By 
If you've seen an episode of Barefoot Contessa on Food Network, it's easy to understand why Ina Garten has so many fans. Her calm voice, big smile and steady hand as she pulls together sophisticated yet simple recipes are enough to make you wish you could climb through the screen and into her pristine kitchen. But the TV show (which she's finally filming new episodes for) is merely an extension of her best-selling cookbooks, which let readers in on even more of Ina's seemingly perfect life between Manhattan and the Hamptons. Trust us—you definitely want to leaf through every page.
1. Ina never wanted to write a cookbook.
After selling her speciality foods store in East Hampton, Ina went through a serious lull in activity. Though many people had asked her to write a cookbook, it never sounded appealing to her. "Writing seemed so solitary, which was the opposite of what I had loved about the store," she writes in Cooking For Jeffrey. But once she bit the bullet, the first publisher who saw her proposal accepted it. In the words of Ina, "How easy is that?"
2. There are 10 titles to her name.
With the release of her newest book, Ina has now published enough cookbooks to warrant her own shelf at the bookstore. The first, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, was released back in 1999, and Ina's continued to consistently roll out recipes and entertaining tips since, often selling more than 1 million copies with each release.
3. Ina does the writing herself.
Plenty of cookbook creators hire writers to put their recipes and stories onto paper, and others—we're looking at you, Kris Kardashian—probably don't do any writing at all. You can hear Ina's voice coming through in her cookbooks, and there are enough detailed anecdotes to assure you that she's the one slaving away over the keyboard until each page is just right. "There isn't a letter, there isn't a recipe, there's no photograph, there isn't a font, there isn't a color, there isn't a detail that I don't totally do myself," she told Eater last year.
4. The recipes are always tested by a trusted advisor.
After Ina's tinkered with each recipe, they have to pass one final test before they're deemed admissible to ship to her fans. Her assistant and closest friend, Barbara Libath, tests each of the recipes to help work out any kinks and prove that an untrained home cook can tackle the steps.
5. Ina nabs ideas from famous chefs.
But don't worry, she gives them credit! Big names like Wolfgang Puck, Yotam Ottolenghi, and Mark Bittman have shown up in the pages of Ina's cookbooks, either as recipe contributors or inspiration for her own recipes. She just couldn't resist stealing Andrew Zimmern's trick for perfect potato pancakes or taking a crack at Jean-Georges Vongerichten's famous butternut squash and ricotta bruschetta.
6. The ingredient lists are very particular.
Ina only uses the best of the best, and we can't blame her—the woman owned a specialty foods store, after all. Her recipes call for homemade chicken stock, fancy cheeses and always "good olive oil," but she realizes that not everyone has access to farm-fresh products from East Hampton. The ingredients occasionally include high-end store-bought products like jarred marinara (her go-to is Rao's) and she's got plenty of opinions about what brands you should stock in your pantry—De Cecco pasta, Hellman's mayo and Grey Poupon mustard, to name a few.
7. They contain lots of personal info.
Every cookbook that Ina has released has been full of photos featuring her real friends and family—a personal touch that many authors don't include. And her latest book delves even further into the details of her life, including the way that she and her husband Jeffrey met and fell in love. She doesn't shy away from talking about her fears and failures throughout her career either, and we love her for it.
8. They're always dedicated to her hubby.
From the very beginning, Ina has honored her husband Jeffrey by penning a sweet note to him at the start of every cookbook. Her earlier titles included tributes such as "For Jeffrey, who makes all my dreams come true" and "For Jeffrey, who makes my life fun—and so easy!" Her latest book revolves entirely around cooking for him, so I guess it should be no surprise that he got the dedication, yet again. This time: "For Jeffrey who makes everything possible." Too cute.
Follow Delish on Instagram.
