Product Description
Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics is the essential Ina Garten cookbook, focusing on the techniques behind her elegant food and easy entertaining style, and offering nearly a hundred brand-new recipes that will become trusted favorites.

Ina Garten’s bestselling cookbooks have con-sistently provided accessible, subtly sophisticated recipes ranging from French classics made easy to delicious, simple home cooking. In Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics, Ina truly breaks down her ideas on flavor, examining the ingredients and techniques that are the foundation of her easy, refined style.

Here Ina covers the essentials, from ten ways to boost the flavors of your ingredients to ten things not to serve at a party, as well as professional tips that make successful baking, cooking, and entertaining a breeze. The recipes—crowd-pleasers like Lobster Corn Chowder, Tuscan Lemon Chicken, and Easy Sticky Buns—demonstrate Ina’s talent for transforming fresh, easy-to-find ingredients into elegant meals you can make without stress.

For longtime fans, Ina delivers new insights into her simple techniques; for newcomers she provides a thorough master class on the basics of Barefoot Contessa cooking plus a Q&A section with answers to the questions people ask her all the time. With full-color photographs and invaluable cooking tips, Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics is an essential addition to the cherished library of Barefoot Contessa cookbooks.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 19 reviews)

Diva does it again!

Outstanding recipes....tried the tuscan chicken...instead of grilling, I baked and served with rosemary, lemon zest and parm polenta. Great dinner!
November 20, 2008

Back to Basics, Indeed!

Like most folks, I was introduced to Ms. Garten via her Barefoot Contessa teevee show on the Food Network. As I was collecting (and still do) French influenced cookbooks, I purchased Barefoot in Paris (along with the companion travel journey), and fell further in love with her. Ms. Garten's latest offers a collection of savory recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner along with the cocktail hour and sections on soups, vegetables and desserts. Each chapter is prefaced with tips like flavor enhancers and serving suggestions. A section is dedicated to frequently asked questions and with instructions that are easy to follow, the recipes are not so high-brow as to be unattainable. Coq au vin, Chive and risotto cakes, Lemon Tuscan chicken (the first thing I'm preparing), orange pecan rice...yum, and the photographs are absolutely scrumptious. Ms. Garten shares menu ideas and resources, and takes the stress out of preparing, what looks like elaborate courses, with the basic of ingredients. I can do this!

November 18, 2008

always love ina!!!

I bought this book the day it came out and it's been great because these are the recipes from this seasons show. I'm such an Ina fan!!! Her recipes are always simple but always impressive. I strongly recommend this book!
November 16, 2008

It's Important to Get Back to Basics

Back to Basics is a great cookbook for me, easy to follow for - the cooking challenged. During these stressful times cooking presents a great creative outlet and I am determined to get better and relax into it and this book really helps. I wish some of the recipes were a bit healthier since food and mood correlate and we do have an obesity epidemic fueled by stress and empty hearts. As I discuss in my book, Addicted to Stress: A Woman's 7 Step Program to Reclaim Joy and Spontaneity in Life, you can develop your personal emotional menu for building a healthy body and an immunity to stress and negativity. You can use life recipes along with food recipes from both books to get back to basics in your own life.
November 15, 2008

great cookbook

I have all of Ina Garten's books and I really love her simple style. I agree with her about food fads- foam is something that happens during an ocean red tide, or on a cappuccino, but not on my plate, please!
Last night I made Ina's mustard roasted fish for guests to rave reviews. Even my husband who is not a fan of mustard or capers, which are both in the sauce, loved it! For this recipe alone, the book was worth it and there are many others I plan to try- the Tuscan lemon chicken, the roasted pears with blue cheese, and the gravlox. There are also some great cocktail and appetizer recipes as well as valuable entertaining tips.
Anyone who is already a fan of Ina will love this cookbook. If you don't have any of Ina's books yet I recommend "Parties" first. It is an indispensable addition to any cook's library and there are recipes from it that I have been making for years.
November 14, 2008

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