The Cookbook That Started It All For Ina Garten

Ina Garten is renowned for her inspired yet straightforward recipes, which have given countless nervous home cooks the confidence to get in the kitchen and have a go themselves. But before Garten became the iconic Barefoot Contessa, she needed some inspiration herself to learn how to get dinner on the table. The culinary tome the once-inexperienced cook turned to was Craig Claiborne's "New York Times Cookbook," as Garten revealed in her memoir "Be Ready When The Luck Happens."

Claiborne, who died in 2000, spent 29 years at "The New York Times" during his career, serving as its food editor and also as a restaurant critic. He published over 20 books about food, and helped introduce Americans to a variety of international cuisines. First published in 1961, "The New York Times Cookbook" has gone on to sell over three million copies across the globe, and it's still in print today.

Given that Garten wasn't allowed to cook growing up, it's not surprising that she found Claiborne's collection of almost 1,500 recipes a big help with planning and preparing meals, referring to it as her "bible" at that stage in her life. And one particular recipe soon became a firm favorite: beef chili.

Many of us have a much-loved cookbook we turn to time and time again, which naturally falls open at a particular page because of repeated use. For Ina Garten, this was Craig Claiborne's "New York Times Cookbook" chili recipe. But you can have too much of a good thing: Garten's husband Jeffrey "begged me to stop making it because he ate so much he would make himself sick," she recalled in her memoir.

If you fancy making this chili yourself (though perhaps not to excess), Claiborne's recipe is still live on "The New York Times" website. The simple dish takes just 40 minutes to make, and includes seasonings such as chili powder, cumin, oregano, coriander seeds, hot red pepper flakes, and bay leaf to amp up the flavor of the ground beef. Interestingly, bay leaves are the one herb Garten isn't sold on, and today, she likes to improve her chili with a secret ingredient: fragrant basil.

Years later, Ina Garten's list of favorite cookbooks still includes Claiborne's bestseller. In 2016, the Barefoot Contessa shared a collection of her top titles on her website, and "The New York Times Cookbook" was number one. While so many people look to Garten for culinary tips, tricks, and techniques, it's heartwarming to know that she herself still draws from the cookbook that started it all.