The Mind-Blowing Number Of Times Ina Garten Tests Her Recipes Before Sharing

Ina Garten — aka the Barefoot Contessa — is known for her high-end recipes, entertaining in the Hamptons, and, of course, her cookbooks and roster of Food Network TV shows. Those who have Garten's cookbooks know how quickly the pages become wrinkled and splattered, as they spend plenty of time open on the kitchen counter as opposed to collecting dust on the bookshelf. 

Garten talked with CBS News about just why her cookbook recipes are so beloved. The answer? Garten puts in serious work (and hours) ensuring that her recipes are fantastic. She tests each item she includes in her cookbook up to 25 times before it makes the cut. "I follow my own recipes exactly. Because I've spent so much time getting the balance of flavors and textures and everything right. I'm really not a confident cook," Garten said. She loves simple, familiar dishes, and in her recipe testing process, she aims to make each recipe she creates the best version of the dish she's ever had.

She also spoke about how she doesn't have the experience that some of her colleagues have acquired from years in professional kitchens. "People like Bobby Flay have worked in restaurant kitchens all his life. And he can just throw things together," Garten said. "I'm not that person. I didn't have that experience." Garten works to take dishes that seem intimidating — like scallops, ginger carrot cake, and even cocktails — super-simple, so that anyone who follows them can feel like a master chef in their own kitchen.

Ina Garten recognized the importance of precision in cooking early on — long before she dreamt of having a specialty grocery store or having her own cooking show. "I got Julia Child's 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking,'" Garten said. "And I just worked my way through those books, which were very complicated recipes. I mean, there were ingredients in each recipe that was another recipe in itself. And I loved that challenge." Garten said that Julia Child's cookbooks — the gateway to seeing food as art for many — served as her cooking school. 

Her at-home cooking experience led Garten to recognize that mistakes can easily be made in recipes — not just in the formulation of the recipe itself, but also in the instructions provided. Garten tries to mitigate this issue by asking her assistants to move through her recipes as she watches them cook, keeping her eyes out for areas of the recipe that are unclear. She also cooks every recipe she considers for her cookbooks for friends, so that she knows it's a hit before she sends it off into the homes of her fans.