We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.
If you’re an Ina Garten mega-fan, perhaps you already know that the influential cookbook author and TV personality’s journey to becoming the Barefoot Contessa all started with the purchase of a tiny 400-square-foot store in Westhampton Beach, New York. Already bearing the name of The Barefoot Contessa thanks to the previous owner, this diminutive specialty food shop that Garten purchased in 1987 would soon become a celebrated staple of the Hamptons community. For over 20 years, customers flocked in from across New York and around the country to experience the store’s unparalleled customer service (including a rather unique return policy), and Garten’s comforting home-cooked dishes.
When designing the iconic store’s beloved food menu, Garten took an innovative approach. “Everybody wanted to come in for exactly what they were coming in for, but they also wanted to see unusual things,” she shared recently on Instagram. “Every week, I would change the menu, so half of the things were new, and half of the things were what you expected to find.”
Using only the best ingredients (many of which were personally sourced from top quality NYC suppliers like Alleva Dairy and Rafetto’s), Garten would work 18-hour days in the shop as she perfected her menus to give customers what they were looking for — and surprises they might love. After nearly two decades making chocolate chip cookies, coconut cakes, and succulent roast chickens, Garten sold the shop –– which had relocated to a larger location in East Hampton –– to two employees in 1996.
Read more: The 15 Most Helpful Tips From Giada De Laurentiis’ TikTok
The Enduring Legacy Of The Barefoot Contessa
The Barefoot Contessa specialty food store in East Hampton, New York – Matthew Peyton/Getty Images
Before she was a bestselling cookbook author, Emmy Award-winning television personality, and culinary household name, Ina Garten was just another ambitious 30-year-old woman looking for a change in career. Burnt out from her job at the White House writing nuclear energy budgets under the Carter administration, Garten saw a New York Times ad for a specialty food store in the Hamptons and decided to place a low offer. Though she initially wanted to change the store’s 1950s film-inspired name, Garten eventually decided to stick with the earthy elegance of The Barefoot Contessa, and her enduring legacy was born.
Despite being banned from cooking by her mother during childhood, Garten’s obsession with food and self-taught skills propelled her into the limelight. In her 18 years behind the helm of The Barefoot Contessa, Garten grew the small Hamptons shop (which only made $87 on its first day of business) into a sought-out culinary destination for celebrities and other vacationing elites. After selling the store, Garten was inspired to collect her trove of beloved fan-favorite recipes, turning them into “The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook,” which sold over 100,000 copies only a year after publishing in 1999.
After the book’s successful launch, Food Network offered Garten her own “Barefoot Contessa” cooking show, which — in spite of Garten’s own initial reservations — aired from 2002 to 2021, picking up two Daytime Emmy Awards and countless other accolades. Today, Garten hosts Food Network’s celebrity-studded show “Be My Guest,” and is the author of 13 critically acclaimed cookbooks (with another slated for Fall 2026). In October 2024, Garten published her well-anticipated memoir “Be Ready When the Luck Happens.”
Want more food knowledge? Sign up to our free newsletter where we’re helping thousands of foodies, like you, become culinary masters, one email at a time.
Read the original article on Food Republic.
