A specialty foods star is born

By MARY JANE PARK, Times Staff Writer

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 18, 2000

[Times photo: Fraser Hale ] Aboard her mobile kitchen on the streets of Tampa recently, Ina Garten, author of The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, prepares an apple crisp.

TAMPA -- Back when men in white polyester suits roamed the Earth, before Animal House became a frat-house classic, before Dallas dominated television, Ina Garten was working in the White House, framing nuclear energy policy during the Ford and Carter administrations.

Like many other young women of the era, she knew her way around the kitchen. She had prepared many an elaborate meal, working through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking books, and she found cooking considerably more fun than whipping up bureaucratic proposals.

One fine day in 1978, she saw a New York Times advertisement for a specialty foods store in Long Island. Garten and her husband drove up to have a look. She had no experience whatsoever in running a business, but she fell immediately in love with the place and made an offer; it was accepted the next day.

The woman from whom she bought the store stayed for a month, teaching Garten how to run the cash register, slice smoked salmon, order from wholesalers.

More than 20 years later, the Barefoot Contessa is a thriving business that sells breads, pastries, coffees, produce and prepared foods. Garten published The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook (Clarkson Potter, $32.50) last year and is working on The Barefoot Contessa Parties, due out next spring. She was in Tampa recently to promote Cascade Complete, a dishwasher detergent.

Complicated recipes are a thing of her past, Garten says.

"I used to entertain all the time. I would do parties that would take me a week to make. My cooking got simpler and simpler. The simpler the cooking got, the more I got to visit with my friends."

To ring in the new year, she said, "We made pizzas together."

As she develops recipes, "I like to think about a flavor, something we remember from childhood."

Garten's lushly photographed cookbook is seductive. Fruits and vegetables gleam like jewels. The billowy cloud of frosting on a coconut cupcake dares you to poke in a finger. The focus is on distinct flavors and recipes that are relatively fuss-free, customer favorites such as grilled-salmon salad, raspberry corn muffins and an onion dip that is a delicious improvement on the dried-soup mix version.

Her appearance, on Tampa's Franklin Street Mall, was a short distance away from the Davis Islands home of her husband's parents, Mel and Ruth Garten. They hadn't had much time to visit; Garten was leaving for a culinary tour of Italy.

Her traveling and tasting companions are food superstars Patricia Wells, author of At Home with Patricia Wells: Cooking in Provence; Eli Zabar, who owns several prestigious New York dining establishments; and his wife, Devon Fredericks, who started Loaves and Fishes in Sagaponack, N.Y.

One imagines them savoring artisanal cheeses, breads, olive oils and wine, roaming the Italian countryside in search of flavors that will tempt palates in kitchens and cookbooks yet to be.

What must it be like, this dreamy life?

As temporal as ours.

Jeffrey E. Garten, Ina Garten's husband, is dean of the Yale School of Management. Theirs is a commuter marriage between Long Island and New Haven, Conn., a 31/2-hour drive.

Their Friday night menu rarely varies: The exhausted former policy wonk and the exhausted university official nearly always sit down to a supper of roast chicken.

Old-Fashioned Apple Crisp

• 5 pounds Macintosh apples (12-15 apples)
• 1 cup dried cherries
• Grated zest of 1 orange
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
• Grated zest of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed
• lemon juice
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 11/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup oatmeal
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) cold, unsalted butter, diced

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9- by 14- by 2-inch oval baking dish.

Peel, core and cut the apples into large wedges. Combine the apple wedges with the cherries, zests, juices, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pour into the dish.

To make the topping, combine the flour, sugars, salt, oatmeal and cold butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the mixture is crumbly and the butter is the size of peas. Scatter evenly on top of the apples.

Place the crisp on a sheet pan and bake for about 1 hour, until the top is brown and the apples are bubbly. Serve warm. Serves 10.

Source: Ina Garten.

Coconut Cupcakes

• 3/4 pound unsalted butter at room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 5 extra-large eggs at room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure almond extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 14 ounces sweetened, shredded coconut
• Cream Cheese Icing (recipe follows)

Coconut cupcake with cream cheese icing

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer running on low, add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and mix well.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In three parts, alternately add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk to the batter, beginning and ending with the dry. Mix until just combined. Fold in 7 ounces of coconut.

Line a muffin pan with paper liners. Fill each cup to the top with batter. (You can use an ice cream scoop to fill the muffin cups.) Bake for 25-35 minutes, until the tops are brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Remove to a baking rack and cool completely. Frost with cream cheese icing and sprinkle with remaining coconut. Makes 18-20 large cupcakes.

Source: "The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook."

Cream Cheese Icing

• 1 pound cream cheese at room temperature
• 3/4 pound unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
• 11/2 pounds confectioners' sugar, sifted
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, blend together the cream cheese, butter and vanilla and almond extracts. Add the confectioners' sugar and mix until smooth.
• It is very important that the cream cheese and butter be at room temperature and that the confectioners' sugar be sifted to ensure no lumps in the icing. For 18-20 large cupcakes.

Source: "The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook."

Pan-Fried Onion Dip

• 2 large yellow onions
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 4 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup good mayonnaise

Cut the onions in half and then slice them into 1/8-inch-thick half-rounds. (You will have about 3 cups of onions.)

Heat the butter and oil in a large saute pan on medium heat. Add the onions, cayenne, salt and pepper and saute for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 more minutes until the onions are browned and caramelized. Allow the onions to cool.

Place the cream cheese, sour cream and mayonnaise in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat until smooth. Add the onions and mix well. Taste for seasonings. Serve at room temperature. Makes 2 cups.

Source: "The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook."

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