Ina Garten

“I try to greet my friends with a drink in my hand, a warm smile on my face, and great music in the background, because that's what gets a dinner party off to a fun start.”

“My favorite fall or winter lunch is big steaming bowls of soup. I usually invite people for around 12:30 and have two hearty soups like shrimp corn chowder and lentil sausage soup, which can be made a day or two ahead.”

“I've lived in the Hamptons since 1978, when I first bought my store Barefoot Contessa.”

“If it's a cocktail party, I generally make five or six different things, and I try to choose recipes that feel like a meal: a chicken thing, a fish or shrimp thing, maybe two vegetable things, and I think it's fun to end the cocktail party with a sweet thing.”

“My mother would never let me in the kitchen. I always wanted to cook, but I was never allowed to. Her view of the world was, 'Cooking is my job, and studying is your job.' I think, in retrospect, she didn't like the chaos. She was very orderly. It had to be her way.”

“I always like to have flowers on the table. I think they make it look special.”

“I love to take something ordinary and make it really special.”

“You don't have to do everything from scratch. Nobody wants to make puff pastry!”

“I'm really a scientist. I follow recipes exactly - until I decide not to. And then I'll follow something else exactly. I may decide I could turn this peach tart into a plum tart, but if I'm following a recipe, I follow it exactly.”

“I like almonds as a snack - keeps your energy up but doesn't fill you up.”

“The most important thing for having a party is that the hostess is having fun. I'm very organized. I make a plan for absolutely everything. I never have anything that has to be cooked while the guests are there. The only thing I might have to do is take something out of the oven and carve it.”

“People have more fun if they don't eat so much they have to be taken home in an ambulance.”

“Creme Brulee is the ultimate 'guy' dessert. Make it and he'll follow you anywhere.”

“If you think about a Thanksgiving dinner, it's really like making a large chicken.”

“I worked for the Office of Management and Budget in the White House, on nuclear energy policy. But I decided it would be much more fun to have a specialty food store, so I left Washington D.C. and moved to the Hamptons. And how glad I am that I did!”

“I don't like sitting at a table that's too large, where everyone is too far apart. That's a party killer.”