Ina Garten: Barefoot Contess - Back to Basics

By JULIETTE ROSSANT It is getting close to the holiday season when staying home to cook for friends and family or preparing a fancy dinner for special out-of-town guests is just the thing to celebrate the season. The often-repeated rule is never to make a new dish for an important dinner party, if you haven't tried it before. That's true, unless it comes from a cookbook with easy-to-follow recipes you can trust. The queen of dinner parties on television is Ina Garten hands down. Her Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics (Clarkson Potter 2008) is just the kind of cookbook to turn to for a complete elegant dinner party menu. The emphasis is on excellent, occasionally luxurious ingredients that are easy to find, and pair well together. The book has wonderful photographs by Quentin Bacon of food and guests enjoying themselves in Ina's home. At the back of the book is a section listing Menus (p. 264) that lists dishes both in this volume and Ina's other books. Ina reflects on a dinner she made, listed here, and recalled in the introduction: I had a dinner party for very special friends and I wanted the meal to be memorable. I decided Tagliarelle with Truffle Butter (page 152) would be the showcase of the meal. To balance the luxuriousness of the truffles, I chose a simple Roast Capon (Barefoot Contessa at Home) cooked on a bed of onions without any gravy because the pasta sauce was rich enough. (p. 24) Besides collecting Ina's other cookbooks, the introduction spells out her thinking on how to construct a memorable menu. There are plenty of other examples of Ina explaining her thinking along with providing easy, thoughtful recipes that are but a small stretch for a home cook just starting to prepare fancy meals. On a cold Fall night Ina's Roasted Potato Leek Soup (p. 63) with crème fraiche and Parmesan cheese is a terrific warming start to a memorable meal. Follow the soup with Herb-Marinated Loin of Pork (p. 126) and Maple-Roasted Butternut Squash (p. 191) and Old-Fashioned Ginger Bread (p. 203). These are French-derived American classics that define comfort food. Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics is the right gift for someone who needs just a little gently hand holding in the kitchen in order to enjoy their own dinner parties. Previous articles: July 4th: Food Network Gifts Ina Garten: Secret White House Choice? [Cookbook Reviews - complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging --> back to Super Chef