Ina Garten’s Manners While Cooking With Martha Stewart Got Her Noticed by Food Network
Ditching table manners played a part in Ina Garten’s journey to hosting a cooking show. Ahead, what she said taping The Martha Stewart Show that made a Food Network executive take notice. Plus, why Garten believes Barefoot Contessa isn’t about “‘look at me.’”
A Food Network executive noticed Ina Garten in a ‘Martha Stewart Show’ outtake when she was told not to talk with her mouth full
When her career as a cookbook author started to take off, Garten appeared as a guest on Martha Stewart’s cooking show. It was 2001, the year her second cookbook, Barefoot Contessa Parties!, hit shelves.
Garten and Stewart had already known each other for years, having worked together after meeting in the Hamptons. Despite being familiar with Stewart, Garten was new to TV.
She talked with her mouth full in an outtake — a no-no on The Martha Stewart Show — and a Food Network executive noticed.
“She said that I was making something,” Garten recalled in a 2022 60 Minutes interview (via CBS News). “And I took a spoonful of it and tasted it and go, ‘This is really good.’”
The now-74-year-old continued: “And — and the Martha Stewart crew said, ‘Cut. You can’t talk with your mouth full.’ And I was like, ‘Why? It’s a cooking show.’”
Ina Garter later agreed to host a cooking show, her way
Garten finally agreed to host her own cooking show after turning down Food Network over and over again. But it had to be on her terms: filming in her kitchen with cameras up close to give the show more of a dinner party feel.
A grand gesture from the network also helped. When Food Network learned Garten liked the style of a certain cooking show, they hired the producer to work on Barefoot Contessa.
“I thought that was pretty impressive,” Garten once told Food & Wine. One long phone conversation with the producer later and she decided to try TV.
Garten’s cooking show premiered in November 2002 and she continues to film new episodes.
The ‘Barefoot Contessa’ host focuses on having fun
Sure, Garten gets stressed before dinner parties and nervous cooking for people. But her main focus is having fun.
“When you’re cooking, you’re not — it’s not about, ‘Look at me,’” Alfonsi said in Garten’s 60 Minutes interview. “Oh, it’s never about, ‘Look at me.’ I’m like, ‘Don’t look at me.’ I’m just the opposite,” the cookbook author replied.
“It’s funny, I have a friend who said, ‘Everybody else is, like, ‘Look at me. Look at me. You know, pay attention to me,’” Garten continued. “And I’m like, ‘Well, this is what I do. You can do whatever the f*** you want to do.’ And I’m just having fun here.”
“I just think,” Garten later added, “if you’re not having fun what’s the point, really?”
