Editing Ina Garten (section)

=== Barefoot Contessa cookbooks ===
[[File:InaGartenSign.jpg|thumb|upright|Garten at a book signing]]
In 1999, Garten reemerged with her attention turned to publishing. She carried on the Barefoot Contessa name in her 1999 [[Sleeper hit|sleeper]] bestseller, ''The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook''. The book far exceeded both Garten's and publisher Clarkson Potter's expectations, containing the recipes that made her store successful.<ref name = Fischer/> Garten eventually sold over 100,000 copies in the first year,<ref>{{cite news |year = 2000 |title = Chefs Shake Up Cookbook Market |work = Publishing Trends }}</ref> immediately requiring second and third print runs after the initial printing of 25,000 cookbooks were sold. In 2001, she released ''Barefoot Contessa Parties!'', which also garnered praise and generated high sales; ''Barefoot Contessa Family Style'' followed in 2002. ''The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook'' and ''Parties!'' were nominated for 2000 and 2002 [[James Beard Foundation|James Beard]] Awards in the Entertaining & Special Occasion Cookbooks category. ''Parties!'' was a surprise entry—Garten was perceived as too inexperienced to compete with nominees such as French chef [[Jacques Pépin]] and international wine expert Brian St. Pierre.

Her cookbooks have many color photographs,<ref name = Fischer/> including a full-page picture facing each recipe. Some critics{{who|date = August 2024}} argue that this style of publishing sacrifices space which could be used for recipes. Regardless, her cookbooks have received positive reviews; in 2005, fellow chef [[Giada De Laurentiis]] named Garten as one of her favorite authors.<ref>{{cite news |last = Sagon |first = Candy |date = April 20, 2005 |url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/19/AR2005041903200.html |title = The Food Network's Latest It Girl |newspaper = [[The Washington Post]] |archive-date = September 19, 2015 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150919005930/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/19/AR2005041903200.html |url-status = live }}</ref> {{As of|2023}}, Garten has published thirteen cookbooks with more than 14 million copies in print.

The richness of Garten's recipes has long been noted, with ''[[The New Yorker]]'' calling her "America's reigning queen of tastefully-deployed butterfat".<ref name = Fischer/> In 2010, the [[Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine]] criticized her cookbook ''Barefoot Contessa: How Easy Is That?'' for its use of high-fat, high-calorie, and high-cholesterol meat and dairy ingredients, naming it one of "The Five Worst Cookbooks" of the year from a nutritional standpoint.<ref>{{cite news |title = Health Concerns: The War Against Ina Garten |url = http://www.grubstreet.com/2010/12/the_war_against_ina_garten.html |first = Alan |last = Sytsma |work = [[New York (magazine)|New York]] |date = December 31, 2010 |access-date = September 2, 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.pcrm.org/health/reports/five_worst_cookbooks_2010.html |title = The Five Worst Cookbooks of 2010 |publisher = [[Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine]] |date = December 2010 |access-date = September 11, 2015 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101224081511/http://www.pcrm.org/health/reports/five_worst_cookbooks_2010.html |archive-date = December 24, 2010 }}</ref> In response, Eric Felten of ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' called the report "an assault on cookbooks that dare to venture beyond lentils."<ref>{{cite news |last = Felten |first = Eric |title = A War on Good Taste |newspaper = [[The Wall Street Journal]] |date = December 31, 2010 |url = https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703909904576051780951418022 |access-date = September 12, 2015 }}</ref>