Ina Garten Urges People To Never Show Up To Dinner Parties With This Dish

Whether it's a party-sized bottle of Champagne, a jar of homemade jam, or a hand-knitted potholder that perfectly matches the mid-century kitchen scheme, when you're choosing the perfect gesture of gratitude for your dinner party host, it's the thought that counts — or is it? Well, as far as Ina Garten is concerned, you better not be thinking about Jell-O salad.

During her Sunday Sitdown with "Today" host Willie Geist, Garten revealed, "There are two things that I don't think you should ever bring to a dinner party, and they're so common ... something that the host feels like they should serve." In line with the star's well-documented aversion to arriving with vase-less flowers (or phoning it in with a meh merlot), she revealed yet another thank-you gift that won't be winning any future dinner party invites: "Jell-O salad. What are you going to do with that?"

For the record, if Ina Garten showed up at my house with a clear, quivering gelatin mold, speckled with suspended Fritos, I would accept it and immediately ensconce it in gold. But the rest of us non-Inas don't have the luxury of relying on our illustrious reputations. Guiding us in putting our best foot forward, Garten thinks salted caramel nuts make the perfect host gift and that homemade granola, really good coffee, or a box of chocolates sends the right message, too.

We may be decades beyond the 1950s heyday for this wiggly wonder, but indulge me as I die on the hill of declaring proper Jell-O salad to be a miraculous, nay, timeless confection. (No, aspic with a whole fish in it — you stay in the past.) Of course, for Jell-O salad to hit right on the modern palate, it has got to bring the tantalizing textures of these tasty times.

The closest Ina Garten has ever gotten to publishing a bona fide Jell-O recipe may be her two-ingredient method for "fruit juice shapes," but she's unapologetically pro-gelatin for her homemade marshmallows, panna cotta, and pumpkin mousse tart recipes. Why? Because gelatin adds show-stopping structure while creating an irresistibly velvety texture. (How easy is that?) 

As for the evidence that this isn't Jell-O salad's first rodeo, I can tell you from experience that a simple strawberry Jell-O, angel food cake, whipped cream, and fresh strawberry dessert wins any dinner party by pulling on those comforting, nostalgic heartstrings. And who could resist peach yogurt, marshmallow, gelatin, and fresh apricot fluff (or the same thing done with pistachio)? How about leaning into those vintage vibes with a pristinely stacked Jell-O salad featuring every color of the rainbow (plus some pastel evaporated milk layers in between for delightfully contrasting flavor)? With every layer demanding to be fully set before the next one is added, even the Barefoot Contessa has to admire that kind of dedication to dessert.

With a repertoire featuring icebox cakes, deviled eggs, and meatloaf, it's clear that Garten loves rebooting a retro, homespun favorite. Maybe it's only a matter of time before she embraces the full-on, frothy, store-bought fun that is a box of strawberry gelatin and a dollop of whipped cream — so we'll finally have a Jell-O salad worth schlepping to a dinner party.