The Rise And Fall Of Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Store

Ina Garten has truly done it all. She's authored 13 cookbooks to date, spent 20 years hosting Food Network's longest-running daytime show, and, in recent years, has become quite the Instagram influencer to boot. In an Instagram post from May 27, 2024, Garten celebrated the 46th anniversary of the day she launched her culinary career at a little store in the Hamptons whose name would become synonymous with her own: The Barefoot Contessa. The chef showed her followers a glimpse of her past self, posing with a head of curls and a massive plate of red snapper. She commented that, at the time, she thought the decision to buy the store "may be the stupidest thing I've ever done, but it was also so exhilarating."

In retrospect, buying The Barefoot Contessa would turn out to be one of the smartest things Garten ever did, but it's easy to see why she was so uncertain back in 1978. At that point, she had no formal culinary experience. This would ultimately be an asset in her media career, using outside-the-box thinking (like intentionally undercooking her chicken) to make gourmet dishes more approachable for home cooks. However, nobody could have predicted such success. Before she bought The Barefoot Contessa, Garten was working the last job you'd expect: As a nuclear policy analyst for the White House.

Ina Garten's love for food dates back to her childhood. But she revealed in an Epicurious Interview that her parents discouraged her from cooking. She recalled, "I always wanted to cook with my mom, but she would say, 'It's your job to study and my job to cook.'" Consequently, Garten studied economics in college and landed a job as a nuclear budget analyst for the administrations of Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. It was a prestigious post, but it left Garten dissatisfied.

During this time, Garten married her husband, Jeffrey, who would go on to become her co-star of sorts, frequently appearing on her Food Network show to enjoy a meal together. He helped nurture her love of cooking, and together they took a trip through Europe, which subsequently inspired Garten to master the recipes of her idol, Julia Child (the two share a hatred of cilantro). Garten realized that food was her true calling and began looking for a way out of government.

In 1978, fate swung in her favor. Garten saw an ad in the New York Times for a specialty food store for sale in the Hamptons. She drove out to see it — having never even been to the Hamptons before — and made an offer on the spot. Though she expected to be turned down, her offer was accepted, and the business was hers.

The Barefoot Contessa was originally owned by Diana Stratta and named for a 1954 movie starring Ava Gardner and Humphry Bogart. Garten wasn't a big fan of the moniker at first, but she later came to embrace it, adopting it as her nickname throughout her media career. To prepare the store for a change in ownership, Garten and Stratta worked 22-hour days leading up to Memorial Day weekend. The shop only grossed $87 on Garten's first day, but the rest of the holiday weekend was more prosperous, and she soon gained confidence.

Garten was constantly looking to expand The Barefoot Contessa's selection, so she began testing various recipes, building her culinary skills as she went. She routinely worked 12-hour shifts at the store, making the same cake over and over until she got it right. It was an exhausting schedule, but Garten kept it up for almost 20 years. In 1996, she finally decided it was time to move on and relinquished control of the business to a pair of employees.

Although Garten stepped back from her store, she retained ownership of the property and built herself an office right above the old shop. That's where she wrote her debut cookbook, "The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook." The shop closed in 2004, facing competition from another specialty grocery store. There are no plans to reopen it, but fans will be able to relive its glory days in Garten's upcoming memoir.