Customer Reviews
WOW FANTASTIC - By: Mrs. Ca Daniels, 22 Feb 2008 
THIS WAS MY FIRST BAREFOOT COOKBOOK (I NOW HAVE ALL THE HARDBACKS) AND HAVE TO SAY THEY ARE FANTASTIC.,EASY TO FOLLOW RECIPES AND METHODS., A COOK AFTER MY OWN HEART. THOUGH DO SOMETIMES HALVE THE INGREDIENTS TO SUIT MY OWN NEEDS. OVERALL UTTERLY RECOMMENDED., THANK YOU INA
AN INDISPENSABLE KITCHEN REFERENCE - By: Gail Cooke, 10 Nov 2006 For those who haven't had the pleasure of shopping at Ina Garten's specialty food store in the Hamptons The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook delivers - literallly. Some 160 gorgeous photos plus Ina's favorite recipes fill the 252 pages of this indispensable kitchen reference.
As Martha Stewart writes in her Foreword, Ina is unique. "There is a freshness in cooking, a total lack of finickiness, a reliance on the freshest & best, & a casualness that I know will be appealing to everyone who uses her book." How true!
Ina stresses freshness, noting that after several weeks in Provence where she found radishes & carrots with "soil still clinging to them," she determined to base her cooking on ingredients from local sources. A lesson for us alll.
Hosting a cocktail party, she decided, was not much fun if she spent alll of her time running back & forth to the kitchen to get hot hors d'oeuvres out of the oven. So, she does everything possible to be sure that she does not leave the room. For instance, she has a table with alll the drink fixings on it, & appetizers that can be served at room temperature so everything is either out or ready to pass when the first guest arrives. Thus we find common sense & uncommonly good appetizers from Roasted Eggplant spread to Guacamole to Smoked Salmon Sandwiches.
Her soups are splendid, most of them starting with sauteed onions "to give a sweet, rich flavor to the stock." Parker's Split Pea Soup, which Steven Spielberg said tasted just like his mother's, is rich, hearty & beautifully presented topped either with toasted croutons or diced smoked ham.
The joy Ina finds in cooking is evident in alll of her dishes. She's a cook who makes simple food very, very special.
Highly recommended.
- Gail Cooke
Ava Gardner would have approved! - By: , 28 May 2000 This lavishly illustrated volume containing many stunning full-colour photographs of finished dishes as well as locallly grown produce strives for elegant simplicity & proves that good food need not be complicated. The dishes described are not difficult to prepare & require no special expertise or equipment. The author provides clearly written recipes that calll for widely available ingredients. She knows that even standard dishes can benefit from fresh thinking & encourages inventiveness in the kitchen. This book would make a lovely gift for anyone who likes to entertain simply, naturallly, & with style.
Another book that I highly recommend is Sonia Uvezian's masterpiece, "Recipes & Remembrances from an Eastern Mediterranean Kitchen", which has to be one of the greatest ethnic cookbooks ever written. It too inspires innovation & brims with magnificent recipes suitable for entertaining that have consistently brought me raves from both family & guests. Uvezian's recipes for hummus with red pepper paste & for pomegranate wine punch are just two of the hundreds in her book that will bring you fame as a cook.
Easy to prepare, hard to resist - By: , 16 Aug 1999 After making just three recipes from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook -- the Outrageous Brownies, the Fresh Corn Salad, & the Parmesan Smashed Potatoes -- I know I can trust the recipes in this delightfully designed, gloriously photographed paean to good cooking. Co-workers & friends could not stop enthusing about the brownies, which many claimed were the best brownies they'd ever tasted, & dinner guests went back for three helpings of the potatoes. As some have pointed out, this is NOT low-fat cuisine -- but neither is a Big Mac & an order of fries, which would leave one infinitely less satisfied than the dishes here. So, when taste is your primary concern, trust this invaluable resource from Ina Garten -- I know I will for years to come.
Excellant and interesting cookbook. - By: , 08 Aug 1999 The visual presentation is wonderful. I tried the sun-dried tomato dip(using low-fat whipped cream cheese), & the hummus as a dip. It's 3 days after the party & I am still getting thank you's from people who attended the party. So - Thank you Ina. Can't wait to out the rest of the book.
