Lifestyle
Ina Garten shares her secret for a great dinner party: 6 people and round table
Ina Garten, the host of the Food Network’s Barefoot Contessa, still remembers a disastrous party she threw when she was 21. She’d invited 20 guests, with the intention of making an individual omelet for each person — except she barely knew how to cook an omelet.
“I was in the kitchen the entire time,” Garten says. “It was such a bad party, I almost never had another party again.”
Garten says she learned a few things from the experience — not the least of which was to keep things simple. Her ideal dinner party is six people sitting at a small, round table. And, yes, the shape of the table matters.
“Very often people have long, rectangular tables that are way too wide and people are seated too far apart,” Garten says. “I like when everybody’s knees are almost touching and it feels very intimate, with a dark room and a candle in the middle.”
Garten’s relaxed approach to entertaining is the hallmark of Barefoot Contessa, which debuted in 2002. Filmed in the kitchen of her home in East Hampton, N.Y., the show follows Garten as she shops for ingredients, tests recipes and sits down to eat with her husband Jeffrey and their friends.
“When you cook for people you love, they feel taken care of, and you make great friends and you create a community for yourself,” she says. “And I think that’s really what we all need, and what we all kind of hunger for.”
An Emmy and James Beard Award winner, Garten has also penned 13 cookbooks. In the new memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, she details how she went from working in the White House to becoming a beloved culinary voice, with fans from all walks of life.
“One of the things I love about what I do is that everybody cooks,” she says. “I was walking up Madison Avenue one day and a woman in a big fur coat … said, ‘Darling, I just just love your cookbooks.’ And a block later, a truck driver pulled over and said, ‘Hey, babe, I love your show.’ And I thought, That’s food. Everybody’s interested in food.”
Interview highlights
On how working for the federal government in the 1970s connects to her love of cooking
I worked in a group called Office of Management and Budget, and what we did was write the president’s budget that was sent to Congress. And I worked in nuclear energy policy. … I’ve always been very interested in science, and the way I feel about what I do now is it’s science, but you end up with something delicious instead of enriched uranium.
On buying a specialty food store in Westhampton, N.Y., when she was 30
I walked in and they were baking chocolate chip cookies. And I just remember thinking, Wow, this is where I want to be. … So we met with the owner and I made her a low offer. She was asking for $25,000, which was more money than we had in the world. And I just, on a whim, offered her $20,000, thinking, Well, we’ll go home, we’ll negotiate, I’ll have time to think about this. And we drove back to Washington [D.C.]. And Monday morning, I was in my office and the phone rang, and … [the owner] said, “Thank you very much. I accept your offer.” And I remember thinking, s***, I just bought a food store. I remember going to my boss and going, “You’re not going to believe what I just did.”
On the store’s name, Barefoot Contessa
The name really related to Diana [Stratta, the previous owner], not me. But then as the summer progressed, I realized it actually had a resonance. … It was about being elegant and earthy at the same time. And I think that really was what the store was about.
On a time when she separated from her husband Jeffrey
This was the ‘70s and we both assumed that he would be the husband and I would be the wife and that he would take care of the finances and I would have dinner on the table. I mean, we had prescribed roles, but it was a time when women were becoming aware that just because we were women didn’t mean that there were things that we had to do. I really credit Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan for making us think about it. And it may be that you want to have dinner on the table, but it doesn’t mean that because you’re the woman, you’re the only one who should have dinner on the table. So I was becoming aware of this, and Jeffrey, who had no reason at all to change his mind, wasn’t. And so I found some frustration with being in a prescribed role as the wife. …
One weekend in Westhampton, that first summer, we took a long walk on the beach and I said, “I feel like I need to be on my own for a while.” And Jeffrey said the right thing. He said, “If you feel you need to be on your own, then you need to be on your own.” And he went back to Washington and didn’t come back. And it was a tough time, but it led us back to a different kind of relationship.
On writing about her unhappy childhood
Remember, this was the ‘50s. It’s not the era of helicopter parents who are encouraging their children to do extraordinary things. This is an era where you did what the parents told you to do. And my parents were particularly harsh about it. … [My mother] dealt with it by pushing us away and making sure that she didn’t actually have to spend time with us. So I spent most of my time in my bedroom, and my brother spent time in his. And then my father was a really, really harsh authoritarian figure. If you didn’t do exactly what he wanted you to do, it was met with pretty serious anger and sometimes … hitting. And it was a very difficult way to grow up. … The only thing I remember is just total disappointment, because I wouldn’t do what they wanted me to do. They never gave me an opportunity to do what I wanted to do.
I talk about this in the book, not so much because it was such a terrible childhood. It certainly wasn’t a happy one, but there were so many worse childhoods. But I wanted people to know that the story of your childhood doesn’t necessarily need to be the story of your life.
Therese Madden and Anna Bauman produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.
Lifestyle
L.A. Crafted
Los Angeles’ creative class extends far beyond Hollywood. In this series, we highlight local makers and artists, from woodworkers to ceramists, weavers to stained glass artists, who are forging their own path making innovative products in our city.
The home of ceramist Raina Lee includes a tree house featuring her pottery as well as a garage studio that houses her pottery wheel, kilns and her crackly volcanic glazes.
Los Angeles glassblower Cedric Mitchell relishes his role as a rulebreaker. “I wanted to break all the design rules similar to Ettore Sottsass,” he says, “and develop my own style.”
Vince Skelly, a Claremont designer, transforms raw timber into decorative and functional works of art. He starts with a chainsaw and transitions to other tools to add nuance.
Krysta Grasso’s vibrant crochet brand, Unlikely Fox, is dedicated to her late mother, who taught her to crochet when she was 5.
Daniel Dooreck’s fascination with motorcycles, flash tattoos and cowboys comes alive in the hand-thrown vessels he creates in his tiny Echo Park garage.
Julie Jackson’s use of reclaimed wood reinforces her commitment to creating sustainable home goods that tread lightly on the environment.
Soraya Yousefi’s art career started by accident, but she’s found her stride making whimsical bowls and cups in her Northridge home studio.
After managing grief, anxiety and depression, video game designer Ana Cho turned to pottery and woodworking to sustain her.
L.A. woodworker C.C. Boyce is reevaluating what happens when a person dies by turning ashes into planters.
Inspired by her career in automotive engineering, L.A. ceramist Becki Chernoff throws ceramic dinnerware that is clean-lined like the cars she loves.
Lifestyle
HBO's 'Industry' is nasty, stressful, and irresistible : Pop Culture Happy Hour
Nick Strasburg/HBO Max
The latest season of HBO’s Industry was over the top. The drama is about backstabbing, morally compromised investment bankers. But it managed to make its characters even more backstabb-y and ethically dubious than ever before. Frenemies fought hard. Buried vices and addictions came to light. And death hovered over the entire season in shocking fashion.
Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour
Lifestyle
Gwyneth Paltrow Celebrates 6th Wedding Anniversary With Sexy Pic
Gwyneth Paltrow and Brad Falchuk celebrated their 6th wedding anniversary over the weekend — and GP gave everyone a sweet glimpse into her massive sex appeal.
The actress/Goop founder posted a pic Sunday on Instagram, showing her planting a big kiss on the lips of her hubby while the lovers floated on a paddle board on a river surrounded by nature.
Waiting for your permission to load the Instagram Media.
Gwyneth, with her back to us, looked stunning in her black two-piece bikini, displaying a lot of skin and flashing her amazing bod.
Brad wasn’t bashful either about putting his nearly naked physique for people to see, wearing only white swim trunks.
Sunday marked the couple’s 6th wedding anniversary. You may recall … Gwyneth and Brad got hitched in The Hamptons, New York, on September 29, 2018.
In 2010, Gwyneth first met her TV producer husband on the set of the comedy series “Glee,” which Brad co-created.
But, the two didn’t start dating until 2014 … and from that point forward, they were on a path to the alter.
By the way, Gwyneth celebrated her birthday Friday turning 52 — but let’s face it — she doesn’t look a day over 22.
Anyway, congrats Gwynyth/Brad on your 6th anniversary!!!
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