The Two Liqueurs Ina Garten Says Make Everything Better

Cooking with alcohol is a strategy that many chefs employ to give their dishes a major boost in both aroma and flavor – you can find a use for nearly any alcohol if you look hard enough. While folks have discovered plenty of unique ways to cook with beer in their favorite recipes, utilizing a flavorful liqueur is another technique employed by many chefs. One such chef is the beloved Ina Garten, a woman with upwards of 1,200 recipes in her repertoire. She revealed that she is partial to Grand Marnier and cognac when it comes to cooking with alcohol.

The Barefoot Contessa noted her frequent use of both liqueurs in a discussion with Esquire in October 2024 about the many things she's learned over her decades-long career. She shared a simple statement: "Grand Marnier and cognac make everything taste better." It's safe to say that both products have had an impact on her cooking through the years.

While Ina Garten's favorite cocktail is a classy whiskey sour, she has a well-documented history of using both Grand Marnier and cognac in her recipes. For starters, Grand Marnier — which is a blend of French cognac and bitter orange liqueur — is especially useful in sweeter, more dessert-like items. It's a major highlight of Garten's crème brûlée, with 1 tablespoon of the liqueur added alongside vanilla extract, giving the legendary custard a subtle yet integral boost of orange flavor. Similarly, the chef features Grand Marnier in her recipe for Boston cream pie, featuring it in a fresh orange juice syrup as the dessert's soak, as well as the pastry cream that she puts between each layer of the vanilla- and orange zest-scented cakes.

As for cognac, Garten likes to add the French, grape-based brandy to her pot roast and beef stews. While the alcohol's inclusion in both is relatively minimal — with Garten adding 2 tablespoons to her pot roast and ¼ cup to her beef stew — the cognac can boost each dish immensely alongside ingredients like tomatoes, aromatics, fresh herbs, and red wine. Plus, Garten's love of using cognac in cooking is one she shares with several of her peers; it's the boozy secret to Alton Brown's gravy, for example, and Alex Guarnaschelli uses it when making minute steaks with cognac sauce.