Barefoot Contessa at Home: Everyday Recipes You'll Make Over and Over Again
by Ina Garten
List Price:
Our Price: $18.99
You Save: $16.01 (46%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $14.77 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Ina GartenBrand: Random House
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-10-24
ISBN: 1400054346
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: Clarkson Potter
Book Reviews of Barefoot Contessa at Home: Everyday Recipes You'll Make Over and Over Again
Book Review: "Eye candy cookook" - nice pictures, disappointing recipes
Summary: 2 Stars
Judging from the subtitle "Everyday recipes you'll make again and again," this book is meant to provide simple, fast meals that are easily pulled off on a busy Wednesday night. In reality, every recipe is either too decadent (in price and calories) to have regularly, or so obvious and ordinary that an explicit recipe seems more like a waste of paper than anything.
One of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to cookbooks is the "recipes" for self-explanatory, everyday foods. Case-in-point: Ina's Tomato Mozzarella & Pesto Panini. Guess how you make it? You put pesto, tomato and mozzarella between bread, lube it with a little butter and put it in a panini press! Do we really need a recipe for that?
I admit, there were a handful of worthwhile dishes in here (the Cream of Mushroom Soup is the best homemade version I've found!), but not nearly enough of them for me to recommend this book. A lot of the dishes were pretty boring, the typical "Summer Vegetables with Pasta" or "Roasted Winter Vegetables" recipes. Many were also the self-explanatory sort (Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes, BLT with Avocado, Sunday Oatmeal, Herbed Basmati Rice, Garlic Croutons, etc) and even the really delicious ones are mostly just delicious because they're chock full of butter and/or heavy cream- not the healthiest or most inventive way to make food taste good. Plus, it's not how I want to cook "everday." That mushroom soup, for example? One whole stick of butter, plus a cup each of heavy cream and half and half. If this were a cookbook for special occasions I'd understand (after all, it does make a delicious soup) but recipes like that don't belong in a book specifically advertised as "leisurely" and "casual".
I appreciate Ina's simplistic philosophy and emphasis on high-quality ingredients, but, to me, this cookbook is mostly glorified food snobbery. There are a lot of phrases like "run this through your food mill" or "whip the cream in a stand mixer", without even a sidenote about what to do if you're just too impoverished to drop a couple hundred bucks on kitchen appliances. Plus, the ingredients themselves are expensive and definitely too indulgent for everyday, middle-of-the-week cooking. Sure, it's all in the name of "quality," but it limits the book to a highly privileged audience.
All these flaws are small enough that I could easily overlook them if the recipes were good enough, but, to be perfectly honest (and I'm sure all the hardcore Ina fans will hate me for saying this), they're Just. Plain. Average. When you disregard all the fluffiness (pretty pictures, hard cover, etc) and evaluate the recipes themselves, there isn't much noteworthy content. You're mostly paying for the bright, glossy pictures, which are nice (lord knows I hate a cookbook with no pictures!) but I'm looking for a little more substance from a $30-40 cookbook.
Basically, if you're from the Hamptons and don't mind an extra $50 on your grocery bill or quarter pound of fat in your weeknight dinner, you'll probably love this book. Personally, I think there are much more interesting and useful cookbooks out there!
More Barefoot Contessa at Home: Everyday Recipes You'll Make Over and Over Again reviews:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Newest Review
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Newest Review
U.S. Regional Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in U.S. Regional Books
Great American Beer: 50 Brands That Shaped the 20th Centuryby Christopher B. O'Hara
Clarkson Potter; Published: 2006-08-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops:
The Dane County Farmers' Market: A Personal Historyby Mary Carpenter, Quentin Carpenter
University of Wisconsin Press; Published: 2003-05-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.38
Price in other shops:
Breweries of Wisconsin (North Coast Books)by Jerry Apps
University of Wisconsin Press; Published: 1992-10-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.39
Price in other shops:
Texas Tortesby Arthur L. Meyer
University of Texas Press; Published: 1997; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.50
Price in other shops:
Tasting the Good Life: Wine Tourism in the Napa Valleyby George Gmelch, Sharon Bohn Gmelch
Indiana University Press; Published: 2011-06-16; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $35.00
Price in other shops:
The Delights of Delicate Eating (The Food Series)by Elizabeth Robins
University of Illinois Press; Published: 2000-10-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2,998.99
Creole Gumbo and All That Jazzby Howard Mitcham
Addison Wesley Publishing Company; Published: 1986-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $698.74
Cookoff: Recipe Fever in Americaby Amy Sutherland
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2004-05-25; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.00
Price in other shops:
Barefoot Contessa Parties! Ideas and Recipes for Easy Parties That Are Really Funby Ina Garten
Random House; Clarkson Potter; Published: 2001-03-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $18.50
Price in other shops:
Cooking with the Two Fat Ladiesby Jennifer Paterson, Clarissa Dickson Wright
Clarkson Potter; Published: 1998-01-20; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.75
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Giada's Family Dinnersby Giada De Laurentiis
Random House; Clarkson Potter; Published: 2006-04-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.24
Price in other shops:
Giada at Home: Family Recipes from Italy and Californiaby Giada De Laurentiis
Clarkson Potter; Published: 2010-03-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.00
Price in other shops:
Everyday Italian: 125 Simple and Delicious Recipesby Giada De Laurentiis
Clarkson Potter; Published: 2005-02-22; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.94
Price in other shops:
Barefoot Contessa Cookbook Collection: The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, Barefoot Contessa Parties!, and Barefoot Contessa Family Styleby Ina Garten
Clarkson Potter; Published: 2010-11-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $46.42
Price in other shops:
Barefoot Contessa Parties! Ideas and Recipes for Easy Parties That Are Really Funby Ina Garten
Random House; Clarkson Potter; Published: 2001-03-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $18.50
Price in other shops:
Barefoot in Paris: Easy French Food You Can Make at Homeby Ina Garten
Clarkson Potter; Published: 2004-10-26; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.95
Price in other shops:
Barefoot Contessa How Easy Is That?: Fabulous Recipes & Easy Tips (Fabulous Recipes and Easy Tips)by Ina Garten
Random House; Clarkson Potter; Published: 2010-10-26; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.50
Price in other shops:
Barefoot Contessa Family Style: Easy Ideas and Recipes That Make Everyone Feel Like Familyby Ina Garten
Clarkson Potter; Published: 2002-10-29; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.99
Price in other shops:
The Barefoot Contessa Cookbookby Ina Garten, Martha Stewart
Random House; Clarkson Potter; Published: 1999-04-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.94
Price in other shops:
Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics: Fabulous Flavor from Simple Ingredientsby Ina Garten
Random House; Clarkson Potter; Published: 2008-10-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.50
Price in other shops: