Ina Garten

Ina Garten is a television cook and host born on February 2, 1948 in Brooklyn, New York. She is the host of the Food Network show Barefoot Contessa, which is also named after the gourmet food store she owned. She expanded her talents through cookbooks where she became named as a best-selling author and also wrote magazine columns.

In December 1968 Ina and her husband Jeffrey Garten, who served in the military, relocated to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where Ina began to dabble in cooking. After her husband returned from the Vietnam War, the couple went on a European tour for four months, which included France. She was exposed to open-air markets and produce stands that led to her admiration for French cuisine and began studying culinary arts, specifically French cuisine, when she returned home.

In 1972, she and her husband moved to Washington, D.C., where Ina would regularly host weekly dinner parties to cultivate her entertaining and culinary skills. She later got a job working at the White House in the Office of Management and Budget where she was a budget analyst.

In 1978, Ina left her government job after spotting an ad for a retail food store called Barefoot Contessa in Westhampton Beach, New York. A few years after buying the store, she moved the store to a larger location and began selling cookbooks. In 2002, she started her Barefoot Contessa show with Food Network, which was nominated in 2005 for a Daytime Emmy Award.