One Of Ina Garten's Early Catering Jobs Was About As Unexpected As It Can Get

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Before Ina Garten became known as the Barefoot Contessa, from her Food Network cooking show, she was the owner of Barefoot Contessa, a specialty food store in Westhampton Beach, New York. Garten left behind a White House job and purchased the business at 30 years old with no retail or food service experience – at that time, she even recalled telling her husband, Jeffrey, "This may be the stupidest thing I've ever done" (via Barefoot Contessa). The initial chaos and overwhelm may have been preparing her for what her early catering gigs would bring. Garten shared this experience in her 2024 memoir, "Be Ready When the Luck Happens," and elaborated more on the event when she appeared on "Late Night with Seth Meyers."

Garten explained the catering order consisted of some of the really expensive items sold at the Barefoot Contessa store. "He said, 'We want all the caviar, all the smoked salmon, everything,'" Garten told Meyers (via YouTube). Her staff fulfilled the order, and when Garten later arrived at the event to pick up the payment, not only had none of the food been touched, but a different, unexpected form of payment was being offered.

Garten said her initial thought was that they hated her food but was told by her employees, "No, no, no, don't worry. They're busy in the bedroom right now." "What? What kind of party is this?!" Garten said she replied to them. She was then asked to go back to the bedroom so the host could give her a tip (though she admitted this was ill-advised). Only after she was asked, "Do you want some blow?" did she realize she had catered for Long Island's biggest drug lord.

"I don't know what happened next, but I went back to the store and sliced my smoked salmon really fast!" Ina Garten said, laughing (via YouTube). Garten acknowledged in her book that the experience taught her the importance of knowing who the customer is, especially when catering for a party in Westhampton.

The New York Times best-selling author previously shared another catering blunder from her early days at Barefoot Contessa, though this one was not as shocking. Garten was cooking for a dinner party and was tasked with baking a large salmon in the client's home. The salmon ended up being larger than the stove. She could have said she wasn't able to fulfill the order, but for the sake of satisfying the customer and the reputation of the Barefoot Contessa with her as the new owner, Garten instead pulled a rabbit out of a hat. She cut off the head and the tail and cooked them separately from the rest of the body. Once each piece was fully cooked, she put the salmon back together and arranged it nicely on a platter. The client and guests were none the wiser! It's always reassuring hearing someone as successful and beloved as Garten share about humble beginnings.