Ina Garten's Transformation Is Seriously Turning Heads

aina garten's down-to-earth style has endeared her to millions of television viewers she's a new york times best seller and a long time favorite of food network fans how did she go from the white house to cooking up a culinary empire let's take a look at how ina garten's transformation is turning heads with a resume that includes accolades of business owner chef television host and author it's a given that aina garten has got some serious brainpower that intelligent showed through for aina even as a young child born ina rosenberg garten was an excellent student gaining extra marks for her careful detail-oriented nature and high marks in sciences class according to good housekeeping that braininess took her all the way to new york's syracuse university she particularly loved her science classes which would play an important role in her career as a chef garten told good housekeeping that all of her recipes and ingredients are measured precisely as if they were a scientific equation garten's ability to learn things quickly would prove to be a vital trait in her professional life and she's taught herself everything she knows from how to make a chicken pot pie to the myriad ins and outs of running a small business in 1964 a teenage aina took a trip to dartmouth college to visit her brother who was a freshman at the higher education institution she caught the attention of her future husband jeffrey garton when he spotted her out the library window he pointed her out to his roommate who not only knew who ina was but had already planned a date with her that night once aina went back home jeffrey began writing her letters six months later jeffrey showed up at ina's house in stamford connecticut ready to take her on a date but that first date was as aina described it to food network quote a disaster the two drove to a bar in new york as the legal drinking age in the state was 18 at the time aina was still in high school she told food network i had never been to a bar in my life the guy at the door says where's your id and i thought what id but the early speed bump in their relationship didn't deter the couple they continued to date as ina went off to syracuse university the couple eventually married in 1968 when ina was 20 years old aina garton was still attending syracuse university after getting married in december of 1968 but she postponed her college career to move to fort bragg north carolina with her husband according to country living jeffrey had enlisted as an officer in the united states army and was to serve a four-year military tour during the vietnam war although she was putting off her pursuit of a college degree the move to north carolina may have been the most important step in her future culinary career even if it didn't seem that way to aina at first with jeffrey away all the time she began cooking and entertaining guests as an enjoyable way to keep busy garten told people from the time we got married i really was interested in cooking but i had never cooked at all he encouraged it so much by just being so appreciative when i cooked and that was really the beginning of my career i know would eventually go back and finish college once jeffrey's military service was complete his continued support proved to be vital to aina throughout her studies as she rode in cooking for jeffrey a barefoot contessa cookbook he was the first feminist i ever knew aina garten's success and accomplishments are made even more admirable by the fact that she has no formal culinary training her expertise comes from a nearly lifelong interest in all things cooking not to mention the help of some very good cookbooks garden had already begun dabbling in cooking during her time in north carolina according to eater after jeffrey's military service was over the couple traveled to france and lived there for four months it was her time abroad where garten fell in love with food she shopped at the farmers market and was entranced by the sights of locals eating outdoors her experiences echo those of the legendary chef author and television personality julia giled who had also lived in france while studying how to cook when she returned back to the united states garten began teaching herself to cook by diving head first into child's cookbooks garten told today i would have to say that julia childs my biggest culinary inspiration because she really taught me how to cook through her cookbooks i learned how to make hollandaise sauce the right way and then she showed me how to make it the quick way without losing any of the quality it's not exactly shocking for careers to shift and change throughout a person's life but it's difficult to imagine a more dramatic career change than going from nuclear energy to cookbook author that's precisely what ina garten did with a brief stop over it none other than the white house in the 1970s garden and her husband moved to washington dc where she landed a job at 1600 pennsylvania avenue originally finding work as a relatively low-ranking white house aide garden worked your way out to become a budget analyst in the office of management and budget she was responsible for raiding the country's nuclear energy budget she held the job during the terms of presidents gerald ford and jimmy carter she also wrote policy papers helping to establish regulations for nuclear power plants but it didn't take long for garten to learn that the job simply wasn't right for her by the end of the decade she was already looking for a new path that was something quote more creative and fun than writing nuclear energy budgets garten was desperate to find a career that allowed her to be more creative in 1978 she came across an ad in the new york times selling a specialty food store in the hamptons it immediately caught garton's attention even though she had no professional experience in the food business and she hadn't even been to the hamptons before she drove from washington dc to the east end of long island to see the store she immediately fell in love with the boutique shop but was on the fence as to whether or not she should really go through with buying it her parents especially her father were shocked to hear that she'd given up her white house job and now his daughter worked in the white house and he thought she's going to own a grocery store right we're going backwards here right but garten's husband fully supported her decision to try to buy the store garten told insider jeffrey said if you love it you'll be really good at it and that's the best advice anybody ever gave me garden gave a low offer for the store thinking it would provide her time to mullow for the decision but the owners accepted the next day and aina moved ahead with the deal garten was the new owner of a food shop and she named the establishment barefoot contessa of course garden had learned how to cook for herself but she quickly realized that she had no idea how to prepare food for others she stated honestly the first month i was there i thought this is the stupidest thing i've ever done in my life i'd never been in the food business i didn't know how to do anything garden decided to hire local chef anna pump who taught her that people eat differently when they're at home compared to a restaurant according to insider garden said i remember a customer asked me to do a cheese platter anna walked over very quietly and she said take everything off that platter put a big bunch of grapes in the middle put the cheese around it do blocks of color and then stop yourself that's what she taught me that the simpler things are the more elegant ones because of that advice garten is now known for her simplistic cooking some of her cookbook titles contain phrases like back to basics how easy is that and foolproof this inclusive culinary style is part of what has made her and her show so universally loved you're a pro right not really i'm a home cook but i've just had a little more experience than most people if there's one thing you can say about inna garden it's that she is always up for a new challenge garden had built barefoot contessa into a hugely successful business it became so busy that she moved the store from its original 400 square foot building in west hampton to a new 3 000 square foot store in easthampton but after nearly two decades of running her popular shop garten was looking to do something new she told eater i like a nice project that i can chew on and so the store was that and then after 20 years it was time to do something else in 1996 gardens sold the store to two of her employees the store manager and chef while she worked on charting a new course garden built an office above barefoot contessa and began writing a cookbook filled with recipes she perfected over the years at her store garten published the barefoot contessa cookbook in 1999. the volume quickly became a bestseller and led her to publish two more cookbooks within the next four years by 2002 garden had already established herself as a very successful and popular cookbook author with an impressive business pedigree that's when food network came calling the first season of garten's cooking show aptly named barefoot contessa aired in november of that year the show centers on garden as she shows viewers how to make not only impressive meals but to easily create entire entertainment experiences for guests it's filmed on her property in the hamptons though garden has admitted that the film kitchen isn't in her main home the wildly popular program has since made garden a household name approaching its 30th season on the air barefoot contessa is one of food network's ultra-popular long-running series but garten doesn't dare to watch the show herself she admits to having never seen an episode telling food network i couldn't possibly if i watched a show i don't think i'd ever do it again not only has barefoot contessa reeled in plenty of viewers it's also awarded garden some serious praise from critics she's won multiple daytime emmy awards for outstanding culinary host and the show was named best television program in studio or fixed location by the james beard awards in 2018. everybody loves someone who can cook so it should come as no surprise that ina garten is so popular still the list of famous friends she's accumulated over the years is pretty impressive even for a culinary powerhouse like garton but her friendships go beyond the television screen take her relationship with taylor swift for example the two were introduced through a mutual friend and then suddenly swift was in garten's east hampton new york home for a personal cooking lesson swift even wrote garten's commendation when the chef was included in times list of the 100 most influential people in the world garten told people she's incredibly busy and incredibly in demand that she'd take the time to write about me it meant that she thought that we had a special relationship which i feel we do other famous faces garden calls friends include tina fey who name dropped the chef in an episode of 30 rock jennifer garner who's had one of her own recipes featured on a barefoot contessa holiday special and katie couric who's been known to share a cosmopolitan or two with garden i'm like that woman on the food network whose husband only comes home on the weekends and she spends the rest of her time eating and drinking it's obvious that people are obsessed with all things in a garden and the famous chef has apparently caught on to the demand of the things in her life in late 2019 she announced she would be giving fans an inside look into her life by writing an upcoming memoir according to people in a press release announcing the move garten said her hope for pending the book is to help motivate readers to build the life they want she said by finding a way to do what i love for a living cooking i've been fortunate to build a career that has not only been incredibly rewarding but has brought people together through the power of home cooking i hope my book will inspire readers to find their own unique story while garten has written 12 best-selling collections of recipes this will be her first time penning a non-cookbook and as excited as barefoot contessa fans may be they'll have to be patient according to food and wine the memoir isn't due to be published until 2023 check out one of our newest videos right here plus even more mashed videos about your favorite celebrity chefs are coming soon subscribe to our youtube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one

Channel: Mashed

Views: 610,170

Rating: 4.7125487 out of 5

Keywords: mashed, ina garten, transformation, garten, chef

Id: jk_s0_hsuqI

Length: 12min 17sec (737 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 22 2021