Barefoot Contessa - From the White House to the Hamptons
Ina Garten renovating houses in Washington DC, working at the White House? Is this the Ina Garten of Barefoot Contessa we all know? Yes! Garten and Jeffrey moved to Washington, DC, in 1972, where she earned her degree and worked up to the White House. Garten helped write the nuclear energy budget during Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter's presidencies. Garten taught herself to cook and entertain while renovating old houses in Dupont Circle and Kalorama, Embassy Row.
She wasn’t renovating houses to turn a profit. “I loved doing it, so I didn’t find it stressful,” Garten says. “I was working a lot, but it was something I did on my own time and I was also teaching myself how to cook. I think when you’re young, you do all that stuff.” Garten says she singled out neighborhoods that were on the way up, which in the 1970s, included Dupont Circle. “That’s always been my real estate strategy,” she says. “The exception was the house in the Kalorama, embassy row area, which was just a great house at a great price.”
First Lady Michelle Obama
Ina Garten is in Washington, D.C., with a once-in-a-lifetime invitation to have tea with First Lady Michelle Obama, but she's also visiting some local restaurants and catching up with old friends.
Cristeta and the Contessa
Cristeta Comerford has been cooking at the White House since 1997 and became executive chef in 2005. In addition to the Obama's family meals, the White House Kitchen also turns out multi-course meals for 400-person state dinners. Ina is joining Chef Comerford in the kitchen to make some finger snacks for her tea with Mrs. Obama. Chef Christina recently retired from the White House kitchen.
