Ina Garten on Thanksgiving Traditions & the Secret to Easy Entertaining

“I’m not a confident cook,” says

Ina Garten

, 12-time cookbook author and star of the Emmy award-winning show

The Barefoot Contessa

on the Food Network, now in its 26th season. “In a funny way, when I first started this, I thought, ‘What makes me think I can write cookbooks?’ But as time went on, I realized my anxiety is actually just like everybody else’s. Cooking is hard! I’ve never worked on a line in a restaurant, I didn’t go to culinary school, and in fact, I think that’s actually helped my cookbook writing because if a recipe is too complicated or takes too long, I’m never going to make it again, and I think other people feel the same way.”

One certainly doesn’t expect to hear one of America’s most beloved, James Beard Award

–

winning cookbook authors, aka

The Barefoot Contessa

, say she’s not a confident cook. Or, for that matter, that cooking is hard. But that is the secret sauce to her great success over the past two decades—she is a student of her own at-home cooking education, just like most of her adoring fans.

“Sometimes you’ll spend a weekend doing a project and bake bread,” says Garten, who has joined me via Zoom from her picturesque kitchen in East Hampton wearing her signature button-down shirt. “But most of the time you just want to get dinner on the table.”

Garten has been feeding her fans exactly that for decades—recipes that are approachable, comforting, and most importantly, delicious. They’re straightforward and exacting, meticulously tested, and don’t require 1,000 different ingredients from various specialty shops. If you pick up one of her books having never cooked anything in your life, you could fairly easily try one of the recipes and finish with something delicious (provided you follow all the steps, of course). It all started with her popular Hamptons food store, The Barefoot Contessa, where locals relied on her for turkey meatloaf, barbecued chicken and orzo, and banana muffins.

Her latest cookbook, titled

Modern Comfort Food

, was released on October 6th—not coincidentally, it was just in time for the presidential election. In the introduction, she writes, “During times of financial and political stress, there’s something about a hamburger and Coke or a big bowl of beef stew that makes us just feel better. They’re not fancy—in fact, quite the opposite. They’re familiar, delicious, and soul-satisfying. In other words, they’re comfort food.”

Modern Comfort Food

is filled with just the kind of food you want to eat and drink in these unsettling times, like grilled cheese and tomato soup, beef stew, pizza, and giant chocolate-chip cookies. Garten toyed with classic, familiar flavors and put her own updated spin on them. The creamy tomato bisque, for example, has just a hint of saffron that brings an ever-so-subtle heat to the dish that’s a bit unexpected. And the grilled cheese (“the ultimate comfort food,” says Garten) isn’t simply white bread with cheddar; it’s extra-sharp white cheddar with mango chutney. The nachos in the book get an upgrade with jumbo lump crab meat.

And, of course, there are some excellent, stiff cocktails in there, as well. Though she nearly broke the internet in the early days of quarantine with

her Instagram post

featuring an extra large cosmopolitan, which provided some much-needed levity for people during some very dark times (and resurfaced again during election week), she’s traded out her cosmos as of late for something a little different.

“Wasn’t that funny? Everybody just went crazy when I posted that,” says Garten during our interview on November 5th, when Americans were still glued to CNN waiting for a final election result and relying on cocktails and comfort food for some much-needed solace. “I love the pomegranate gimlets in the new book. They’re kind of autumnal because of the pomegranate, and they are just so good.”

Never one to stay idle, she’s already in the middle of her next cookbook (due out in 2022) and a memoir (due out in 2023) and hard at work on a new design book as we speak.

“I just remember after the first book came out, I thought, ‘Well, that’s it. I’m done. That’s all my recipes,” says Garten as she flashes that signature, apple-cheeked warm smile, and we both have a good laugh.

Here, Garten chats with Coveteur about what food is comforting her most right now, entertaining in the time of COVID (when in doubt, order pizza delivery!), and what she’s cooking up for Thanksgiving with her husband, Jeffrey.

[Listicle particle error: Unhandled HTML element 'big' in post 2650787551 (context: Element not in supported or skip lists) Element HTML: Modern Comfort Food]