This Might Be The Worst Dish Ina Garten Has Ever Made, According To Her Husband Jeffrey

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Ina and Jeffrey Garten have been married for close to 60 years. A lot has changed since their 1968 nuptials — Ina became a household name as the Barefoot Contessa while Jeffrey worked in Washington, D.C., and then at Yale University in Connecticut. Through it all, they've remained by each other's side. While she does the cooking and entertaining, the one thing Jeffrey always makes in the kitchen is the coffee. And for the most part, Jeffrey has always enjoyed his famous wife's food — except for one questionable fish stew, that is. 

In a 2009 interview with the Yale Daily News, Jeffrey, the former dean of the Yale School of Management, revealed that Ina once prepared a fish stew that was a bit off. Unfortunately, he didn't specify what kind of fish stew it was. However, the Barefoot Contessa has published many seafood stew recipes since. The celebrity chef featured a seafood stew in her 2004 cookbook "Barefoot in Paris" that has five stars on the Food Network's website. The dish, best served alongside ultra flavorful garlic bread, is made with shrimp, halibut, bass, and mussels, as well as potatoes, fennel, saffron, and orange zest. Ina Garten's cioppino, an Italian-American fish stew famous in San Francisco, is also popular. 

The fish stew was actually not the only meal of Ina Garten's that Jeffrey wasn't impressed by. Appearing on The Chew in 2018, she told chef Michael Symon that there was one dish she made when they were first married that didn't go over well. "It was just awful," she exclaimed, describing a dish that combined ground beef and corn. She went on to say that he fibbed at first, telling her it was great, before pleading, "don't ever make it again."

In the same interview, though, she also said that Jeffrey is known for praising her food, often telling her, "this is the best thing you've ever made." She quipped, "he just knows that's the way I'll cook for him more," before adding, "he is not a stupid man." One of Ina Garten's cookbooks is even devoted to her longtime love. Published in 2016, "Cooking for Jeffrey" includes recipes for dishes like rigatoni with sausage and fennel, lamb stew with spring vegetables, and fish and lobster cakes. Furthermore, in her memoir, Ina talks about making chocolate brownies as an "expression of love" for Jeffrey. Safe to say, that fish stew is all but forgotten.