Ina Garten

“I always have music. I love it to be very upbeat. When you're having drinks, I like something like Cesaria Evora. During dinner, I like the much more traditional - old Frank Sinatra and things like that.”

“I absolutely adore Thanksgiving. It's the only holiday I insist on making myself.”

“My extravagance is my garden - it's the first thing I look at every morning when I wake up. It gives me so much pleasure.”

“The most overrated tool: a pasta maker. Why make it when you can buy it? It's a lot of work!”

“There's something really wonderful about a party where you help yourself. Of course, first you get what you really want. But 'family style' service also really encourages people to connect with one another.”

“Never let 'em see you sweat. Guests feel guilty if they think you've worked too hard to make dinner for them - which of course you have!”

“When I wrote 'Barefoot in Paris,' I wanted to make simple recipes that you could make at home that tasted like French classics.”

“I time everything. I'm a scientist at heart.”

“The thing about all my food is that everything is a remembered flavor. Maybe it's something I had as a child or maybe it's something I had in Milan, but I want it to taste better than you ever thought.”

“I love Alton Brown's show 'Good Eats,' about the chemistry of food. It's really thoughtful.”

“Grilled cheese and tomato soup is the ultimate comfort meal.”

“In the summer you want fresh, light and sort of quick things; in winter you want things that are comforting, so your body really tells you you want to go towards potatoes, apples, fennel, things that are warm and comforting. And loin of pork.”

“I learned that the hardest party to pull off successfully is Saturday night dinner. This meal is expected to be elaborate: appetizers, first course, dinner, dessert, and coffee. People arrive at 7:30 or 8 p.m. and stay for hours - definitely past my bedtime - and they all go home exhausted.”

“I measure everything, because I always think that if I've spent so much time making sure this recipe was exactly the way I want it, why would I want to throw things into a pot?”

“Instead of going out to dinner, buy good food. Cooking at home shows such affection. In a bad economy, it's more important to make yourself feel good.”

“They say that gardens look better when they are created by loving gardeners rather than by landscapers, because the garden is more tended to and cared for. The same thing goes for cooking. I only cook for people I love.”

“Take one flower that you like and get lots of them. And don't try to 'arrange' them. It's surprisingly hard to do a flower arrangement the way a florist does one. Instead, bunch them all together or put them in a series of small vases all down the table.”

“I've taught myself how to use good, fresh ingredients and to prepare them as simply as possible by cooking only to enhance their intrinsic flavors.”

“The dirty little secret is that I grew up in a household where there were no carbohydrates allowed, ever. No cookies, no bread, no potatoes, no rice. My mother was very extreme in terms of what she served. Since I left home more than 40 years ago, I've been making it right for myself.”

“I use other cookbooks for inspiration. I must say I tend to cook from my own cookbooks for parties.”