The One Dish Ina Garten Won't Make For Her Dinner Parties

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One of the many reasons Ina Garten's fans consider her the queen of entertaining is her ability to create delicious, memorable meals while still being able to mingle with her guests. She prepares as much as she can ahead of time, so that the moment her guests arrive, she has little to do except make them a cocktail, and pull her dinner out of the oven to serve. Most people would probably admit that if they are still heavily involved in cooking by the time the party starts, it's a stressful and unenjoyable experience for the host. Garten agrees, and has said that if there is one dish she won't make for her dinner parties due to the time and labor it involves, it's bouillabaisse.

Bouillabaisse is a Provençal fish stew that involves many steps, special ingredients (including a homemade fish stock, which you can make if you buy a whole fish), and lots of time. While Garten does include a recipe for a similar seafood stew in her cookbook, "Barefoot in Paris," we can only assume it's a dish she prefers to make for herself and her adoring husband, Jeffrey, or a smaller group of guests. In her opinion, dishes that take such commitment are better ordered in a restaurant where professional chefs and their armies of cooks do the hard work for you. But if you like seafood and want to share your passion for fish and shellfish at your next dinner party, Garten shares plenty of other recipes that aren't so labor-intensive — and are just as delicious.

For a seafood meal that can be completely assembled ahead of time, Ina Garten's seafood pot pie is a winner. It contains chunks of lobster, bay or sea scallops, and shrimp; with a creamy sauce, all baked under a buttery pastry. This dish can be popped into the oven about an hour before your dinner party, and is ready to serve as soon as your guests have finished their cocktails (or just one of Garten's humongous cosmopolitan cocktails). Garten's Italian seafood salad and Montauk seafood salad are similar in that they can be served chilled, so you can prepare the dish even the day before you plan to serve it. Both involve poaching various shellfish and tossing them in flavorful dressings.

The Barefoot Contessa's roasted shrimp with feta dish bursts with tangy flavor that bakes in a short 15 minutes. A personal favorite of mine is Garten's shrimp scampi linguine, a recipe that can be multiplied for larger groups, and is fresh, yet filling. To make it, a simple, garlicky shrimp scampi is made with fresh shrimp, red pepper flakes, and lots of lemon. The sauce is tossed with linguine and looks gorgeous served on a big platter, garnished with thinly sliced lemons and fresh parsley.