apple pear crisp
Celebrity Homes: Ina Garten's Apartment & Why She's My Secret Weapon
March 28, 2017 |
| Celebrity Homes: Ina Garten in her East Hampton home |
Ready to peek inside the celebrity home
(a beautiful Manhattan apartment)
of Ina Garten?
I bet it won't surprise you that I have been forever in love
with the Barefoot Contessa, the brilliant and beautiful
Ina Garten, for obvious reasons.
She has incredible taste and shares it.
Her decor style is simple and tasteful, with restrained elegance.
She creates the best recipes and entertaining ideas
which are realistic and achievable.
She loves dessert.
She strives for ease but won't
do the impossible and then orchestrate
matters to make it all look easy...
there's a transparency I have come to trust.
Her cookbooks are gold.
A couple of winters ago, we were invited to
a dinner party where I was asked to bring dessert.
I know my way around the kitchen, but
I'm not sure I have ever been so nervous
about preparing a dish.
The host of the party has legendary chef skills,
and he was cooking us courses paired with
fine wines I knew we would remember forever,
and my dessert would follow all the magic and
deliciousness as the last taste guests would remember.
So who do you think I turned to in my hour of need?
The Barefoot Contessa, of course.
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| Ina Garten's Apple and Pear Crisp |
I made Ina's Apple and Pear Crisp and
bought the best vanilla ice cream I could find.
The host/chef (who did not know what I was bringing)
served it in individual magnificent French enamelware
dishes which were absolutely perfect, elevating a very
simple dessert to European chic status.
And how did dinner guests respond
after the most amazing quail, emu, squid, etc?
With sighs and gratitude.
It was a hit.
The host even remarked:
"I don't bake, so this is special."
Sometimes I bake it in individual ramekins.
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| My Apple and Pear Crisp in individual ramekins |
You can count on Ina Garten to
deliver the lovely, whether she is
decorating one of her beautiful properties
or schooling you in preparing a fabulous
meal ahead so you aren't
slaving away from guests in the kitchen.
I love her devotion to her husband and
how she shares her personal journey so beautifully.
Here's what she told House Beautiful a few days ago:
"Jeffrey and I had been married for two years when we went
camping in Normandy, France. The woman who owned the
campsite offered us beef bourguignonne, and I was like
"Yessss!--we had very little money, and I'd been using
a small gas stove in the tent. Well, the meal was extraordinary.
I had to figure out how to re-create it, and I used Julia Child's
Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I taught myself to
cook using cookbooks; now I'm obsessed. But I had
no place to keep them - they were piled on the floor
in stacks! So I built them a home."
I knew Ina's backstory about how in D.C. she
practiced recipes all week long before serving
dinner to guests on the weekend, and that perhaps only
sounds crazy to folks who are not mad about cooking
since I used to do the same thing as a work-at-home-mom
who loved to experiment and practice in the kitchen!
The Gartens moved to a new apartment on Park Avenue
last summer and are selling their 1-bedroom Manhattan
apartment which you may have seen featured in
an interiors magazine or on her show.
It's a home with an airy, European, relaxed,
Belgian feel that so many of us admire.
Let's tour it and then peek at her new city apartment.
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Bookcase: a 16th cenury reproducion from Axel Vervoordt's Belgium shop
|
1920's Manhattan residence
Magnificent leaded glass window
One bedroom
Oversize master suite
Two-story living room
Galley kitchen
Source: AD
Interior Design: Daniel Romualdez
Photography: David Paler
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| Celebrity Homes:Who can forget those infamous pumpkin curtains! |
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| Celebrity Homes: Galley Kitchen in Former Manhattan Apartment of Ina Garten |
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| Celebrity Homes: Simplicity in this Bedroom |
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| Celebrity Homes: Bathroom in Ina Garten's former Manhattan Apartment |
Images below: via
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| Ina Says she prefers highbacked sofas like these because she's not tall |
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| Celebrity Homes: Another image of the Bedroom |
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| Celebrity Homes: Ina Garten's Former Manhattan Apartment |
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| Belgian stone countertops, open shelving, and steel window |
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| Belgian Stone Counters in Ina Garten Kitchen |
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| Celebrity Homes: Stunning Leaded Glass Window |
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| Celebrity Homes: Ina Garten |
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| Celebrity Homes: Detail in Bath of Former Apartment of Ina Garten |
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| Celebrity Homes: Ina Garten |
Where did she move?
A 2,450 s.f. pied-Ã -terre in the Philip House
on Park Avenue
It's a 2 bedroom, 3 bathroom apartment with 3 fireplaces
and the former home of Nancy Novogrod, former editor-in-chief
of Travel + Leisure and Condé Nast’s House & Garden.
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| The New Apartment |
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| The living room is 36 x 19 with 10' ceilings |
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| Ina Garten's Park Avenue Apartment |
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| Celebrity Homes: Ina Garten's Park Avenue apartment |
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| Kohler sinks, Dornbracht-polished nickel faucets, E.R. Butler & Co. hardware, a Miele dishwasher, and a sub-zero stainless steel refrigerator |
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| Celebrity Homes: Ina Garten's Park Avenue apartment |
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| Celebrity Homes: Ina Garten's Park Avenue apartment |
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| Celebrity Homes: Ina Garten's Park Avenue apartment |
We cannot blame Ina for wanting her city kitchen
to live larger, but is anyone else a little sad
she's letting go of that 1920's gem
so perfect for housing her personal treasures?
Stay tuned for tours of Ina Garten's
Paris apartment, Hamptons Barn, and of course,
her well-known East Hamptons home.
Here's my post about
Meg Ryan's NY apartment
if you missed it, and here are
a couple of recent posts you might enjoy:
40 Beautiful House Exteriors to Inspire
A Stunning Modern Farmhouse Renovation
Peace to you right where you are.
