Ina Garten: Cooking Is Hard; Plus an Essay from Susan Orlean

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

News, Wnyc, David, Arts, Yorker, Society & Culture, Storytelling, Books, New, Remnick, Politics

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2022

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With the Food Network program “Barefoot Contessa,” Ina Garten became a beloved household name. Although she is a gregarious teacher and presence on television, Garten prefers to do her actual cooking alone. “Cooking’s hard for me. I mean, I do it a lot, but it’s really hard and I just love having the space to concentrate on what I’'m doing, so I make sure it comes out well.” Garten joins David Remnick to reflect on her early days in the kitchen, and to answer listener questions about holiday meals and more. Her latest book is “Go-To Dinners.” Plus, Susan Orlean joins with an installment from her column “Afterword.” She writes about the life of a Texas man who founded a rattlesnake handling business. He liked providing a service for his neighbors, and for whatever reason, he just loved rattlesnakes—a passion that proved fatal.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:11.2	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.
0:18.5	Ina Garten is not only a household name, she is beloved.
0:22.2	With the help of her Food Network program, Barefoot Contessa, not to mention all those viral
0:27.3	videos, Garten has 14 million cookbooks in print.
0:31.4	14 million. Her success doesn't really come, though, from pioneering recipes or being
0:36.2	in the foodie avant-garde, it's got more to do
0:38.2	with being a confiding, authentic, warm personality that tells you that you too can make
0:44.9	cacovin or a roast tenderloin, anything. Just follow the recipe. You can do it.
0:50.9	Ina's approach to food is classic and accessible, and her latest book, Go To Diner's,
0:56.7	is a bestseller, as usual. Now, my wife and I have known Iner and her husband, Jeffrey
1:01.9	Garten, the economist and chief Ina appreciator, for a good while now, and I can tell you hand
1:07.9	to heart that the person you see on TV is the same one you get in person,
1:13.1	funny, unpretentious, a smart businesswoman, and a master of every variety of chicken known to the history of heated poultry.
1:22.5	She's the real deal.
1:24.7	Now, I have to start out by telling you the last time I had a famous cook on the show,
1:29.2	I may have told you this, it was Jacques Papin. And on the radio, with my laptop in the kitchen,
1:35.6	I made crapes with him. And it, wow. Exactly, with my wife, Esther, laughing at me in the,
1:41.2	corner of the kitchen. So we're not going to, we're not going to cook.
1:45.7	We're just going to talk.
1:46.8	We're not cooking.
2:02.6	We'll cook in person. How's that? Exactly. I'd love to do that. Nothing worse than having your wife laughing at you. It's a daily... Your very, very smart wife laughing at you. It's an hourly occurrence. Now, you write in the preface of this book, early in the book, you said that when you were growing up, you had dreaded dinner time. Why was it dreaded? Was the food
	...

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