Thanksgiving With Ina Garten
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Two hours, three, two minutes, twenty a time to do whatever. A few weeks ago in the wee hours of the morning. Can I get you a tosh? You over. I started out on a very long drive with my colleagues, page cow IT when the door and tina anthy need.

they feel like I should be go left.

probably the year. And our destination was the home of a person who has very much been having a moment, so, so far, traffic. And that is the cook television host and creator of her own media empire, a garden OK the bear foot conTessa. This is Billy dual singing about the island run.

And if you know anything about that, you know that she's written over a dozen best selling cook books, I have almost all them, and that she's been married to her beloved husband, jeffrey, from more than fifty years. So now it's about seven forty A M, and we have hit our first big patch of traffic. And if he lives in the hamptons, oh, we are in east mpt in a statement home that if you've ever seen her T V show is instantly recognizable and I just missed her house, except to hear the wind driving.

i'm so busy talking .

to you that I just missed her house. Now, back to that moment that under garden is happy SHE just want a men were about her childhood and her marriage and her improbable journey. From working as an analyst in the ford White house to purchasing a small specialty food store in the hampton that becomes wildly popular under her, okay, and we have just arrived. And other girls hasted, all of which put her on a path to becoming a kind of grew for a relax, real, not to prime or glamorous way of entertaining at home. 哇哦。

好， hello, see you.

I hear you all the time to actually see you. I i'm so happy to see you. Michael. Thank you so much for coming.

And so after a few emails, I know, to our delight, agreed to me with us in her home student. Which he calls the barn, and to talk to us about the thing that so many of us are going to be doing today, hosting or being hosting the next door.

And I did. My computers on the .

grass is ninety feet through, through the beautiful s and I michabo. This is a special thanksgiving episode of the daily today. Someone is in the kitchen with anna and that someone is me. It's thursday, november twenty eight.

Well, I want to give you something.

me, anything? No, of course.

I wouldn't dream of coming to any gardens, house, empty hand, a tote and a what I understand, according to to google, according, this is your favorite kind of wine from burgandy.

I love begin. This is gorgeous.

Thank you so much. And eventually the two .

of us sit down so you hope you .

to look at a table inside the barn for a conversation over a coffee and a basket of pastries. I feel like your little modeling, the behavior were gonna change.

The .

hosting .

begins early here. I am a.

thank you, so happy to see you.

So I just want to set the table, yes, for this conversation as they were to me, there's nothing as special as being invited into some boy's home as you have invited us for a meal, whether it's a dead simple backyard barbecue or an elaborate multi I courses at down dinner. And it's always said to me that good hosting is a kind of magic. And you are such a master of this particular art form, this magic of convening people in making that together. And I feel so special.

Well, it's what I love to do because my whole goal in life is to connect with people I love. And IT doesn't happen easily when you have that connection. You feel like um you you're taking care of people and and they're taking care of you and god knows we need that well.

where do you think that comes from? That desire to comfort people, to make them feel cared for?

Know my memory, I tell the story that my mother was very cold. I think she's wasn't capable of being warmed, so I think I never felt connected to hurt all and and at all at all.

I think pretty start thing to have to say.

I think I was really hungry for that in my life. And so that's what I try to do with my friends. I think entertaining for me is really about bringing people together and being making them part of my family.

What do you .

remember the first time that you really hosted on your own?

I too, and IT was a total disaster. Jeffrey, I just got to married. He was in the military, and I decided to have a party for twenty people. Bad idea.

Thank you. First party.

twenty people, twenty people, and they didn't know each other. And for some reason, I decided I was going to make an argument for everybody. Now I barely even know how to make an on.

And that, I mean, I kind of do, but I certainly didn't have to make an on with them. And what I know now is you have to make them one at a time. yeah. So I spent the entire time in the kitchen making on lets. So jeff re, porch every was in the living room with twenty people trying to keep the conversation going.

Well, how do they play out? So are in the kitchen you're making all recognizing this isn't going .

through this going well? I was like, I was on a cruise ship. I was the chef, and we didn't have a table for twenty people, so that there were chairs that in the living room that were just in in a big circle, and everybody had an applying and Normal and on their lap, but not at the same time.

So I was bad.

IT was bad. IT was really bad. Could you feel I was tango?

I think I was so .

busy making almost. I didn't even think about IT until afterwards, and I knew I was IT was a quiet party. And with twenty people .

you can connect with them.

but you keep at IT quite obviously. So what does that look like for you to grow into a more confident, less armlets centric host?

I think by the time career I got to washington, I had been to france, and I was really interested in the food. And I started work my way through Julia child's mastering the art french cooking. And so my first parties were very elaborative fairs.

You know, they were fancy IT was fancy food. And so I picked the most complicated things, which is why how I taught myself at a cook. So i'm bay.

I didn't. And then one day we were invited to somebody's house for dinner. I was a guy and I said, a jeffrey, others can be disaster because no men copped in the seventies.

I mean, they just didn't. And we went there and he served a simple flave beef that was roasted simple vegetables. IT was an absolutely simple, elegant meal.

And remember thinking myself, this is IT. Everybody had a wonderful time. His hair wasn't on fire.

He, he wasn't cooking from Julia child.

He wasn't making some elaboration. And at that moment I decided to change how I cook. And so the thing that I expected to be a disastrous dinner turned out to be a lesson I never forget.

The lesson being the cooking is part of hosting. But this is not the totality.

And the simple of the mail is the more fun everybody has. The irony is it's not about impressing your guest with a great dinner. It's about making a dinner that's perfectly delicious, that allows everybody have a good time together.

Well, let's get kind of clinical here and talk about how all of this works because it's not every day we get to pick the brain of the pair ful conTessa. And it's really only once a year that I think so many of us are really focused on the act of really hosting, which is thanksgiving. So just talk us through the elements of a good meal, a good dinner party, what's essential, what's not? Let's allow ourselves to go rather deep on this subject in a way we Normally might, not otherwise.

So I was intervening, Frank Bonnie, who are just a door, and I said to, what's the kito great restaurant and he said, the most important detail is how you greeted at the door, 哼。 And I thought that's exactly true of parties because when you feel like you're welcome, you're always going to feel good.

How much do you think about how much should we be thinking about the group of people that you're bring together? Thankful ving is unique. Of course, you don't always have a choice of losing your family and who gets to come, who has to come. But to the extent that you do have a choice, how do you think about combining the right mix of people?

Well, first, I think about who I wanted see, but I also think about who would like to see each other. So people who know each other, they don't see each other, and or who would enjoy each other company, jeff rine pretty much choregraphic dinner party. And you said.

there you talk about IT. You think about, we totally think about.

and we think about how the party is needed, which is really important. So inevitably, in a group of six people around round tables, my ideal dinner party, and in every day, some people are extroverts and some people are introverts, so some people are more talk of than others.

So if you think about six people around a dinner table, I always put the most talkative people opposite each other and the least pocket of people opposite each other and the other quarter on so that um the if you put the talk out of people next to each other, that's where the party is gonna be and then the people that people can listen, that want to listen and people can talk that want to talk. So and you'd be shot out too big a table or two people on the wrong on the same side of the table that are talking can just react. A perfectly good dinner party.

Okay, the food, how do you decide what to serve or not to serve? I am not just talking about diet, Terry restrictions, which, by the way, always come up, but just the whole question of what is gonna possible within the time that you have what's gone to feel the right level of simple, or if you wanted to, fussy and formal and meeting the occasion.

So this is like a new york times puzzle. There are lot of layers to IT. And the first one is, I just remember, these are my friends, and I want them to be happy.

So when i'm doing the menu, the first thing I do is find out or if I know, figure out what everybody doesn't like or doesn't need. And I want to make one menu that everybody can need because you never want to be. I'm having the, you know, the roast field dinner.

And this person over there allows by themselves is having pasta. I want everybody to share the same meal. So that's the first thing.

Then I write down a menu of what i'd like to make, and then I just start crossing things off and just go, well, do we really need four vegetable when two would be fine? Cross you off. Can I make that? Do have to make that peach tart.

Or can I get IT from a Bakery? Cross that off. Um is IT hard to make a first course while the meters in the event don't make a first course. Um then I figure out how i'm going to make this meal.

Are there four things that need to go in one oven? Or is there one thing that's room temperature, one thing that I can cook on top of the stove and one thing in the oven so that i'm not trying to juggle things while it's happening? And then the last thing I do is make a timeline. How is this meal .

going to happen? I get NASA command.

IT is like that. And I think people are shocked that when I have six people for dinner, I do this because otherwise all day i'm like, oh my god, should I start the dinner? And then I look at my schedule and I say, five o'clock, I have to turn the other on.

It's literally that detail. Five, fifteen, put the meat in the event. Five, forty, five, take IT out.

It's a really detailed. But then I know that before five, I am fine. I can relax and it's hard. It's it's a complicated thing to get everything out on the table at the same time when it's perfectly cooked. And that's the only way I had to do what is to make a schedule.

okay. So now that we talk about the food, the table, what's on the table, so let's talk about levels of how much was supposed to even care about this. I care about IT. Then it's important .

my mother .

and I have been fighting for as long as I can remember about whether it's OK to use paper or plastic plates, how do you use that? How do you use that? The deal and how much fast you put into IT? And why does he even matter? Well.

first I would say paper and plastic, or nice for a picnic on a boat, but i'm not sure that they belong on a table. So that should settle that. I think the table should be lovely, but I really like a modern table. It's simple. I think there's nothing more horrifying than sitting down to a really fancy dinner table where there are like six glasses at each place setting and you know, you're going to be there forever because there are six courses, each with a different wine, so or a .

different fork.

or even if, oh my god, it's just horrible.

So modern simply means as simple.

as simple as possible, but I can still be beautiful. And I use the same things over and over again, like, really good apkon, good lin apkon. I have a wine glass of water glass, a dinner played table, where? And that's that's the table setting.

And then what i'd like to do is to have, like, garden flowers from the flower shop or from my garden, if you do little, you know, is filled with flowers in the same color, pal. IT is the napkin, then IT all feels coordinated. And you can move those voices around until they look great.

I think things that are fancy are actually are meant to impress rather than make people feel comfortable. And I feel that way about food. I feel that way by table settings.

If for the holidays, you don't have enough chairs of one kind of chair, who s who cares? It's fun. Just put chair around the table. If you only have six White dishes in one pattern and you have six White dishes and another pattern, just mix them all up. And I think that makes something feel simple and elegant and fun, which is at the end of the day, you just want your friends to be there.

right? Everything we're talking about here is really just a tool to bring people together. Doesn't really matter which tool we is exactly.

Okay, once the dinner is underway, the food is out, the conversations going, I have to imagine once in a while in this line of business and you went into the problem of of a guest, a relative, a problem person. And how do you deal with that? I'm thinking of my family. I'm thinking about an uncle of mind.

what we must have, the same uncle, the disruptor.

the dominator .

of the dominator.

Yeah, what do you do?

You don't do anything that's pretty hard to think of what to do except to invite them to come join you and in the kitchen and say, this isn't okay, but how do you do that is very hard to do, and probably everybody would like to do IT. I mean, I try to change the subject. I subject, yeah, I think that's the only thing you can do. And I think everybody is so grateful that .

you do at this point.

I think some of our listeners ers might be thinking of themselves, serve the food already, Michael. Be done with that. I know this is like, this is not how I think about dinner. You guys are over thinking the whole thing. Are we overthinking these details?

You and I I don't think so. And I think it's .

really important, right?

And I think it's a skill you just you get Better and Better at at hosting people. And I think, I mean, you and I obviously find it's really worth doing because it's the glue between people.

I think with that IT might be time for to think .

about IT cooking.

We're going to with me.

Would you do the honnor of throwing .

us to the break?

We'll be right back.

This podcast is supported by invesco Q, Q, Q. What is a recipe for innovation? Is that chef jon George's sun gold pizza powered by the sun, or celebrity chef in T. V. Host Christian kish es cloud have love, a inspired by cloud computing tech watch the world's most innovative chefs rethink what's possible with recipes inspired by companies in the invest Q Q Q etf, visit W W W dot, taste Q Q Q dot com to see what cooking hey.

it's john chase .

and a from wirecutters.

the product recommendation service from the new york times. Muri IT is gift giving time.

which means I am hopeless and need help. John, over forty gift sides like gifts for people who love food. I really love this water warm or on that list.

I didn't even .

know if that it's this q and m pot. If your someone like me who explodes butter in your microwave, you can water in IT, but you can use IT for a ton of other stuff, making hot chocolate warming soup. And IT looks great .

on the stove top. This is useful.

but it's also good location.

What an easy get for someone like under fifty box.

So in our gift under fifty guide, we have this super cute polling size. Lue tube speaker comes in our way of what colors is waterproof. I want .

for my garden idea, had the N Y ty's dot com slash holiday guide. So and to tell us what you have picked for us to cook for the holidays and why and how that fits into this conversation we're been having about bringing people together anyways that are simple, efficient and without the host fire.

So the first thing back for the new ham, so what I do is I buy a fully cooked smoked ham, really good quality ham, that's pres. lice. So you don't have to sliced IT at the party. And all I do is make the glass was like five agreement ents in IT goes in a food processor, put IT on the time, goes in the of, and IT bake for an hour.

So all we're going out to do is make the glass exactly OK. okay? You ready? I am ready.

One thing you need to know about me is I follow a recipe exactly so six months ago, and you can try garlic. Choose your weapon. I'll get the girl. Lic, my around.

Feel judge, as I do that because there is really no wrong way to way to IT.

okay, so we need eight and have thousands of mango. Charney, which is exactly what I have.

Can you describe this? Gennie, well.

it's mango, but it's got raising in IT and it's it's chinese, so it's it's both swe sour.

Have a competition .

on mustard. I can do that. I've just stumped in this one cup of life. Grandchild, I need disaster. One orange.

I always had the best of question is the list of an orange or lemon or a line. Simply, when you've covered all the surface area with one or two goes like how deep do you go into the skin?

It's called th Epace, which is the lighter part, and you don't want any of IT because it's bitter. So you just go absolutely the just the absolute surface where it's really dark orange .

or dark left and then .

we need a court of a couple of freshly squeeze or introduce I love a joy.

Was a child .

is OK were ready to go. So food .

processor .

grow again.

go again.

okay. So just turn .

the food processor, okay, until it's all period. This the best place? So good.

Okay, just describe this. You're you're bringing this over to this enormous, amazing precooked personed ham thread with string just to hold IT all together because .

it's precise .

ed because it's precisely .

and then we're going to pour the glass .

over IT yeah glaze just .

like I missing places.

This is crushing the ham.

It's exactly what it's doing and how this whole thing is in the okay, let's get on human.

right?

OK, this is what I love about rusting. You put IT in the event, set a time and forget about IT. So this is one hour. And in one hour we .

have a delicious he was stunning.

Ly simple and see twenty people and it's really quite certain that yeah fits within that by twenty to thirty.

Okay, ham is now in the other.

so we need something to drink.

All the ham bags aren't. Do we ever okay.

have at a cramb ry Martini? So you would want to make IT with me.

I would love to make our can I feel like everyone listening to this wants to know if the giant pandemic Martini cup .

actually exists? Absolute does. Would you like your Martini? And that goals I have, right?

It's here. It's here. Can you see here?

Oh.

my word.

this is like, it's grass.

It's like a good .

bet IT was given to me as a job.

But I mean, I had to use that and there's .

two of them and .

they like what we you don't want to drink that by yourself. So let's make that Martini, you all of this. So first thing we need is three course of cup of crawberry juice. And it's actually cranberry juice cocktail.

So to the measuring cup, three court of a cup.

half a cup of good voca.

This is, this is the freezer.

It's from the freezer.

Yeah.

court of a cup of triple sec, which is a weet. The end exactly.

They are perfectly .

measured and then we need a cup of ice. And this is the key to cocktails with ice if you have to shake up for thirty seconds. And when he does is to love the cocktail enough so that it's not like that like really harsh. So it's absolutely licious. So how about you do thirty seconds and all time again?

OK go. it's.

One of anything.

That's one.

About two days.

especially thirsty. That's thirty .

seconds.

Now i'm getting the glasses .

in the freezer. These are beautifully .

chilled Martini glasses to the touch.

This is a day to chair.

It's really nice. Yes, I know what I love.

Nobody is nobody exactly. But also the flavors or layer perfectly and IT doesn't have that hit of like bota. Even you when I know how much is in there, the orange in the crambry, I kind of bubble up a little bit. Not too sweet.

not too tart, because IT IT just feels like .

a perfect thanksgiving cop. It's delicious.

That would be then hams ready.

okay. Well, IT smells pretty good is in IT. That's the first test.

I know with the ham is kind of opened up and it's anything fAiling out isn't IT.

And then so what I like to do is I would like to serve IT like a size of hand with a little bit of the glass from the pan.

If nobody had told you, I would think that you have been working on this for twenty four hours.

Isn't it'll be a little see for it's just something I lived up in a few minutes before you got here and I actually did .

and you .

actually did .

because you plan on when I have to say this looks really good.

It's really punch you.

I can .

takes the origin, but IT .

doesn't overpower .

the smoke time you still take. I think it's really important at the intrinsic flavor of the thing that you're cooking shine through and the ingredient just make them taste Better kind of layers of mustard and orange and chutney, not bad, is IT.

No, I really, it's ham on there.

Really.

really good. Thank you.

Where's my R. T. member? Excuse me, I need to get mind to, I can't have you drinking alone.

What a great day, just.

We made that sense.

We did. We worked to so hard to me oris.

I have .

learned what? Thank you. I'm so good .

at all right back.

This podcast is supported by invest gu Q Q Q. What is the investor Q Q Q etf? It's an investment made up of the most innovative companies on the planet.

All bundle together into one ticker, Q Q Q. And just like a recipe, it's only as good as the ingredients within IT. Investor Q Q Q is a recipe for innovation. Visit W W W T, taste Q Q Q dot com to see how the world's best chefs break the rules of their trade to create new recipes inspired by the innovative companies within investor Q Q Q etf.

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So i'm Normally at the end of an episode, we do the headlines of the show today. We're going to do something little but different. I'm going to throw a bunch of rapid fire questions. Are you about cooking and entertaining? But to begin this, I need you to kick us off by saying.

here's what else you need to know today.

Okay, here are the questions best called appetiser that's ready when your guest walking rose .

trim cocktail bread .

or no bread .

on the table depends on the meal.

If it's not a sandwich bread on the table.

your personal preference pump in a apple pie.

apple pie stuffing.

or match potatoes. I love .

stuff thing, but I make IT is bright, putting a savery reputation resolve a debate.

another debate. I've been happening with my mother for years. The blade of the knife must face the interior of the plate.

yes or no, one hundred percent criminal .

to have IT out the other direction response that you give to a guest who says, can I help absolutely .

accept washing the dishes?

And if they insist on helping .

with the dishes and insist they not.

Are you giving your guests leftovers?

I actually do what Better than that? I actually make another thanksgiving dinner.

I said, what?

When I make thanksgiving dinner, I make a second one so that I can cut IT up and give IT to the guest to take home because everybody wants thanksgiving dinner sandwich is the next day, turkey and cranberry sauce and math potatoes. And it's really terrible the next day when you've gone to somebody else is dinner and you don't have those things. So I make sure everybody has everything .

that is hosting at a level I cannot find.

It's a PHD and hosting.

Well, on that note, I am .

happy thanksgiving.

happy.

thankful ving you to ungraded to you, grateful for everything you've taught me as a amateur chef. And i'm great for just to have you in our world.

I'm so happy to be here. Thank you.

Thank you.

I think I D be remiss if I didn't ask, where is jeffrey?

He is yellow teaching, and he's coming home tonight.

He's not going to be joining us.

No, i'm sorry. Next time.

no days. perfect.

Today's episode was produced by tina and tli and edited by windy door IT was fact by Susani, contains original music by marine lizana row in courage ruble and dan power, and was engineer by Chris wood. Special thanks to page cow ward, kate Taylor, sam harnett and my dearest mother, gene Barbara. That's IT for the daily I am Michael a borrow happy thanksgiving and see tomorrow.

This podcast is supported by investor Q Q Q get a taste innovation with the investor Q Q Q etf in investment containing one hundred ground racking companies. Visit W W W T taste Q Q Q dot com. Their risks involved in E T S, including possible lots of money, E, T S, are subject to risk similar of stocks. Investments focus on a particular sectors such as technology, subject to greater risks, and are more greatly impact by mark volatility. The more diversified amassed ments investigation is notify just with this information, read carefully before investing, investor, distribute sink.