8 Essential Ina Garten Cooking Tips That I Come Back to Again and Again

If you own even one Ina Garten cookbook, you know that the Contessa loves kosher salt almost as much as she loves her hubby, Jeffrey. She seasons sweet and savory dishes alike, because it enhances the flavor of whatever she’s making. But don’t just toss in a pinch at the end—season throughout the cooking process. “It enhances the flavor of whatever you’re cooking and makes food taste seasoned, not salty,” she told Redbook in 2010.

“I love a nice two-fer,” she once shared on Instagram. “I make a big batch of something and use the leftovers to make a second, completely different recipe the next day. No one will even know they’re eating leftovers!” Case in point: Ina’s baked pasta with tomatoes and eggplant recipe starts with a tomato and eggplant soup that’s made a day ahead of time. Ingenious.

If Ina is making a chocolate cake, you can bet there’s a bit of espresso powder or brewed coffee in there. That’s because a small amount of coffee enhances the flavor of the chocolate without making it taste like a cup of joe. It’s like a magic trick that leads to delicious results and works on more than just cake. (See espresso chocolate chip cookies and flourless espresso brownies for proof.)

No one can convince me to shell out the big bucks on fancy olive oil and vanilla extract quite like the Contessa. Thanks to years in the business, she knows exactly when quality equates to better taste, and while I might not live in the Hamptons or have a net worth of $50 million, I trust her expertise. Do I always buy the most expensive ingredients? Nope—groceries are expensive. I just try to keep her rule in mind as I shop and cook, and if an ingredient is the star of the show, I’ll spend a little more.

I was lucky enough to be in attendance when Garten held a talk for the launch of Cooking for Jeffrey in Brooklyn in 2016. A crowd member asked her, “What do you do when you f**k up a recipe?” She jokingly responded, “I never f**k up.” Of course she was joking—her actual advice was to either add salt and see how it tastes, or if all else fails, order pizza. But the takeaway was valuable: You’re going to make mistakes, so when it happens, accept it and move on.

Have you ever followed a recipe to a T only to taste it and find it’s missing a certain je ne sais quoi? According to Ina, it probably just needs a hit of acid. “Sometimes you taste something delicious,” the Contessa told Epicurious in 2010, “but a little hit of lemon juice or lemon zest or vinegar will just sort of wake it up.” She’s even known to keep a bowl of citrus on her counter as a reminder. I can say from experience that this trick works—I always keep a lemon or lime in my fridge just in case a dish tastes slightly bland but doesn’t need more salt (or if I’ve accidentally added too much salt).

“Pick five recipes that are really simple, then do variations on those five recipes,” Garten told Bon Appétit in 2014. In other words, don’t overcomplicate things. If you can roast a chicken, you can roast a turkey—it’s all about understanding the basic methods. (If anyone knows this, it’s Ina: She has more than 50 recipes for roast chicken alone.)

She might be known to casually host the likes of Mel Brooks and Taylor Swift like it’s NBD, but really, Ina is just like us. (Kind of.) She’s not a professionally trained chef, just a home cook who loves to entertain (and who happens to have a TV show). She relies on store-bought freezer staples (like vanilla ice cream and bread) when she knows no one will be able to tell the difference, and she makes the important stuff from scratch. Seriously: How easy is that?