How Ina Garten Chose What To Sell At The Barefoot Contessa Store Back In The Day

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Before Ina Garten became a beloved television personality and bestselling author, she was a savvy business owner of a specialty food store in the Hamptons called The Barefoot Contessa. She not only ran the store for 18 years, but it also served as the catalyst to her successful career in food entertainment. 

So, how did she achieve such success through a shop? Garten — who had no experience in retail or food service at the time — paid attention to her customers' needs. As she explained, "Everybody wanted to come in for exactly what they were coming in for, but they also wanted to see unusual things" (via Facebook). To cater to this desire, Garten revealed, "I had a list of things that we always had, and then every week I would change the menu. So half of the things were new, and half of the things were what you expected to find."

Garten focused on selling a range of high-quality products, like the coffee beans from a 100-year-old brand that she still drinks today, and most importantly, ready-to-eat foods that were prepared in-house daily. This included fresh baguettes, salads, cakes, and cocktail appetizer platters. When Garten sold the store, she published a book titled "The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook," where she shared many of her well-tested recipes. The cookbook sold over 100,000 copies in the first year, landing on the New York Times bestseller list. Shortly after, Garten was cooking many of these recipes again, but this time in front of a camera on her Food Network show — you guessed it — "The Barefoot Contessa."

In one episode of "The Barefoot Contessa," Garten made a decadent chocolate espresso cheesecake that she used to sell at her store. The recipe came from the previous owner, and Garten recalled how it was priced by the inch. She estimated that in today's money, a whole cake would have cost around $150. Despite the high price, the cheesecake still sold! It's the Hamptons after all.

In another episode, Garten exclaimed, "I can't tell you how much mustard chicken salad we made at Barefoot Contessa — mountains of it!" (via YouTube). Clearly, the dish featured on the menu regularly, as did Garten's classic curry chicken salad with a bright twist.

When it comes to desserts that were often sold at the specialty food store, "One of the things Barefoot Contessa was always known for is the iconic coconut cupcakes," Garten said (via YouTube). Similarly, Garten's brownies undoubtedly were a mainstay item. As she shared when making the recipe on her show, "We would sell like a thousand of them a week" (via YouTube). While The Barefoot Contessa is no longer open, Garten has shared many of the store's best-selling recipes on her show, on her website, and in her many cookbooks.