Best known as Food Network’s Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten is a little different from other chefs – and that’s why so many people love her. The home cook is adored for her warm, witty persona and her ability to somehow know exactly what we want to eat (and drink). The TV personality and cookbook author is basically the host of dreams and can always be found whipping up flavorful appetizers, showstopping one-dish dinners, and delicious desserts. Here are just a few of our favorite tips and cooking hacks she’s shared over the years.

Click or scroll through our gallery to discover Ina Garten's greatest cooking tips and tricks – counting down to the most genius hack of all. 

If there’s one ingredient that Garten returns to time and time again, it's this gloriously rich and nutty Swiss cows' milk cheese. Gruyère is perhaps the queen of cheeses when it comes to both melting beautifully into food and adding a reliable richness to all manner of savory recipes. Garten often uses it to imbue dishes, such as cauliflower gratin and mac ’n’ cheese, with extra depth of flavor.

Whether you're hosting a family get-together or fancy taking your midweek meal up a notch, Garten has a handy potato-based trick everyone at the dinner table will love. Instead of opting for a standard potato gratin, add a few slices of fennel. The soft aniseed of the fennel cuts beautifully through the richness of the creamy sauce, which can be elevated further with onion and Gruyère. Assemble in the morning – or even the day before – and bake just before serving.

Midweek meals call for simple recipes, and Garten’s mustard-roasted fish dish comes together in as little as 15 minutes. Place your fish of choice (she suggests red snapper) on a lined baking tray and generously sprinkle with salt and pepper. In a bowl, combine 8oz crème fraîche, 3 tbsp Dijon mustard, 1 tbsp wholegrain mustard, 2 tbsp minced shallot, 2 tsp capers, 1 tsp salt and a pinch of black pepper. Spoon over the fillets, then bake for 10-15 minutes. Pair with crushed new potatoes and wilted greens for a tasty meal.

There should always be that one dish in your repertoire that never fails to satisfy, whether just to please yourself or to pull out of the bag for last-minute dinner guests. For Garten, it's her Parmesan chicken. Served with a crisp salad zinged up with lemon and a few shavings of Parmesan, it’s a true winner and takes half an hour from fridge to plate. Coat flattened chicken breasts with seasoned flour, then dip in beaten egg yolks, and finish with a coating of breadcrumbs and grated Parmesan. Cook the chicken for 2-3 minutes on each side in a lightly oiled pan, then enjoy.

Party dishes that are irresistibly delicious and easy to prepare are Garten’s forte, and her recipe for hot dogs wrapped in a puff pastry blanket is hard to beat. Roll out ready-made puff pastry, cut into rectangles, and brush with 1 tbsp Dijon mustard. Place a hot dog on top of the mustard-lined pastry and roll the pastry up and away from you, ensuring the dog is fully encased. Repeat with the remaining pastry, then seal with an egg wash and bake in a hot oven for around 25-35 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown and cooked through. Serve with extra mustard on the side.

Whether you use it to add flavor to your soups or enjoy it as a warming drink to help keep sickness away, having a large supply of homemade chicken broth can be incredibly handy. Garten certainly thinks so anyway, as you’ll always find her freezer stocked with portioned freezer-proof cartons of the stuff. She advises making a big batch in one go, then freezing the rest for up to four months.  

We get the feeling little, if anything, goes to waste in Garten’s kitchen. She’s a strong advocate of making use of the stuff lurking at the back of your fridge or pantry, as well as transforming leftovers into delicious new meals. One of her favorite ways to avoid food waste is with a comforting, puffed-up frittata. You can throw pretty much anything in, from boiled potatoes and leftover bacon (if such a thing exists) to a few spoonfuls of ratatouille.

Who said these handy machines had to be reserved just for waffles? Take a leaf out of Garten’s book and experiment with different ingredients and combos inside your waffle iron. The famed cookbook author shared on Instagram that she loves making hash browns in the versatile kitchen gadget, as they become extremely ‘crispy on the outside and creamy inside – and the best part is no splatters on the stove!’

Preparing a separate meal for someone vegan or vegetarian not only means extra work, but it can make them feel singled out when it comes to serving. Garten prefers to make lots of lovely vegetable sides and perhaps a more substantial grain or rice dish that can all be piled onto the table so everyone can dig in and help themselves.

Despite growing up in a household where canned veggies were the norm, the Barefoot Contessa described them in a podcast as having ‘no texture’ or ‘flavor.’ Instead, she prefers frozen vegetables, which are handy in a time pinch and last a lot longer than fresh. Garton recommends adding frozen peas and pearl onions into rich beef stews, while she says frozen okra works great for gumbo.   

Bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better, and for Garten, that’s definitely the case with roasted chicken. In an episode of Cook Like a Pro, the TV host said she always opts for a smaller bird for roasting. This is because if the whole chicken is any more than five pounds, it won't be as tender once cooked.

When you make mashed potatoes, think beyond butter and even past sour cream. Garten’s ravishing repertoire of creamed potatoes includes dishes laced with Parmesan, garlic, buttermilk, and even truffle butter. She also suggests spicing up smashed sweet potatoes with minced chipotle and maple syrup.

Allowing you to always have simple meals to hand and generally making life easier, your freezer can really be your best friend. Garten recommends making sure food has cooled to room temperature before popping it in the freezer and leaving space in the container to allow for the fact that liquids expand as they freeze. Labeling is key, too, because you really will forget what’s in that tub and when you put it there.

Life’s too short to stand over a pan stirring stock into rice for half an hour. Or at least, it feels like that sometimes. For those evenings, try Garten’s genius hack: throw the rice in a Dutch oven or casserole dish, pour over the stock, and simply pop it in the oven for 45 minutes. Once baked, remove from the oven and just stir through a little more stock, wine, and cheese for a mere couple of minutes – the end result is as gorgeously creamy as if you’d been at it for hours.

On days when you can barely muster the energy or enthusiasm to make a mug of coffee, cooking can feel like an enormous effort. But these are the days we need some edible comfort the most, so having an easy, soothing, reassuring meal you can prepare with your eyes half-open and your mind elsewhere is important, according to Garten. Hers is avocado toast, preferably topped with a soft-boiled egg (if you can manage it).

Looking for an easy egg salad recipe? Garten has just the ticket. Boil 12 large eggs, remove the shells, and allow them to cool to room temperature. Place them in a food processor and pulse to break up, not purée, the eggs. Transfer to a mixing bowl and add 5 tbsp mayonnaise, 4 tbsp sweet relish, 2 tsp wholegrain mustard, 1 tbsp minced dill or chives, and a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper, then mix to combine. Pair with toasted bread for a nourishing lunch option.

Burnt bits are a common complaint when tackling a one-dish roast that has the meat, veggies, and potatoes all in the same roasting tin. The Barefoot Contessa believes the main culprit is using a pan that's far too small. 'The pan should be just big enough to hold the chicken and vegetables snugly, or it’s true, the vegetables will burn,' she wrote in a post on her website. Her other tip? Invest in a meat thermometer – oven temperatures aren’t always accurate.

One of Garten’s top tips for people looking to improve their cooking and hosting skills is to start small. "Pick five recipes that are really simple – like roast chicken, macaroni and cheese, grilled fish," she told Bon Appétit magazine. Once you can make those recipes perfectly, switching things up and creating twists on the dishes is easy. For example, adding lobster to mac ’n’ cheese, trying different fish, experimenting with alternative herbs and spices, and cooking up more complex fillings for your pies.

Washing mushrooms under the faucet means they absorb extra water, diluting the flavor and risking a soggy or watery recipe. But wiping each one with a brush or peeling the outer layers feels like a faff. Garten has the answer, of course. She says the best way to get the dirt from mushrooms is to gently but swiftly wipe each one with a clean, damp (soap-free) cloth.

The crispiest bacon isn’t sizzled in a frying pan or browned under the grill. And it definitely isn’t zapped in the microwave. According to Garten, the best way to cook bacon is to roast it in the oven, laying rashers on greaseproof paper and baking for 15-20 minutes until it has that crinkly crispness. Try smothering it in a nutty, syrupy mix for a caramelized version – blend 4oz brown sugar, 4oz pecans, 2 tbsp kosher salt, 1 tsp each black pepper and cayenne pepper, and 2 tbsp maple syrup in a food processor. Coat the bacon with this mix and bake.

Garten has learned more than a few tricks during her four decades (and counting) in the food business – as her brilliant tip for cutting hard veggies that have a pesky tendency to launch themselves off the chopping board shows. She recommends laying a clean tea towel or some kitchen paper on your chopping board, so even corn kernels won’t fly anywhere when you’re slicing them from the cob. Cooking with cauliflower? Garten advises cutting the core out first, then pulling apart the florets with your hands.

Sometimes the answer seems so simple, you wonder why you never thought of it before. But therein lies Garten’s genius. Take this bread tip, for example. If you’ve ever frozen an intact loaf, you might wonder how you can stop it from going so soggy. If you’ve frozen bread in slices, you might wonder how you can stop it from getting so icy. Et voila! Freeze it in chunks, says Garten – and take out perfectly portioned pieces to warm through in the oven.

From Key lime to apple, frozen homemade pies are always handy to have on standby, but they can be fiddly to get out of the container. Even the kitchen goddess admits to having removed a pie from the freezer and tried to free it from the glass dish, only to find the crust has stuck to the bottom. Her solution is to not pack the crust in too tightly and to let it stand for around 15-20 minutes after taking it from the freezer, helping to loosen it a little (and avoid a minor pie disaster).

Garten says she uses a Dutch oven, like those made by Le Creuset, 'more than anything else,' putting the heavy-bottomed casserole pots to work when simmering up soups or stews and when braising meat. Its chameleon-like ability to transfer from stovetop to oven makes it a go-to for cooking everything from meltingly tender pot roasts to rich beef bourguignon. 

Need a super-quick pud? Whether it’s a hosting emergency or just a craving for something sweet, a crumble is one of the simplest ways to throw together a speedy dessert. As Garten says, they’re much easier and quicker to make than pies – and just as delicious. Use whatever fresh or frozen fruit you have, make up the crumble topping, and throw it in the oven. For a simple crumble topping, combine 4oz all-purpose flour, 2oz granulated sugar, 1.7oz brown sugar, 1/2 tsp salt,1/4 tsp ground cinnamon, and 4oz diced, unsalted butter and rub the mixture together until it forms big crumbles.

Long gone are the days of over-boiled Brussels sprouts; Garten is on a mission to reinvent the oft overlooked vegetable. These sweet, nutty brassicas are incredibly versatile and taste a whole lot better when roasted or sautéed, according to the TV cook. Rather than chopping by hand, she recommends shredding them in a food processor, too.

It doesn’t need to be warm and sunny outside for alfresco dining. Garten’s tips for entertaining outdoors when it’s a little chilly include using outdoor heaters or a fire pit to bring much-needed warmth, providing piles of cushions and blankets, and cozying up the look of the dining table (or coffee table, if there’s just two of you) with candles and bunches of blooms. As for the food, keep it simple with pizza, salad, and some easy nibbles. 

Simplicity is key, and that’s certainly the case when it comes to vinaigrette. Garten is an advocate for homemade salad dressing, believing preparing your own is better than opting for store-bought. Her easy recipe for a simple vinaigrette has done the rounds on social media for good reason: combine 8 tbsp olive oil, 3 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp black pepper, and you’ll be all set.

A huge part of Garten’s charm is her carefree approach to food. Although she’s serious about cooking up delicious dishes, she definitely isn’t a stickler for following recipes to the letter (unless it’s something that requires precision, like pastry). Want to make tomato soup but don't have cream? Leave it out! Don't have broccoli but craving a broccoli-centric pasta? Use broccolini – or any crunchy, dark green veg, for that matter – instead. 

Noticed that when you’ve seared a steak or larger piece of meat, bits always stick to the bottom of the pan? Fear not, as the cookbook author has a handy trick up her sleeve. Add a dash of white wine (or a splash of water or broth) and scrape up the brown bits. These crispy, sticky scraps are ‘key to really great flavor,’ as Garten puts it and can form the base of a simple but tasty sauce.

People tend to either love or hate chicken skin. Regardless of your preference, Garten is a strong advocate for keeping the skin on when cooking chicken, whether it’s a whole roast, legs, or breast. “I find it makes the meat much more tender and moist,” she wrote in a post on her website. “Even if you’re going to remove the skin after cooking, I would recommend you roast the chicken skin-on and then remove the skin.”

Stuffing a turkey or chicken can dry it out, according to Garten, so it's best to make up a stuffing that isn’t designed to be cooked inside the bird. Instead, the TV personality recommends making a herb-packed option to have on the side. You can include ingredients such as pancetta, onion, apple cubes, rosemary, and Gruyère. The challenge is not to gobble up the lot with a spoon.

Bring a new level of flavor to shrimp cocktail by roasting the shellfish before tossing it in the sauce. This tip isn’t just reserved for this retro appetizer, though. Garten is a fan of baking or roasting shrimp for all manner of recipes, from shrimp scampi to garlicky, herb-roasted shellfish. To make the latter, create a fabulous sauce by sautéing 2 tbsp minced garlic, 2 tsp chopped rosemary, 1 tsp salt, and a pinch of red pepper flakes and black pepper in 8oz butter and 2 tbsp olive oil for around 1-2 minutes, then add the zest of a lemon. Pile in 2lb peeled shrimp, top with slices of lemon, and roast for 10-12 minutes. 

The key to intense, creamy mac ’n’ cheese? Leaving it overnight. Garten revealed in one of her online recipes that leaving your mac ’n’ cheese out overnight will allow the noodles to expand and really soak up the oozy béchamel before it’s baked in the oven. Simply make your pasta and béchamel as you prefer (Garten recommends using Gruyère), stir together in a bowl, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 24 hours. Once ready, top with further cheese and bake for around 20-25 minutes, until golden brown and bubbly.  

Leftovers don’t have to be an afterthought. Sometimes it pays to plan two meals at once and cook a recipe that can easily be transformed into something else the following day. As Garten put it in an Instagram post, 'a nice two-fer' can be game-changing. The Barefoot Contessa likes to batch-cook with leftovers in mind – think whipping up a tomato and eggplant soup that can later be used to make a baked noodle dish.

There really is no need to lumber yourself with copious amounts of washing up. Garten is a huge advocate of the one-dish dinner, which means fewer dishes (of course), simpler prep, and marvelously mingling flavors. "You can make the whole thing in one big pot, bring it to the table, and everyone loves it," she revealed in an episode of Barefoot Contessa. Making your life a little simpler (and cutting down on the dishes) doesn’t mean compromising on taste, either.

Anyone who’s ever watched Barefoot Contessa will know she loves to host people, and she'll tell you there's nothing worse than being stuck in the kitchen for hours while your guests have to entertain themselves. In an article on her website, Garten suggests prepping ahead of time, pointing out that anything that can be assembled in advance will help make your cooking stress-free, plus nobody wants to have a full sweat on when friends arrive.

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Last updated by Lottie Woodrow.