--- title: Ina Garten Didn't Want to Be the Barefoot Contessa Interview description: Ina Garten recently revealed that she initially resisted agreeing to doing the Barefoot Contessa, her beloved television show. canonical: https://time.com/4551976/ina-garten-interview/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-01T00:35:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:38:13.190Z og:title: Ina Garten Originally Didn't Want to Do the Barefoot Contessa og:description: "Lose my phone number!" og:url: https://time.com/4551976/ina-garten-interview/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt659c341065988d16/6988ac44f887dcc7dee9801d/ina-garten-didnt-want-to-be-barefoot-contessa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: 2015 Forbes Women's Summit: Transforming The Rules Of Engagement og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ina Garten Originally Didn't Want to Do the Barefoot Contessa twitter:description: "Lose my phone number!" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt659c341065988d16/6988ac44f887dcc7dee9801d/ina-garten-didnt-want-to-be-barefoot-contessa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Apparently Ina Garten Really Didn't Want to Be the Barefoot Contessa > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Nov 1, 2016 12:35 AM UTC  Ina Garten attends the 2015 Forbes Women's Summit: Transforming The Rules Of Engagement at Pier 60 on June 10, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Daniel Zuchnik/WireImage) Ina Garten attends the 2015 Forbes Women's Summit: Transforming The Rules Of Engagement at Pier 60 on June 10, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Daniel Zuchnik/WireImage) Daniel Zuchnik—WireImage  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Nov 1, 2016 12:35 AM UTC [Ina Garten](http://time.com/3823301/ina-garten-2015-time-100/), kitchen goddess and [all-around delightful person](http://time.com/4521936/ina-garten-and-michelle-obama-are-cooking-up-something-delicious/), was originally opposed to having her own television show, _Barefoot Contessa_, which has been [one of the Food Network’s most beloved shows for the past 15 years](http://motto.time.com/4198968/ina-garten-making-goals/). Garten recently revealed to [_People_](http://people.com/food/ina-garten-food-network-barefoot-contessa-cooking-for-jeffrey/) that she didn’t think there would be much interest in the show. “In the beginning, I just thought ‘I’m not that person,’” Garten said. “Why would anyone want to watch me on TV? I couldn’t understand what I could do that was different; that was unique.” Thankfully for us, however, the Food Network continued to court Garten who later relented. “They kept saying, ‘No, you’d be really great,’ and I’m like ‘Lose my phone number,’” she said. “Fortunately, they kept coming back. And of course, here we are, 15 years later. I’m still with the same production company and still on Food Network. Despite myself.” Garten credits the warm on-air presence that she has to the initial appearances that she had on Martha Stewart’s own tv show before launching her own show. “She’s so confident and so good at what she does that I just kind of took my cues from her.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4551976/ina-garten-interview/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4551976/ina-garten-interview/"},"headline":"Apparently Ina Garten Really Didn't Want to Be the Barefoot Contessa","datePublished":"2016-11-01T00:35:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:38:13.190Z","description":"\"Lose my phone number!\"","url":"https://time.com/4551976/ina-garten-interview/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Entertainment","Food","celebrity","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt659c341065988d16/6988ac44f887dcc7dee9801d/ina-garten-didnt-want-to-be-barefoot-contessa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt659c341065988d16/6988ac44f887dcc7dee9801d/ina-garten-didnt-want-to-be-barefoot-contessa.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2015 Forbes Women's Summit: Transforming The Rules Of Engagement","caption":"2015 Forbes Women's Summit: Transforming The Rules Of Engagement","creditText":"Daniel Zuchnik—WireImage","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/4551976/ina-garten-interview/","name":"Apparently Ina Garten Really Didn't Want to Be the Barefoot Contessa"}}]}] ```