A Ranking Of Ina Garten's Celebrity Friends
New show Be My Guest gives us a taste of what it's like to be the Barefoot Contessa's bestie.
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Imagine having dinner at the home of Ina Garten, the queen, the Barefoot Contessa, herself. We like to think things would kick off swimmingly with a blush-hued Cosmopolitan (a quarantine-sized one, hopefully), and then the evening would transition into some delicate little finger foods made from angel tears and fairy dust (a.k.a. fig and cheese toasts drizzled with balsamic vinegar). And of course, Jeffrey would pop in to say "hello" and there would be air kisses exchanged and plenty of "how fabulous is that?" thrown around. The table would be covered in the most gorgeous, yet effortless, floral arrangements and dinner would be something so comforting and warming that it would bring tears to our eyes. (Maybe her spring green spaghetti carbonara?) Afterward we'd sip whiskey sours into the early hours of morning, and we'd bunk in one of the spare bedrooms of her luxe-but-comfy Hamptons house.
Of course, for most of us, that's just a pipe dream. (Sigh.) But through Garten's new show Be My Guest, we're slated to get a little taste of what it's like to be Ina's bestie.
The show, which premiers March 26, will encompass three different formats: an hour-long show on Discovery+; a half-hour, show airing Saturdays at 12 p.m. on Food Network; and a companion podcast. Garten will act as host to some of her friends (actress Julianna Margulies, broadcaster Willie Geist, and chef Erin French, to name a few) and we'll get to watch along.
Of course, these lucky folks aren't the first of Garten's famous buddies to be treated to the Barefoot Contessa experience, which we can only imagine feels like stepping into a sunbeam after a long winter. From Hollywood to the culinary world, here's an exhaustive ranking of her very lucky and many celebrity friends. Which leads us to a very important question: Ina, will you be our friend?
Michelle Obama, Mutual Admirers
Ina Garten met the first lady back in 2016. Garten promised to cook Michelle Obama a meal once she had some free time. They also profusely thanked each other for their contributions to their respective industries.
“Thank you for your great work, the model that you set,” the first lady said.
“Well, you’ve inspired girls all over the world, including me,” Garten responded. And it was all sealed with a hug and air kiss before enjoying a vegetable tart on the Obama china. If that doesn’t make them friends, I don’t know what does.
Gwyneth Paltrow, Brunch Buds
The two got together all the way back in 2010 when Garten's cookbook How Easy Is That? was coming out. They bonded over a love of ricotta, making a perfect brunch of ricotta toast waaay before it was Instagram famous.
Lin-Manual Miranda and Emily Blunt, Cooking Qcquaintances and recipe swappers
To promote the release of Mary Poppins, the two actors went on Garten’s show to make a feast inspired by the movie. It starts off with Blunt giving Garten a little lesson on heating up the oil before dropping in the potatoes to get them crispy. Then, Miranda walks in to the smell of cooking potatoes. We don’t know if the three have kept in touch since, but we know they must be dreaming about those potatoes. Garten is, at least: She mentioned the recipe from Blunt again on Late Night with Seth Meyers, calling the potatoes “amazing.”
Tina Fey, Industry Friends
Tina Fey’s character on 30 Rock was obsessed with Ina Garten, and we think Fey herself is, too.
“I'm like that woman on the Food Network whose husband only comes home on the weekends, and spends the rest of the time eating and drinking with her gay friends,” Fey’s character Liz Lemon said on an episode of the show in 2010.
“Her name is Barefoot Contessa, Lemon, and you will never be like her, starting with the 'barefoot' part,” replied Alec Baldwin's Jack Donaghy. Garten even made a cameo on the show.
Then, in 2016, Tina Fey moderated a talk at the Brooklyn Academy of Music with Garten. They discussed her tenth book, Cooking for Jeffrey, the election, and her fave cuisines.
Taylor Swift, Phone Besties
We know that Swift is a major Ina fan: She owns all of Garten's cookbooks and first met her culinary idol back in 2014. In 2015, the singer gushed to TIME magazine about the food star, writing that “fans love her warmth and generosity. She shows us how to create memories that we’ll treasure for years to come.”
And Garten has a mutual admiration, telling HuffPost in 2018 that the two discuss “boyfriends. Businesses. Friends. Life. She’s very smart and very interesting and she loves her friends. She is wise beyond her years to say the least. Just extraordinary.” She even listens to T. Swift when cooking.
Neil Patrick Harris, Fellow Lover Of Cocktails
NPH brought his husband David Burtka over for an episode of Barefoot Contessa. You know they all hit it off when Ina says, “Don’t you like the way I invite you over for lunch, and then I make you cook?” Harris mixed up a rye-groni, while Burtka, who is a chef, grilled the steak.
Jennifer Garner, Mutual Inspirations
We are obsessed with Jennifer Garner’s Pretend Cooking Show on her social media, in which she pulls inspo from Queen Ina herself. So it only makes sense that the two paired up for a Thanksgiving special at Garten’s Hamptons home back in 2018. It seems the two have stayed in touch: When Garner almost set her kitchen on fire while attempting one of Garten’s recipes for Christmas last year, she said “Ina would never,” and we agree. But she would understand!
Martha Stewart, Old Pals
The two met when Garten opened up her Hamptons food store, and Stewart even helped to connect her with an editor for her first book proposal, Garten said in the podcast How To Be Amazing with Michael Ian Black back in 2017. She also credits Stewart with being a trailblazer in the home space.
“I think she did something really important, which is that she took something that wasn’t valued, which is home arts, and raised it to a level that people were proud to do it and that completely changed the landscape,” she said. “I then took it in my own direction, which is that I’m not a trained professional chef, cooking is really hard for me—here I am 40 years in the food business, it’s still hard for me.”
Although Stewart doesn’t approve of Garten’s advice on how to cope during the pandemic, we still hope they keep in touch and swap industry gossip.
Seth Meyers, Drinking Mates
If you haven’t seen the video of Seth Meyers and Ina Garten day drinking, then you are missing out on an iconic piece of American history. Garten has been on Meyer's show a few times to promote her new cookbook, but when she joined him for a segment called Day Drinking where he fiercely outdrinks his guests, it was peak Ina.
The video starts with a classic Ina line of “how fun is this?” before Meyers downs a Pimm’s Cup cocktail. It ends with Garten gushing over Meyer’s horrible attempt to decorate a cake. And of course, an air kiss!
Katie Couric, Practically B.F.F.s
The two have done a number of things together. Garten had Couric over for Easter morning to give her a lesson in scrambled eggs and a chat about feminism in 2017, and the two got together again in 2018 for Couric's video series Getting There. If their enthusiastic greetings don't tell you how friendly they are with each other, maybe Couric bringing Garten some scones will. How brave! Though, the recipe was from Garten’s cookbook, so you know they were good.
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