Who doesn’t know (and love) Ina Garten? The star of many comforting Food Network shows (most notably “Barefoot Contessa,” among countless others) and author of dozens of cookbooks teaching home chefs how to cook meals that range from easy to extravagant, Garten is the person that many people look to for knowledge on all things cooking and hosting. If you are a big fan of Garten, you might already know that she got her start by running a food shop that she bought in 1978, though she later decided that her true calling was writing cookbooks. But Garten lives an exciting life both inside and outside of being a celebrity chef, so there are bound to be a few more fun facts about her that you never could have guessed.
She and her husband, Jeffrey Garten, both had numerous funny stories and anecdotes to share with the public over the years. Whether you are looking for more hosting and entertaining tips from Garten or hoping to learn more about the celebrity chef’s past, you are about to learn plenty of different eye-opening facts you (probably) never knew about her before.
Ina Garten has a pilot’s license
Ina Garten is more than just a home chef and T.V. star — she also has her pilot’s license, which she earned in 1968. The story goes that she visited the nearest flight school to ask for lessons — but at the time, the instructors at her local airport said they didn’t have anyone to teach women how to fly a plane.
Garten was undeterred, so she commanded the school to search for someone who would take her on as a student. At the time, her husband, Jeffrey Garten, was away serving in the military, and she wanted a hobby that she felt would keep her entertained during his absence. She was also inspired by her college roommate, who had a pilot’s license. As soon as the flight school found an instructor who would teach her to fly, she signed up for lessons and eventually received her pilot’s license.
Despite her interest in taking to the skies, Garten later decided to reach new heights through her food business rather than in an airplane. Garten no longer flies and hasn’t in a very long time, but she still remembers her time in the air fondly.
She lives out of her Paris apartment part-time
Ina Garten’s very first trip to France with her husband was what inspired her truest and deepest love of cooking — one that she still reminisces about today. According to Garten, she had her “Julia Child moment” in France when she was able to taste some iconic French dishes during her four-month stay, and she immediately wanted to learn how to recreate something that tasted so amazing. Garten says that during their entire trip to France, she and her husband had a budget of only $5 per day, and to save money, they camped together outside Paris.
Though they both had a wonderful time enjoying the city of Paris together, Garten’s husband promised her that one day, they would return to France when they had more money and truly live it up in the city — no camping required. He certainly came through on his promise; Garten and her husband now own a top-floor apartment in Paris together, in which they live part-time.
Ina Garten’s real chef uniform is her iconic denim shirt
Among the things you didn’t know about Ina Garten is that doesn’t enjoy wearing an apron while she cooks, but that doesn’t mean she wants to get her regular clothes dirty, either. To avoid having to throw on a typical chef’s outfit, Garten prefers to purchase a bunch of the same types of shirts that are easy to clean. This means that Garten’s only “uniform” you’ll typically find her in is a long, button-up denim shirt — a classic that’s been featured many times during Garten’s televised and various public appearances — with the sleeves rolled up ever so slightly. Garten is also a fan of corduroy, though perhaps it is her denim shirts that are most iconic. After all, it is one of those very same oversized, blue denim shirts that Garten wears on the cover of her cookbook “Cook Like a Pro.”
She never wanted to have her own T.V. show
While you might watch “Barefoot Contessa” now and think that Ina Garten is a complete natural, the home cook herself could not see herself succeeding on T.V. Garten was approached by The Food Network years before her first episode of “Barefoot Contessa” ever aired — and to the network’s shock, she turned them down. Not just once, nor twice — Garten refused them over and over and over again. To Food Network, this was unthinkable, so they kept returning with better offers. But Garten did not want to negotiate with anyone; she just did not want to film a T.V. series.
Garten originally worried that she couldn’t do it and felt that her show wouldn’t be successful. But eventually, she was convinced into taking the Food Network deal — and her show was a massive success, sending her straight into chef stardom. To this day, however, Garten says that she never watched any of her episodes because she thinks she’s terrible and would never do another show again. Though, she also admitted that she does not generally watch cooking shows.
Ina Garten didn’t know how to cook growing up
Of her mother’s cooking skills, Ina Garten told NPR in 2024: “… she got food on the table, but it was broiled chicken and canned peas, and it was devoid of any flavor. And it was also devoid of any pleasure. There were no carbohydrates. There was no fat. There was nothing that would give anybody any sense of well-being.”
Despite her mother’s less-than-appetizing meals, Garten was never allowed in the kitchen herself as a child. This meant that she never knew how to cook growing up. In fact, her relationship with Jeffrey Garten was when she really began experimenting in the kitchen, specifically making brownies for him at first. To guide her new interest, Garten chose Julia Child’s cookbooks to learn from — to this day, she still claims that they taught her everything she needed to know about cooking.
It took Garten some time before she actually decided to pursue a career in cooking, but her skills were pretty much self-taught using recipe books beginning at the age of 20. Despite her long career as a celebrity chef, Garten has never had any kind of formal training. In fact, Garten herself insists that she is not an actual chef because she has never been to culinary school. Chef’s hats off to Garten — literally.
Ina Garten’s first time hosting a party was a disaster
One of the things you didn’t know about Ina Garten is the first party she attempted to host was a massive failure. She’d had the idea to serve her 20 guests omelets, which meant that she would have to make them all herself, one by one — except she wasn’t very familiar with making omelets. Garten said that she never managed to socialize with her guests during the entire party since she was busy cooking omelets the whole time. This incident is why — if you’re familiar with Garten’s hosting tips nowadays — you’ll notice that she makes or preps all of her party food ahead of time, and she prefers to invite a smaller group to her parties.
Garten says that her disastrous first time hosting almost caused her to stop hosting parties entirely. Fortunately, the celebrity chef decided to try again. After all, she loves cooking for her friends. She’s referenced her first party in relation to how she recommends throwing a dinner party now (Garten certainly believes that other people can learn from her mistakes), including minimalizing cooking in front of guests by prepping ahead. We’re just grateful that Garten didn’t give up entirely on her cooking journey after her first hosting nightmare.
She has the exact same meal for breakfast every single day
You might think that a celebrity home chef like Ina Garten would be making a different breakfast from scratch every day. For Garten, the opposite is true. Her favorite breakfast isn’t just convenient — it’s got “quick-cooking” in the very name. McCann’s quick-cooking Irish oatmeal is Garten’s go-to meal. She eats it every day without fail and swears by adding a little pinch of salt to her oatmeal to season it. Garten’s other potential oatmeal toppings include butter and maple syrup to make the dish even more cozy and comforting. Just keep in mind that she never ever uses maple syrup in her oatmeal unless it’s her birthday.
But what about Garten’s breakfast on the weekend? Normally, weekends are a time for home chefs to experiment with slightly more elaborate breakfasts — pancakes, waffles, or a full American breakfast plate are just a few weekend brunch platters that come to mind — but Garten doesn’t think so. The only change to her instant oatmeal is that she’ll switch up the toppings, adding dried fruit to her bowl. In fact, Garten even has a simple hack for adding dried fruit to her oatmeal.
Her morning coffee is also relatively unchanged day to day. Garten loves a good espresso as her morning pick-me-up, though a classic pot of coffee with milk and no sweetener is also one of her go-to morning brews. Unlike her bowl of oatmeal, Garten is a little more willing to change things up when it comes to her cup of joe.
Ina Garten’s husband has only ever disliked two of her dishes
Ina and Jeffrey Garten may very well be one of Food Network’s cutest couples. Jeffrey is a frequent appearance on “Barefoot Contessa” and even has an entire cookbook dedicated to him: “Cooking For Jeffrey.” The couple often boasts that he likes every single one of Garten’s meals — except for two, that is.
The most famous dish that Jeffrey couldn’t stomach was a fish stew — not that you’ll find a bad fish stew in any of Garten’s published recipes, that is. And there was another dish that the celebrity chef admits was a pretty big failure and doesn’t even have an official name. Whatever it was, it consisted of ground beef and corn — and she herself admitted that the taste was rather horrible. Jeffrey jokingly asked her not to cook it ever again.
She has the ‘cilantro soap gene’ that makes cilantro taste like soap
If you’re a dedicated fan of Ina Garten’s recipes, you might have noticed that none of them use cilantro. It’s not quite as strange as it sounds because Garten herself detests the herb. Some lucky readers won’t know that there are people who have a gene that causes cilantro to taste like soap to them. Essentially, the olfactory sensors on their tongues are extra sensitive to the compound that is found in both cilantro and soap, which causes the herb to taste soapy.
Since Garten started as a home chef and tests every single one of her recipes herself, using cilantro is a no-go — the flavor of cilantro can be so overpowering to those who find it soapy, the herb can singlehandedly ruin any dish (no matter how small a portion is used). This means that you won’t find any cilantro present in any of Garten’s dishes, not even as a garnish. So, it might be one of America’s favorite herbs, but that doesn’t mean it gets a feature in Garten’s cookbooks. If you don’t happen to have this gene yourself, however, you can certainly add it to some of her recipes as you see fit. Just don’t expect her to start using cilantro in the future.
Ina Garten’s favorite dish to cook for her husband is roasted chicken
If you know Ina Garten, you know her recipe for roast chicken. Aptly named “Perfect Roast Chicken,” many people see it as one of her most classic dishes — and given the fact that it’s one of the foods she can’t live without, it’s no surprise that she’s totally mastered the dish. Though Jeffrey loves every single one of Garten’s dishes (okay, except two of them), Garten’s roast chicken stands out because she claims it’s her favorite dish to cook for him.
Garten also has a tried-and-true recipe for Engagement Chicken, a roast chicken dish with a title that fits Ina and Jeffrey’s romance. It’s also alleged that Meghan Markle and Emily Blunt cooked Garten’s Engagement Chicken recipe for their respective significant others before.
It’s no surprise that Garten has multiple roast chicken recipes at the ready to cook for her husband. You’ll also find her Perfect Roast Chicken recipe featured in her book “Cooking For Jeffrey” — an homage to all the dishes she loves to make for him.
She tests every recipe up to 25 times before using it
Though it’s just Ina Garten in the kitchen on her T.V. show “Barefoot Contessa,” she still has a team to help her test the recipes she creates for her many, many cookbooks. Garten refuses to release a recipe until it’s been tested every which way — which leads her to test a recipe as many as 25 times before she finally deems it ready for publication. Her assistant once shared that even a fairly simple recipe is tested at least four or five times at a minimum.
Garten is dedicated to making sure that absolutely everyone can read and use her recipes easily. To help her make them more accessible, she has various people on her team to test the recipes she creates using a variety of appliances and kitchen types to make sure that her cookbooks will be a true hit no matter the household. So, sure — many of Garten’s classic recipes might be simple to make, but they weren’t that easy for her to create!
Her first show was with Martha Stewart’s production company and it went horribly
Before Ina Garten ever appeared on the Food Network, she agreed to a deal with Martha Stewart’s production company: a T.V. show inspired by her “The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook.” It was actually this show that almost ruined any chance of Garten ever appearing on television again. Garten herself stated that she was completely worn out by the demands of the shoot, including allowing a crew to take over most of her house and a director who wanted her to use a script for every part of the show.
Garten’s final straw for the entire disastrous first show was when her home’s sewage system couldn’t handle the dozens of camera crew using the same bathroom. The sewage flooded her entire yard (the director was so horrified by the sight that she immediately became sick herself), and Garten decided that she would never ever make another T.V. appearance in her life. Though, she was later convinced to join the Food Network despite her anti-television vow — no scripts (and no sewage mishaps) required.
