coming out soon, that you’re excited about?
Dorie Greenspan has a book coming and I love her work. I love David Lebovitz’s ice cream cookbooks. I think he’s just fantastic. I have always loved Sarah Chase’s books, especially the new one about New England.
You mentioned going to Union Square Café when it opened, and I’m sure you’re a fan of Danny Meyer’s restaurants when you come into New York City, but where else do you like to eat?
You know who I adore, too, is Jean-Georges Vongerichten. I don’t know how he does it. He has like 34 restaurants all over the world, and every time we go to one of them, the food is extraordinary, the service is extraordinary, and we always have this joke: “He’s always there.” I just can’t figure it out: Every time we go to a restaurant of his, he’s there. He must have like six body doubles. And he’s so calm, so gracious, and warm. He’s just extraordinary.
There are two desserts in the book that were inspired by him. He has a restaurant in Bridgehampton, and I took my team there for Christmas; we ordered the salted caramel sundae, and we went crazy. I came home the next day and made my version of it. It’s not his recipe, but it’s salted caramel ice cream — I’m sure he makes his own ice cream, but I wasn’t gonna do that — with chocolate sauce, popcorn brittle, and whipped cream. It’s unbelievable. You can make all the elements ahead, and then just assemble it before dessert.
The other thing is the baked Alaska, which he does as an individual ball. That too, I find you can make and freeze — the whole thing, including the meringue — and then just bake it before serving it. I picked up two really genius ideas of his, and made them in a way that a home cook can make them.
You’re a pro... at translating what the pros do.
[Laughs] Yes, that’s just right.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.