Even the best celebrity chefs have managed to spark some controversy.
With Ina Garten, most of her missteps were viewed as missteps by only part of her audience...but
doesn't that make it even more controversial?
Here's what she's done that has gotten some of her fans all riled up.
Many cultures have their ages-old dish that's special to them, and in Mexican cuisine, one
of those is pozole, a dish that dates back to the Aztecs.
Traditionally made with pork or chicken, pozole is a stew featuring hominy, a dried and rehydrated
type of maize.
Pozole can be red or green, and there are many other variations...but when some fans
saw Ina Garten's version of it, they called her out.
LA Taco called her re-imagining of it a, quote, "lazy-ass attempt" at Mexican food.
And viewers condemned it for being about as authentically Mexican as Taco Bell's tacos.
Many said that her additions of bell peppers, tortilla chips, cheese, green onions, sour
cream, and black beans didn't just make it not pozole, but it was pretty much a mash-up
of chili and tortilla soup.
To add insult to injury, her video was posted at the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month,
a time when it's extra important to get things right.
Part of the allure of the Barefoot Contessa is that she makes things you can actually
imagine making.
But everyone seems to overlook the fact that if you make her recipes regularly, they might
just be killing you.
Take her cookbook How Easy Is That?, which was named one of the worst cookbooks of the
year when it came out in 2010.
"If you want to be good you can use milk, but I want this to be delicious."
By whom?
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
They didn't pull any punches, either, saying to Grub Street:
"...she weaponizes simple, healthy vegetables with high-fat meat and dairy products...Recipes
for meat dishes, such as Steakhouse Steaks, are pretty straightforward, and so are the
health consequences."
Food blog Amateur Gourmet took the opportunity to point out that this was par for the course
with her recipes, saying,
"watching her on TV I sometimes want to scream: don't you ever cook anything that doesn't
require a cardiologist?
Not every recipe needs a gallon of fat to make it taste good."
They pointed to her famous cupcakes, which were amazing, but called for two packs of
cream cheese and six sticks of butter.
While a low-fat diet isn't a sure bet for curing all your fitness woes, you certainly
shouldn't go all in on cream cheese and butter.
It's no wonder, then, that AG summed up their feelings like this:
"The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook is the most used cookbook on my shelf.
I love it.
But I'm starting to realize a Barefoot Contessa diet is unsustainable, unless I want to go
to an early grave."
Make-A-Wish is, of course, a charity that grants wishes to sick children across the
country, and it was Garten's handling of one of their requests that earned her a dose of
public outrage.
It all started when TMZ reported that Garten's camp had first given a "soft no," to Enzo
Pereda, a 6-year-old with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
They cited a busy schedule, and followed up that answer with a definite "no," but that's
not the end of the story.
Pereda's family says they spent three years trying to reach out to her and set up a meet-and-greet.
Suddenly, every media outlet in the country and tons of people on social media were condemning
her, and no amount of damage control seemed to make it better.
There were stories like The Los Angeles Times piece titled,
"'Barefoot Contessa' taking heat for repeatedly rejecting 'Make-A-Wish' cancer patient",
which reported on the new nickname she'd been saddled with online: "the Heartless Contessa".
Meanwhile, the public headed to social media to call for boycotts of her merch and cookbooks,
and even demand the cancellation of her show.
Garten later reached out to the family in an attempt to set up the meet-and-greet, but
ABC News reported that this time she was the one turned down: Pereda was going to swim
with dolphins instead.
According to Eater, Ina Garten has rarely said much about her political leanings.
Until, that is, an interview with Frank Bruni, a former restaurant critic for The New York
Times.
He asked her what she would serve notable political figures.
She said she'd serve Elizabeth Warren some lobster mac 'n cheese, cook Beto O'Rourke
a full dinner of pulled pork with all the sides, and thought Joe Biden would like, quote,
"Something fun, like a lobster and clambake."
But she had something else in mind for President Trump:
"What do you serve Donald Trump?"
"A subpoena?"
Not everyone was thrilled with her very direct response, and while Refinery Twenty-Nine called
it "A Grade A Roast," some internet commenters weren't amused.
One posted,
"I used to like her but she is rude with this one.
Donald Trump is our President and people need to give him the respect he deserves."
Everyone knows that Fall only actually begins when Starbucks announces the return of the
pumpkin spice latte.
It's a huge deal.
In 2019, The Guardian reported that the holiday beverage was a runaway success in more than
50 countries, and was estimated to rake in a shocking $1.4 billion in annual sales.
It goes without saying that there's a lot of people who really love their PSLs, or at
least a moderate amount of people who really, really love them, but the Barefoot Contessa?
Not so much.
When Today asked her about her thoughts on the hottest food trends out there, she was
very forthcoming.
While avocado toast was one of her favorites, as long as it's well-seasoned, and other trendy
foods including kale, almond milk, and grain bowls were OK with her, she wasn't a fan of
the PSL at all.
She remarked, quote, "I like coffee to taste like coffee."
Ouch!
Say it ain't so!
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