Quotes from Ina Garten

I love to take something ordinary and make it really special.

The dirty little secret is that I grew up in a household where there were no carbohydrates allowed, ever. No cookies, no bread, no potatoes, no rice. My mother was very extreme in terms of what she served. Since I left home more than 40 years ago, I've been making it right for myself.

I like almonds as a snack - keeps your energy up but doesn't fill you up.

In the summer you want fresh, light and sort of quick things; in winter you want things that are comforting, so your body really tells you you want to go towards potatoes, apples, fennel, things that are warm and comforting. And loin of pork.

You don't have to do everything from scratch. Nobody wants to make puff pastry!

I'm really a scientist. I follow recipes exactly - until I decide not to. And then I'll follow something else exactly. I may decide I could turn this peach tart into a plum tart, but if I'm following a recipe, I follow it exactly.

I measure everything, because I always think that if I've spent so much time making sure this recipe was exactly the way I want it, why would I want to throw things into a pot?

Grilled cheese and tomato soup is the ultimate comfort meal.

Creme Brulee is the ultimate 'guy' dessert. Make it and he'll follow you anywhere.

One of the great gifts that you can give people is to cook for them.

I always have music. I love it to be very upbeat. When you're having drinks, I like something like Cesaria Evora. During dinner, I like the much more traditional - old Frank Sinatra and things like that.

Fun is the most important. If you do stuff for money, it never works out.

The most overrated tool: a pasta maker. Why make it when you can buy it? It's a lot of work!

I've lived in the Hamptons since 1978, when I first bought my store Barefoot Contessa.

If it's a cocktail party, I generally make five or six different things, and I try to choose recipes that feel like a meal: a chicken thing, a fish or shrimp thing, maybe two vegetable things, and I think it's fun to end the cocktail party with a sweet thing.

My mother would never let me in the kitchen. I always wanted to cook, but I was never allowed to. Her view of the world was, 'Cooking is my job, and studying is your job.' I think, in retrospect, she didn't like the chaos. She was very orderly. It had to be her way.

If you think about a Thanksgiving dinner, it's really like making a large chicken.

Instead of going out to dinner, buy good food. Cooking at home shows such affection. In a bad economy, it's more important to make yourself feel good.

I absolutely adore Thanksgiving. It's the only holiday I insist on making myself.

I try to greet my friends with a drink in my hand, a warm smile on my face, and great music in the background, because that's what gets a dinner party off to a fun start.

The thing about all my food is that everything is a remembered flavor. Maybe it's something I had as a child or maybe it's something I had in Milan, but I want it to taste better than you ever thought.

My extravagance is my garden - it's the first thing I look at every morning when I wake up. It gives me so much pleasure.

I love Alton Brown's show 'Good Eats ' about the chemistry of food. It's really thoughtful.

I worked for the Office of Management and Budget in the White House, on nuclear energy policy. But I decided it would be much more fun to have a specialty food store, so I left Washington D.C. and moved to the Hamptons. And how glad I am that I did!