Ina Garten Calls Her Mini Cooper the ‘Best Present Ever’ From Husband Jeffrey
Ina Garten’s Mini Cooper makes the occasional appearance on Barefoot Contessa. Whether the cookbook author’s on her way to see a local florist in East Hampton, New York, or returning from the butcher shop, chances are she’s behind the wheel of her white convertible Mini Cooper. Turns out, it was a surprise from her husband, economist Jeffrey Garten.
Ina Garten’s Mini Cooper helps her and Jeffrey Garten unwind
Garten’s car came up during a March 2022 New York Times interview about her favorite things. It made the No. 10 spot behind the New York City restaurant Lilia, Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History podcast, and Alfred Hitchcock thrillers.
The Modern Comfort Food author explained the Mini Cooper was a surprise from her husband, Jeffrey, who considers himself Garten’s No. 1 fan. Meanwhile, Barefoot Contessa viewers know him as an eager taste tester for Garten’s recipes.
“Jeffrey got me the Mini one day,” Garten said. Her reaction? “I thought, ‘This is the best present ever.’”
The Food Network star, who met Jeffrey at 15, continued, saying they go for drives together to relax.
“We work a lot, and we’re always under a lot of pressure,” Garten said. “But we raise up the garage door and we back out, the top is down and we’re out of there!”
“It just feels like summer,” she added, noting they “love to take a ride to Montauk and have a cocktail out on the water and drive home.”
The Barefoot Contessa once bought her husband a car
In December 2020, Garten told Katie Couric Jeffrey doesn’t like gifts. But that hasn’t stopped her from buying them for him.
“This is a little-known subject, he hates gifts. So I used to buy him … you know, I’d go out and buy him a car or something — it would just drive him crazy,” she said.
Garten recalled surprising Jeffrey with a Fiat convertible for his birthday one year. “I handed him the ticket to the garage and asked, ‘Could you go get the car and I’ll meet you downstairs?’”
The cooking show cost continued, saying when Jeffrey realized what was going on he replied with, “This isn’t my car.”
Garten’s Mini Cooper isn’t the only extravagant gift she’s received from Jeffrey
Not only is Garten’s Mini Cooper a gift from Jeffrey but so is the art hanging in her “barn” where Barefoot Contessa’s filmed. As the 74-year-old told Oprah Daily in 2021, Jeffrey surprised her with an April Gornik painting during a visit to the artist’s gallery.
“I have a painting by April Gornik, and every time I look at it, I think, I can’t believe I have a painting by April Gornik,” Garten recalled before telling the story.
“We bought it 15 years ago, and at the time, even though we were friends with her, Jeffrey didn’t know her work. So one day when we were in New York, I took him to her gallery, solely to introduce him to her art,” Garten explained. “Honestly, I didn’t think we’d ever be able to afford it!”
“At one point, Jeffrey was like, ‘Excuse me, I have something I have to do,’” she recalled. “And I thought, Where are you going? When he came back, he said, ‘I just bought that for the barn because it really belongs there.’ I couldn’t believe he did that—but I’m so glad he did.”
