--- title: Ina Garten Will Never Cook Cassoulet at Home description: The Barefoot Contessa can cook anything, but there's one dish she would prefer not to prepare canonical: https://time.com/5071693/ina-garten-kitchen-dont/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-12-19T19:52:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:02:50.491Z og:title: Here's The One Thing Ina Garten Won’t Cook at Home og:description: The Barefoot Contessa can cook anything, but sometimes she doesn't want to og:url: https://time.com/5071693/ina-garten-kitchen-dont/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ffdc24becbe8441/6988d6eb22fb85a7fae22170/170725-ina-garten-ingredient.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4252 og:image:height: 2392 og:image:alt: TIME 100 Gala, TIME's 100 Most Influential People In The World, New York og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's The One Thing Ina Garten Won’t Cook at Home twitter:description: The Barefoot Contessa can cook anything, but sometimes she doesn't want to twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ffdc24becbe8441/6988d6eb22fb85a7fae22170/170725-ina-garten-ingredient.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's the One Thing Ina Garten Will Never Cook at Home > Sponsored content. 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Dishes including any of these 5 high-priced ingredients will make for a culinary Mona Lisa._ by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Dec 19, 2017 7:52 PM UTC  Ina Garten attending the TIME 100 Gala, TIME's 100 Most Influential People In The World at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 21, 2015 in New York City/picture alliance Photo by: Dennis Van Tine/Geisler-Fotopres/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images Ina Garten attending the TIME 100 Gala, TIME's 100 Most Influential People In The World at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 21, 2015 in New York City/picture alliance Photo by: Dennis Van Tine/Geisler-Fotopres/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images Dennis Van Tine/Geisler-Fotopres—Dennis Van Tine/Geisler-Fotopres/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Dec 19, 2017 7:52 PM UTC Ina Garten can cook anything. The cookbook author and Food Network star has proven that time and time again on her show, [_The Barefoot Contessa_](http://time.com/4551976/ina-garten-interview/?iid=sr-link1)_,_ where she effortlessly whips up ratatouilles and goat cheese-filled tarts_._ However, there’s at least one dish that she can cook, but would prefer not to undertake. “There are so many dishes I love to make at home,” she [told _Today_](https://www.today.com/food/10-things-you-didn-t-know-about-ina-garten-t120009). “But there are some things I just don’t make at home. I order them in restaurants, like cassoulet. Things that take, like, days to make and they’re so good.” [Garten](http://time.com/4555770/michelle-obama-ina-garten-white-house/?iid=sr-link10), who spends a great deal of time in Paris and frequently posts about her favorite Parisian dishes on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/inagarten/), is well aware of how difficult it is to make a proper cassoulet, which combines duck confit, white beans, and sausage painstakingly prepared over a number of days. “They have a whole team of people to help them,” she said in defense of ordering the dish in restaurants. “And it’s just me.” Besides, [Garten](http://time.com/4521936/ina-garten-and-michelle-obama-are-cooking-up-something-delicious/?iid=sr-link4) is a long-time defender of store-bought items. “If there’s something that you can buy in a grocery store that you don’t need to make yourself, like, say, vanilla Haagen Dazs, don’t make it yourself. Go buy it,” she told _Today_. “There’s great bread available, [artisan bread](http://time.com/4389140/bread-is-better-than-ever/?iid=sr-link8). You want really good ingredients. But if you can \[buy\] Rao’s tomato sauce, why make a marinara yourself? It’s really delicious.” Instead of spending her time cooking cassoulet or making her own vanilla ice cream, Garten can wander the streets of Paris with her beloved husband Jeffrey, eat a cassoulet at a bistro, and go back to schooling [Megan Markle](http://time.com/5037648/prince-harry-meghan-markle-engaged-world-reacts/?iid=sr-link1) on the art of [cooking chicken fit for a prince](http://people.com/royals/meghan-markle-engagement-chicken-recipe-ina-garten/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5071693/ina-garten-kitchen-dont/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5071693/ina-garten-kitchen-dont/"},"headline":"Here's the One Thing Ina Garten Will Never Cook at Home","datePublished":"2017-12-19T19:52:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:02:50.491Z","description":"The Barefoot Contessa can cook anything, but there's one dish she would prefer not to prepare","url":"https://time.com/5071693/ina-garten-kitchen-dont/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","Chefs","Food and Beverage","Recipes","Food and Drinks"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ffdc24becbe8441/6988d6eb22fb85a7fae22170/170725-ina-garten-ingredient.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ffdc24becbe8441/6988d6eb22fb85a7fae22170/170725-ina-garten-ingredient.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIME 100 Gala, TIME's 100 Most Influential People In The World, New York","caption":"TIME 100 Gala, TIME's 100 Most Influential People In The World, New York","creditText":"Dennis Van Tine/Geisler-Fotopres—Dennis Van Tine/Geisler-Fotopres/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5071693/ina-garten-kitchen-dont/","name":"Here's the One Thing Ina Garten Will Never Cook at Home"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"5 Expensive Cooking Ingredients","description":"Dishes including any of these 5 high-priced ingredients will make for a culinary Mona Lisa.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/LmiMLJeL/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-10-20T20:25:16.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/LmiMLJeL.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5071693/ina-garten-kitchen-dont/","duration":"PT1M33S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5071693/ina-garten-kitchen-dont/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```