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A m I missing something? - I just don't get this "barefoot contessa" thing -I gather the name came from a food store and she's not a contessa, nor barefoot, I guess. To me her whole set-up looks like a slick American PR operation with loads of money-making spin-offs. What does she offer - Italian recipes, Italian-flavoured American recipes, American-flavoured Italian recipes, or what? Too lazy or arrogant to include anything but cup measurements, I can't see what her books have to offer the UK market.

That should make me a few enemies, I guess, but if I want authentic Italian there are plenty of authors already - Anna del Conte, Marcella Hazan, Claudia Roden for example - French ones by the dozen. What does she have that is different? All the books are hardback only, I see, and quite expensive, even on A****n.

This isn't a very likely place for making enemies, so you may not get the dust-up you appear to seek, even though Ina Garten has many enthusiasts.

Barefoot Contessa was the name of a takeout store in the Hamptons (on Long Island, New York) that Ina Garten bought in the late 1970s and ran for about 15 years. It was named (not by her) for the 1954 movie with Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner.  Food sold at BC had nothing particularly to do with Italian cooking, nor have any of Garten's subsequent cookbooks made any claim to specialize in Italian food.  The focus is  fairly simple but delicious food for casual entertaining (and casual-but-elegant entertaining). [True, EYB has categorized one of the repackaged collections of her book as 'Italian' among other categories, but in error, I think.]

One reason for the popularity of the BC books is that the recipes are reliable and well tested. Another reason is that Garten has a television cooking program that is one of the more appealing of the many out there -- the food looks great, and the cooking seems easy and approachable.

The BC books and TV shows have quite a bit in common with those of Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver. There are no BC spinoffs of any kind that I'm aware of -- cookware, food products, magazine -- just the shows and the books.  From the EYB listings, it appears that there has never been an edition of any of her books produced specifically for the UK market; there is what seems to be a simple repackaging of four of them published in the UK in fall 2011.  If that's so, and those four are not at all revised to reflect UK ingredient measures, it's a regrettable move by the publisher. 

[Edited to correct errors and be more responsive.]

Thanks Ellabee; I was not really looking for a fight but knowing the lady has a legion of devoted followers I felt i was sticking my neck out.  I noted on EYB that IG has a fair number of books in the best seller lists, and yet I had hardly come across her in the UK. I had a quick look on Wikipedia - for what it is worth, and read up some reviews on Amazon, which seem divided between five stars and one star, with not much in between, and just could not see what her appeal was.

ellabee did an excellent job of laying out the Barefpoot Contessa story and rationale.  I only wanted to echo the testing reference she made.  If you look at the notes left by EYB members in some of her books you will see several by me as I often cook from the two books of hers that I have (Barefoot in Paris and How Easy is That). Generally speaking her recipes are some of the most reliable out there.  They aren't always the best, but they are often very good to great, and they are very well written.  Ina must do a lot of testing, because I have better luck with her books than many others.  

I must admit I find her television persona a bit annoying, but I often refer to her books when I need to make something new that can't fail (ie. when company is coming over).  For me that is a major selling point since one of the reasons I buy cookbooks is to get the benefit of the authors recipe testing.  Ina for example will often call to add X amount of salt whereas most books would simply say salt to taste.  While I find she is a little heavy handed with the salt for my taste I now know this so I can take any recipe where she calls for 1 tsp of salt and pair it back to 3/4 tsp for our tastes.  It is a small thing, but a very useful one.

While I also love Jamie Oliver and have a few of his books, I consider Ina and Jamie to be polar opposites.  Where Jamie might say (I am paraphrasing here) "...bash up a couple of cloves of garlic with salt and toss with a bunch of parsley and half a wine glass of white wine...", Ina would likely say "...finely mince 2 cloves of garlic with 1/4 tsp of salt, and add to 1 cup of parsley chopped, then add 1/4 cup of white wine...".

I see value in both styles, but Jamie's isn't one I would try with company on a first go, whereas Ina's I would.

Just my two cents.

Delys: I've no time for Jamie Oliver - I've got just 2 of his books - 30 minute dinners - a present - 30 minutes is a huge exaggeration - and Jamie's Italy - reduced to £4 in our local Sainsbury's and about a fair price!

Don't watch a lot of TV cookery - too much of it out there - exception for Raymond Blanc and occasionally Nigella Lawson. Never watched Ina Garten.

Ina Garten often seems to be on the UK Freeview Food Network channel.   I think I would compare her more to Delia Smith than Jamie Oliver or Nigella Lawson.  Nothing really difficult and instructions spelt out so things work first time.   

Thanks for posting, Delys and Debby.  Something told me Ray wouldn't be a big fan of Jamie or most other TV cooking personalities. 

Debby, you're probably right about the closer resemblance to Delia Smith, but she's as unknown to Americans as Ina G is to most in the UK. Neither her shows nor her books seem to have made it to this side of the Atlantic. I sometimes see her referred to as "the British Martha Stewart", which given the amount of baggage MS carries here, may not be the best introduction. Does Delia Smith focus only on cooking, or also on topics of decor/entertaining/"lifestyle" <--(ecch) ?

Ellabee, Delia's main focus is food, but like Ina G, she likes to set the scene/ambiance in her writing and her shows.  Delia is knicknamed St Delia, as she comes to the rescue as her recipes always work. For some reason I thought that Martha Stewart came from a more commercial catering background and I sort of equated her with the UK’s Prue Leith, but Prue is not widely known even in the UK. 

The UK is very good at recognising foreigh chefs, especially American and Australian chefs, as so many of their cookery shows get shown on UK TV (Top Chef, Ace of Cakes, Iron chef, Barefoot Contessa, Giada De Laurentiis shows, Cup cake wars, Masterchef Australia etc).  But I am not sure if many of the UK TV shows make it to US/Australia. 

Ray: I would say Jamie's Italy and Nigella's Nigellisma are on a par but I totally agree with your authentic Italian authors.

Delys77: Excellent 2 cents description of Jamie & Ina G, that is what made me think of Delia.