Barefoot Contessa Family Style: Easy Ideas and Recipes That Make Everyone Feel Like Family [Hardcover]

Ina Garten (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 29, 2002

Ina Garten, who shared her gift for casual entertaining in the bestselling Barefoot Contessa Cookbook and Barefoot Contessa Parties!, is back with her most enticing recipes yet—a collection of her favorite dishes for everyday cooking. In Barefoot Contessa Family Style, Ina explains that sharing our lives and tables with those we love is too essential to be saved just for special occasions—and it’s easy to do if you know how to cook irresistible meals with a minimum of fuss.

For Ina, the best way to make guests feel at home is to serve them food that’s as unpretentious as it is delicious. So in her new book, she’s collected the recipes that please her friends and family most—dishes like East Hampton Clam Chowder, Parmesan Roasted Asparagus, and Linguine with Shrimp Scampi. It’s the kind of fresh, accessible food that’s meant to be passed around the table in big bowls or platters and enjoyed with warm conversation and laughter.

In Ina’s hands tried-and-true dishes are even more delicious than you remember them: Her arugula salad is bright with the flavors of lemon and Parmesan, the Oven-Fried Chicken is crispy without excess fat, and her Deep-Dish Apple Pie has the perfect balance of fruit and spice. Barefoot Contessa Family Style also includes enticing recipes that are memorable and distinctive, like Lobster Cobb Salad, Tequila Lime Chicken, and Saffron Risotto with Butternut Squash.

With vivid photographs of Ina cooking and serving food in her beautiful Hamptons home, as well as menu suggestions, practical wisdom on what to do when disaster strikes in the kitchen, and tips on creating an inviting ambience with music, Barefoot Contessa Family Style is the must-have guide to the joy of everyday entertaining.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This second book follows the same basic premise as Garten's phenomenally popular Barefoot Contessa Cookbook: simple, elegant home cooking with good ingredients and a minimum of fuss. It takes a certain amount of chutzpah to include ordinary chicken noodle soup and mashed potatoes and gravy in a cookbook, but Garten pulls it off with heart and style. Dinners are conceived as crowd-pleasers, with a big nod to Italian home-cooking: oven-fried chicken, penne with five cheeses, Sunday rib roast, risotto, lasagna. Like other cookbooks with a specialty-shop pedigree (such as Silver Palate), Garten's book is inflected with a certain catering mentality-a lot of salmon, sun-dried tomatoes, the inevitable Curry Chicken Salad, the forgiving and easy Chicken with Tabbouleh. However, these recipes manage to seem not dated but just reasonable solutions to the eternal problem set of practicality, flavor and time. With photographs of the dishes on nearly every spread and a nice, open format, Garten's book is easy to use. Sections on desserts, kids, and brunch complete this fine snapshot of real-life cooking and the joys of eating in.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Garten's first two books featuring recipes from the Barefoot Contessa, her gourmet takeout shop in East Hampton, NY, have sold more than 400,000 copies. Her latest repeats the appealing format of those titles, offering sophisticated but easy recipes and an attractive design featuring dozens of color photographs, mostly closeups of the recipes but including some casual shots of the author, friends, and family. Garten's "family style" cooking includes dishes like Chicken Noodle Soup and Parker's Fish & Chips (separate chapters are devoted to breakfast and kids' foods), but there are also elegant dishes like Tuna Tartare, Saffron Risotto, and Lobster Cobb Salad, not exactly everyday fare. Sure to be popular.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter (October 29, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 060961066X
• ISBN-13: 978-0609610664
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 0.8 x 10.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (163 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,383 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #3 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Professional Cooking > Quantity
  • #51 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Special Occasions

More About the Author

In 1978, Ina Garten left her job as a budget analyst in the White House to pursue her dream of operating a specialty food store in the Hamptons. She is a frequent contributor to major national magazines and writes a recurring column in O Magazine. Her new television series on entertaining can be seen on Food Network. Ina lives in East Hampton, New York, and Southport, Connecticut, with her husband, Jeffrey.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

283 of 284 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding versions of stand-by foods, December 17, 2002

By 

"bluedevil98" (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Barefoot Contessa Family Style: Easy Ideas and Recipes That Make Everyone Feel Like Family (Hardcover)

I absolutely love this book! The recipes are entirely in keeping with the title... these aren't fancy or earth-shattering innovations, so people who thrive on that may be disappointed (I seem to notice a trend among some of the reviewers who have posted). They're just really wonderful versions of honest, straightforward food. The recipe for chicken and biscuits is the best I've ever made, the chicken soup is outstanding, the roasted winter vegetables are lovely, and the mashed potatoes and gravy are absolutely sinful versions of old favorites.

As I'm sure you can gather from the previous list, these are recipes for things that you probably already know how to make... it's just that they're absolutely superlative versions of those things. (Much like the chocolate pudding from her Parties! book, if anyone has tried making that: it's just chocolate pudding, after all, but it's heavenly).

So here's my advice: if you're convinced that you already have the perfect recipe for every standard dish under the sun, this book isn't for you. If, however, you love good food and are willing to contemplate the idea that classic dishes could be even better, give it a try. I don't think you'll be disappointed. Furthermore, I think that this would be a wonderful wedding gift or gift to someone who's just starting out: why not begin life with a collection of wonderful recipes for comfort foods?

133 of 134 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy, Classy Comfort Food, February 6, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Barefoot Contessa Family Style: Easy Ideas and Recipes That Make Everyone Feel Like Family (Hardcover)

I don't normally write in to review books, particulary cook books, but this one is an exception. I am an avid gourmet cook and I'm always looking for new cookbooks. However, I hate investing in them because I usually only end up making one or two recipes out of each book and it feels like a waste of money. Within two weeks of getting the Barefoot Contessa book, I had made almost half of the recipes - to raving reviews from family and friends.

The recipes are easy and fabulous and they can easily be served for a low-key family dinner or a special dinner with company. While they could be considered gourmet, none of the recipes call for exotic ingredients which means everything is already in your pantry or readily available at the grocery store. What I particularly like is that Ina offers menu suggestions in the back of the book so all of the planning is already done for you.

Most importantly, this book is family friendly. There is a section devoted to children's food including favorites like Mac and Cheese and Chicken Fingers. However, my girlfriend's 2-year old couldn't get enough of the Shrimp Scampi (one of the "adult" recipes) and that was enough to get her to buy the book too.

I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for easy, delicious recipes for all kinds of occassions.

103 of 106 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Comfort Foods, March 26, 2003

By 

BeachReader (Delaware) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Barefoot Contessa Family Style: Easy Ideas and Recipes That Make Everyone Feel Like Family (Hardcover)

I loved this book's theme/subtitle: to make all your guests feel like family. The beautiful format and layout, as well as the photos, makes this a cookbook to be treasured. Many of the recipes are simple, basic ones that many of us already have, which is why I gave this four stars instead of five.

As usual, every recipe I have tried has been a success (Turkey Lasagna, Banana Sour Cream Pancakes, Shrimp Scampi, Rice Pudding, Mustard Vinagrette). I especially love the simple ingredients and the non-fussy style of the cooking. The recipes please my family and myself and keep my time in the kitchen at a minimum, which makes me very happy.

Although I did not garner as many new recipes from this cookbook as I did her other two, I would not hesitate to give this as a wedding shower gift to a novice cook.

Looking forward to Ina's next cookbook.