Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9540 in Books
• Published on: 1999-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Synopsis
After 20 years of dazzling the sophisticated palates of customers at The Barefoot Contessa, her East Hampton speciality food store, Ina Garten is doing the same for cookbook readers everywhere. Here, she offers advice on making party foods.'

Customer Reviews

Easy to prepare, hard to resist
After making just three recipes from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook -- the Outrageous Brownies, the Fresh Corn Salad, and the Parmesan Smashed Potatoes -- I know I can trust the recipes in this delightfully designed, gloriously photographed paean to good cooking. Co-workers and friends could not stop enthusing about the brownies, which many claimed were the best brownies they'd ever tasted, and dinner guests went back for three helpings of the potatoes. As some have pointed out, this is NOT low-fat cuisine -- but neither is a Big Mac and an order of fries, which would leave one infinitely less satisfied than the dishes here. So, when taste is your primary concern, trust this invaluable resource from Ina Garten -- I know I will for years to come.

Ok
I love the layout of this book but I have made three recipes out of this book already and had problems with two. The pan-fried onion dip was delicious but extremely heavy. The coconut cupcakes were good but cut the frosting recipe in half and the sun dried tomato dip does not need the extra salt. I also feel the this book was too expensive for the amount of recipes you get. Visually stunning, but wait until it goes on sale to buy it.

Ava Gardner would have approved!
This lavishly illustrated volume containing many stunning full-colour photographs of finished dishes as well as locally grown produce strives for elegant simplicity and proves that good food need not be complicated. The dishes described are not difficult to prepare and require no special expertise or equipment. The author provides clearly written recipes that call for widely available ingredients. She knows that even standard dishes can benefit from fresh thinking and encourages inventiveness in the kitchen. This book would make a lovely gift for anyone who likes to entertain simply, naturally, and with style.

Another book that I highly recommend is Sonia Uvezian's masterpiece, "Recipes and Remembrances from an Eastern Mediterranean Kitchen", which has to be one of the greatest ethnic cookbooks ever written. It too inspires innovation and brims with magnificent recipes suitable for entertaining that have consistently brought me raves from both family and guests. Uvezian's recipes for hummus with red pepper paste and for pomegranate wine punch are just two of the hundreds in her book that will bring you fame as a cook.