Every Cookbook Ina Garten Has Written
Celebrated chef Ina Garten released her memoir, "Be Ready When the Luck Happens," in October 2024. The former owner of the Barefoot Contessa deli and store gives readers a look into her life, from her childhood to now, and offers sage advice about seizing opportunities. And if anyone should know about seizing opportunities, it's Garten, who turned a trip to France and boredom with her government job into a decades-long career helping home cooks make delicious food while also helping them understand why the instructions worked the way they did. (Comparisons to Julia Child are very apt here.)
Garten released 13 cookbooks between 1999 and 2022. While each had its own particular focus, all of them were written with the goal of showing how easy cooking can be. Her catch-phrase of "store-bought is fine" always reassured readers and viewers that grocery store ingredients were totally appropriate for her recipes. Her books have not only helped countless people learn to cook, but they've also helped cooks continue to refine their techniques and repertoire. Here's a look at every cookbook Ina Garten has written.
The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, 1999
This is the one that started it all. "The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook" showcases many of Ina Garten's popular recipes from her store; this is the book you want to get for those who were disappointed when she sold her deli because all of the recipes in this book were ones customers adored. It's also a great starter cookbook, according to some reviews; the point of the book is to produce great tasting food, not create fancy dishes that you'd prepare only for special occasions (although you will find recipes that make enough for a reasonably sized dinner party). A lot of the recipes are simple, and many have make-ahead or shortcut instructions for easier preparation. A 25th anniversary edition was released in 2024. A foreword by Martha Stewart and a breezy introduction from Garten make this an enjoyable cookbook that entertains while teaching.
Criticisms of the book are few and far between. They mainly focus on how some recipes might be considered dated because they focused on leaner, less fatty ingredient substitutions that were all the rage in 1999 but not 20 years later, or on her use of the occasional ingredient that home cooks might not always have on hand (although the ingredients are available in stores). Reviews are complimentary overall.
Barefoot Contessa Parties!, 2001
Ina Garten has released cookbooks just about every two years or so, and in 2001, she published "Barefoot Contessa Parties!" In contrast to her first book, this is the one that's really for entertaining guests; while home cooks can easily make all of the recipes, these are ones meant for serving when you want a party to shine in people's memories. You're not limited to dinner-party recipes with this book, however. There are dishes in here that you can serve at the most informal gatherings, including a Super Bowl party. Garten also provides extensive guidelines for dealing with the whole shebang from start to finish.
Trent Pheifer's Store-Bought Is Fine blog, in which he cooks his way through all of Garten's recipes, notes that the book is menu-themed, meaning the book is divided into suggested menus. That doesn't mean he didn't like the book; he thought all of the recipes were winners. It's just that it may not be the easiest book to use if you want to find categories of recipes for inspiration. If you want to know what to serve at a breakfast gathering in spring, this book has you covered. Not so much if you just want to compare several recipes for soup. Other online reviews gratefully discuss Garten's advice for throwing parties without stressing yourself out and for creating a good experience for guests with relative ease.
Barefoot Contessa Family Style, 2002
The one exception to the one-book-every-two-years publishing schedule, "Barefoot Contessa Family Style" came out one year after "Parties!" Whereas Ina Garten's first cookbook focused on customer favorites from her deli, "Family Style" focuses on her family and friends' favorites. The recipes are again straightforward and packed with tips to make preparation simple, and many of the recipes are straight-up comfort food. This is the book you want to buy if you're looking for Garten's family-style take on macaroni and cheese or lasagna without worrying about parties or creating something out of a deli. It's also the book to buy if you're worried about last-minute problems because Garten includes a short section on how (and why) to go with the flow if not everything goes according to plan.
The reception for the book was overall extremely positive. Criticisms included the fact that some of the recipes were fairly common ones, such as recipes for salads that were in countless other cookbooks and blogs. But that's something that just about every cookbook has; if you were to limit cookbooks to only those recipes that had never been made anywhere else, there wouldn't be more than a few cookbooks in existence. Other "complaints" were more humorous, such as not being able to read the book while hungry.
Barefoot in Paris, 2004
Much like Julia Child, Ina Garten's love for food and her ability to cook started with French cuisine. In fact, she taught herself to cook by cooking her way through Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" after spending a few months in France. In "Barefoot in Paris," Garten presents classic French recipes with signature Barefoot Contessa twists. Garten's devotion to French food enables her to show home cooks outside of France how to make simple French dishes that they can prepare and eat every day. Her goal in publishing the book was essentially to further Child's goal of showing how accessible the cuisine really was.
Reviews are very positive, with readers especially happy with the recipe for beef bourguignon. Garten's recipes are often faster to make timewise, and readers have left happy reviews about how reasonable the ingredient lists were. If you want to explore French cooking beyond Child's classics, Garten's book is an excellent choice.
Barefoot Contessa at Home, 2006
Ina Garten's next cookbook is one of her most popular ones. "Barefoot Contessa at Home" focuses on the cozy and familiar, those dishes meant for meals with loved ones where you sit and have leisurely conversations. She doesn't totally ignore the party side of cooking, and the book contains yet more tips on how to do everything from creating a menu to ensuring a party is entertaining. But the book focuses on home, including a substantial essay on how Garten learned by trial and error to transform every place she lived in from a place to reside into a welcoming, comfortable home.
This book gets top compliments from Trent Pheifer in his ranking of all of Garten's cookbooks because of its winning combination of recipes — even dishes he normally didn't like got a positive review when he made Garten's version. His only issue was trying to find a capon; he wrote that he liked the recipe but wouldn't make it again because of what he went through trying to find the bird. Online reviews show readers' love for the delicious recipes; the only criticisms have to do with the inclusion of an expensive ingredient.
Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics, 2008
An excellent cookbook for people who know how to cook basic dishes but want to learn more about how cooking works, "Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics" contains a wealth of information on enhancing flavor and using ingredient combinations to make those basic dishes stand out. While it's still a cookbook and not just an instruction manual on food science, it's a great introduction for people who don't know all those little tips that more experienced cooks know.
Ina Garten's books previous to this one concentrated on simple cooking and making delicious food that didn't rely on intricate recipes or methods. The recipes in this book are a little fancier sounding at first, but true to Garten's reputation, she manages to make even the most intricate-sounding recipe much more simple to make. One review thought there weren't enough tips for beginner cooks, but overall, readers were happy with the information about why this or that ingredient needed this or that technique, or why certain ingredients worked together.
Barefoot Contessa How Easy Is That?, 2010
Ina Garten's next book, "Barefoot Contessa How Easy Is That?", continues the quest to show how easy it can be to make recipes that you thought were complicated. Her focus is on being able to find all the ingredients you need in one store and not having to search through several specialty markets that may not be near your home; she also discusses kitchen equipment and yet more tips for making cooking easier. She offers time and effort saving variations that release you from chores like constantly stirring one recipe.
Reviews are again very happy, although some say the recipes aren't as easy as the title makes them seem. Yet even those recipes are reasonable, and overall, people are happy with just about all of the recipes. Complaints seem centered mainly on personal preference, such as substituting a favorite bread into a recipe where Garten calls for another type.
Barefoot Contessa Foolproof, 2012
As the title suggests, "Barefoot Contessa Foolproof" is a collection of recipes and advice that should be simple to follow if you pay attention to every step that Ina Garten has given you. She focuses on making the entire meal experience easy, rather than just giving you a recipe and telling you to follow it. In her introduction, Garten states that ensuring something is foolproof isn't only about following a recipe. A truly foolproof recipe is one that always produces a tasty meal and that never causes you stress. There's no sense in calling something foolproof if it produces something you don't want to eat and never want to make again.
Professional reviewers were overall impressed, although they noted that some of the recipes were repeats from her other books. Another who tested the recipes found that some instructions were a bit vague. However, reader reviews were very happy, with criticisms restricted to small issues like not having weights for ingredients for readers outside the U.S.
Make It Ahead, 2014
Meal planning and freezer meals may be all the rage, but sometimes you just need to make enough for one meal a day or so ahead. Ina Garten gives you the ability to do that easily in "Make It Ahead," in which she answers what she found out was the most asked question from her fans: Could they make something ahead of time? In this book, Garten provides tips for every recipe on how to prepare as much of it ahead of time as possible. All you should have to do before serving is something simple like warming it up or mixing in another ingredient.
She's realistic about how far ahead you can make her recipes, though. In her book, she notes that sometimes you can't make the whole thing far ahead of time. But the good thing is that, if there are parts of one of her recipes that you can make weeks in advance, you'll see that advice in the recipe. Fans of Garten were thrilled, as you can imagine. They were very happy that they now had the ability to cook much of each recipe well before having friends over, for example. And being able to make part or all of a recipe ahead of time is no small thing. If all you have to do is garnish something as it comes to room temperature, then that gives you more time to attend to your guests or hang out with your family.
Cooking for Jeffrey, 2016
Paul Child (Julia Child's husband) wasn't the only spouse who supported his wife's cooking career. Ina Garten's husband Jeffrey has been her biggest fan, and in "Cooking for Jeffrey," Garten showcases the dishes she makes for him (and for bunches of friends, of course). This book contains some absolute fan favorites like rigatoni with sausage and fennel, as well as some older recipes that she's updated. It also contains an entire chapter devoted to bread and cheese.
Overall, the reception of the book was very positive; Garten's fans adore her husband, so a book on their successful marriage would obviously be a big seller. However, two particular "complaints" appeared. One was tongue-in-cheek. Garten's recipes are meant to serve several people, including a loving husband, and one reviewer wrote that this reminded them that they didn't have a Jeffrey of their own. The other was probably the oddest criticism that Garten could receive: Someone complained that her devoting a book to Jeffrey made her look subservient. OK, then.
But the most common observation was about how warm and comforting the book was. The Gartens married in 1968, and the book describes their mutual love and admiration. As with Garten's other books, this is one you want to consider when you want to serve food to the people you love.
Cook Like a Pro, 2018
Ina Garten's "Cook Like a Pro" is one of her most popular books, and Trent Pheifer ranked it as the second best of her books, claiming it was one of the books people should get first. Despite the title, Garten's advice is not about cooking in a professional kitchen. She continues her quest to make cooking at home easy, only this time, she includes many tips that will help speed up food preparation and cooking. She also includes tips on subjects like plating the food. These are the "pro tips" that help her when she's in the kitchen, and in this book, she's passing them on to readers.
Garten writes in the book that one of the ways she ensures her recipes are accessible and doable is to watch her team make mistakes. Rather than be upset, Garten is happy because it shows her what a cook in a home kitchen might do, or how they might interpret her instructions. She then rewords the recipe so cooks avoid the mistake. In online reviews, readers have praised her ability to write simple instructions for fabulous recipes.
Modern Comfort Food, 2020
Ina Garten took notice of people's desire for burgers and brownies after major national events like 9/11 and the Great Recession in 2008. When 2020 brought its own forms of upheaval, she made sure everyone would be able to cook "Modern Comfort Food." Trent Pheifer ranked this as Garten's third best cookbook and mentioned that the book was initially planned because of the stress people were experiencing in the run-up to the 2020 election, but the publishing date was moved up by several weeks as the pandemic took a toll on everyone's sense of safety.
When quarantines and lockdowns started, Garten asked if anyone had ingredients in their pantries that they had no idea what to do with, which gained her over 1 million new fans. Comfort food may bring to mind rather informal, almost sloppy plating and presentation, but Garten's recipes are tested several times, just as they are in all her books. Most of the recipes are new; some sources say all-new, but a review from the New York Times notes that the roasted carrots are a repeat. To say the book was a hit is an understatement. Go on Amazon and look at how many ratings there are on her books; from the first to "Cook Like a Pro," you'll see maybe 2,000 to 4,000 ratings per book. "Modern Comfort Food" has a whopping 17,750 ratings as of mid-January 2025 — and the reviews show how much readers loved the book.
Go-To Dinners, 2022
Ina Garten's 13th cookbook, "Go-To Dinners," is a pretty much a sequel to her book on comfort food. Only this time, she's writing for cooks who are essentially tired after over two years of pandemic life. For example, in a 2022 interview with the New York Times, Garten implored people to relax when it comes to Thanksgiving, telling them that "whatever [they] need to do to get Thanksgiving dinner on the table is OK."
Trent Pheifer actually ranked this book as last on his list, but it wasn't because he thought the recipes weren't good. All the recipes were wonderful as you'd expect, but he noted that about a third of them were repeats or updates. Reader reviews, however, appreciated the updates and noted that the flavors of some older recipes were now more in line with current trends. The book also contains recipes made with store-bought ingredients that don't need cooking, as well as recipes cooks can make ahead. As with her other books, this one focuses on clear instructions and ingredients that are easy to find.