Ina Garten on Hosting, Dessert Traditions and Dream Dinner Guests - Part 2

Summary

Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist

Episode: Ina Garten on Hosting, Dessert Traditions and Dream Dinner Guests – Part 2

Date: December 21, 2025
Guest: Ina Garten

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Episode Overview

In this lively continuation of a live-audience conversation at New York City's City Winery, Willie Geist and beloved cookbook author Ina Garten dive into the art of effortless hosting. Part two shifts focus to the joy of desserts made simple, creating a showstopping platter with store-bought sweets and fruits, tips for mixing a proper Kir Royale, and candid audience Q&A covering Ina's culinary philosophies, dinner party secrets, and more. The episode is filled with practical advice, laughter, and the signature warmth both host and guest are known for.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Effortless Dessert Platter (01:54–12:14)

• Ina’s Approach:

  • Ina debunks the notion that dinner party desserts must be elaborate or homemade, offering a no-cook, visually stunning alternative.
    • “I have a way to make a dessert that's equally over the top but really simple, requires no cooking at all.” – Ina (01:54)

• Building the Platter:

  • Begin with flowers for the table, not for the food—favoring “one flower, lots of them” for impact (02:19).
  • Combine shapes, sizes, colors, and add greenery and fruit for visual interest and flair (02:51–03:01).
  • Select a variety of bakery treats and fruit: lemon loaves, raspberry bars, brownies, chocolate-dipped macaroons, and thumbprint cookies (03:32–03:54).
    • “Nobody will know you never turned the oven on.” – Ina (03:15)

• Selecting Bubbly and Mixing a Kir Royale:

  • Visit to a wine shop for champagne—highlights the importance of acidity to balance the sweetness from crème de cassis (black currant liqueur) (04:22–04:38).
  • Kir Royale demonstration; simply crème de cassis plus chilled champagne, served in any glass you like: “If you want to drink it out of a tumbler, knock yourself out. It'll still be delicious.” – Ina (04:55)

• Dessert Platter Assembly Tips:

  • Layering green leaves on the platter adds contrast and freshness (07:13–07:31).
  • Anchor the display with a focal fruit (like a pile of strawberries), surround with grapes, and arrange baked treats in groupings—avoid mixing similar shapes next to each other (07:41–09:39).
  • Group items (not scattered like M&Ms), alternate shapes (rectangle, round), pile brownies, slices of cake, cookies, and fruits for an abundant look (09:13–11:00).
    • “It's about texture and flavor and… make it really interesting. And everything is accessible. So if you put this in the middle of a table, everybody would just go, oh, that looks so fabulous.” – Ina (10:10)
  • No cooking necessary: “You know, there was no cooking at all.” – Ina (11:33)

2. Ina’s Entertaining and Food Philosophy

• Always plan the platter visually and in terms of flavor variety (12:00).
• Chocolate is non-negotiable: “Always chocolate. Something chocolate.” – Ina (12:08)

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Audience Q&A Highlights (13:23–19:55)

Takeout in Ina's Life (13:23–14:41)

• Favorite takeout: “I like really simple takeout things like a souvlaki from the Greek restaurant or… there's a restaurant near us called 1770 house that has great meatloaf. So on a cold winter night, it's wonderful.” – Ina (13:54)
• Rarely opts for fast food; has occasionally enjoyed In-N-Out Burger when in California.

Managing Meal Timing (14:41–15:47)

• Ina uses a written “battle plan” to orchestrate when dishes go in and come out so all are ready together.
  • “If I have four things… and I want to serve everything at 7:30, I work my way backwards… Otherwise I'm always going, oh my God, do I have to put the string beans in now?” – Ina (15:08)

Enjoyment vs. Stress of Entertaining (15:38–16:04)

• When does she start to enjoy a dinner party? “When it’s over… every single Sunday I’d go, oh, I’m so tired. I’m never giving another dinner party again. And then on Monday, I’d start inviting people for the next weekend.” – Ina (15:41, 15:47)

Cooking With Music (16:10–16:44)

• Cooking is always accompanied by music; Ina has Spotify and Apple Music playlists for moods and occasions: French, dinner party, road trips.
• “Always. I actually have playlists that I have on Spotify and Apple...” – Ina (16:15)

Favorite Paris Eats (16:56–17:24)

• Visits Paris multiple times a year; prefers relaxed brasseries over “fancy restaurants.”
  • “The thing I love about Paris is not the fancy restaurants, it's the brasseries and really simple places… go to Flor, and have an omelette and a glass of champagne.” – Ina (16:56)

Dream Dinner Guests (17:25–18:43)

• Ina’s list: Julia Child, Eric Ripert, Jacques Pépin
  • “Wouldn’t that dinner party be fabulous?” – Ina (17:45)
  • Entertaining Eric Ripert: “I was in a full panic… I made him a French apple tart when he came. And he was just adorable.” – Ina (18:02)
• Willie’s list: Dolly Parton, Martin Short, plus his NHL-playing great-grandfather Herbie Lewis (18:43–19:13)

Advice for Non-Cooks (19:29–19:51)

• Start with a simple cookbook and master two dishes—like roast chicken and pasta bolognese—through repetition:
  • “Learn to make two things… Just keep making it over and over and over again until you feel comfortable with it and then you've got two great dinners.” – Ina (19:29)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Kir Royale glassware:
  “If you want to drink it out of a tumbler, knock yourself out. It'll still be delicious.”
  – Ina Garten (04:55)

• On assembling dessert:
  “Nobody will know you never turned the oven on.”
  – Ina Garten (03:15)

• On hosting and stress:
  “When do I start to enjoy a dinner party? When it’s over.”
  – Ina Garten (15:41)

• On starting to cook:
  “Learn to make two things… then you've got two great dinners.”
  – Ina Garten (19:29)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:54 – Introduction to the no-cook dessert concept
• 03:01 – Building the dessert platter: shopping for fruit and bakery treats
• 04:16 – Champagne & Kir Royale explanation and demo
• 07:30 – Dessert platter assembly: tips on arrangement and aesthetics
• 13:23 – Audience Q&A begins
• 13:54 – Ina on takeout favorites
• 15:08 – Secret to meal timing and planning
• 16:15 – Cooking with music
• 16:56 – Favorite Paris restaurants & simplicity
• 17:45 – Dream dinner guests discussion
• 19:29 – Advice for non-cooks

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Episode Tone

The episode is friendly, witty, and conversational, interspersed with audience laughter and candid banter. Ina's advice is approachable, never prescriptive, and often humorous. Willie guides the conversation with warmth and a bit of self-deprecation, making the listener feel like a guest at their table.

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Transcript

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[Willie Geist]

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit down podcast. My thanks as always for tuning in again this week for a special episod with Ina Garten. In episode one, we brought you my sit down conversation with Ina in front of a live audience at City Winery in New York City. Now, in part two, in front of that same audience at City Winery in New York City, we popped up and built a proper dessert tray. I didn't know how to build a dessert tray. Guess who does? Ina Garten. Turns out you want a mix of shapes, you want a mix of sizes, you want a mix of colors, you want some greenery on that platter, you want. You want some fruit on that platter. We also poured a proper cocktail, which was a Kir Royale. She will explain that to you. How you mix it. It's actually two ingredients. It's very simple. We had a great time with the demo in front of the audience and then fielding audience questions as they came in. So sit back, relax now, and enjoy part two of my conversation with Ina Garten. Right now on the Sunday Sit down podcast.

[Ina Garten]

When you're having a dinner party, everybody thinks they have to do some over the top dessert, which takes so much time to make. I have a way to make a dessert that's equally over the top but really simple, requires no cooking at all.

[Willie Geist]

Did I hear dessert?

[Ina Garten]

Dessert in the right place at the right time.

[Willie Geist]

See you on the streets of New York. So I understand dessert starts with flowers. Yeah.

[Ina Garten]

Unusually, it does okay, let's go shopping.

[Willie Geist]

Oh, this is a beautiful shop.

[Ina Garten]

Isn't it a fabulous shop? So we're not doing flowers on food. We're doing flowers on the table. So I think these peonies are pretty gorgeous. You know, I believe in picking one flower and just doing a lot of them. So look how gorgeous that is. Isn't that fabulous? And the other thing I always get at a flower shop is some kind of green leaves.

[Willie Geist]

So that will be part of the.

[Ina Garten]

Plate, it's gonna be part of the platter. It just makes everything pop a little better.

[Willie Geist]

Do you think of that color?

[Ina Garten]

Yeah. Here we go. Let's go shopping for dessert. So what I'm going to do is a big platter and I'll show you how to make it look gorgeous.

[Willie Geist]

You know, none of my other interview subjects have ever brought a dessert platter. This is why I love Ina.

[Ina Garten]

Oh, I'm so glad. And then we can eat it.

[Willie Geist]

Let's go.

[Ina Garten]

You're looking for color, texture, shape, and flavor. So you want some things that are round, some things that are natural, like fruit. These are beautiful. Look how gorgeous these are. Big, beautiful strawberries.

[Willie Geist]

Is it me or have strawberries and blueberries gotten bigger since I was a child?

[Ina Garten]

I think it's gotten bigger. I mean, not necessarily better, but definitely bigger. Okay, let's go to the bakery. Eli has the best cookies. And nobody will know you never turned the oven on.

[Willie Geist]

We have landed in heaven.

[Ina Garten]

Heaven. Right?

[Willie Geist]

Well, these look good.

[Ina Garten]

Yeah, these look great. I love these little lemon loaves. Maybe instead of lemon bars we'll have lemon loaves. Right. And then we'll just slice this and let's see, where else. Oh, you know what I love? I love these raspberry bars. They're fabulous. Oh, I know. We have to have brownies. Do we like marshmallows?

[Willie Geist]

I like a marshmallow.

[Ina Garten]

You like a marshmallow.

[Willie Geist]

Oh, my gosh.

[Ina Garten]

Chocolate dipped macaroons.

[Willie Geist]

I love it.

[Ina Garten]

And raspberry jam thumbprints. How's that? Do we have enough?

[Willie Geist]

I mean. Yeah, I think we do too. Boy, it's hard to resist some of this stuff.

[Ina Garten]

I know.

[Willie Geist]

I think we are well stocked for dessert.

[Ina Garten]

I think we're in good shape. But we have one last stop. Champagne. Because it's a celebration. Right? So this is my friend Eli's wine shop, and he picks out every bottle. Personally, I mean, they're really extraordinary wines. So if I was going to get champagne anywhere, this would be the place.

[Willie Geist]

We've come to the right place. And there's Eli, the legend himself.

[Ina Garten]

Pleasure to meet you.

[Willie Geist]

Hi, Eli. So great to meet you.

[Ina Garten]

I'm honored.

[Willie Geist]

Thank you, sweetie.

[Ina Garten]

So we want to make kiroyale good. And I know you know champagne, right? This coquiet is a grand cru, highest level of champagne. Yeah. Good.

[Willie Geist]

And why we chose it because it.

[Ina Garten]

Has a certain amount of acidity to.

[Willie Geist]

Cut through the sweetness.

[Ina Garten]

Because you're adding the cassis. The cassis, which is a sweet dessert wine. Exactly.

[Willie Geist]

And cassis, you know, it's black currants.

[Ina Garten]

Fabulous.

[Willie Geist]

So for people who don't know kir royale, it's just these two ingredients.

[Ina Garten]

It's just these two. You put a little cassis in the bottom of the glass and then you pour in cold champagne and usually a.

[Willie Geist]

Flute glass of some kind.

[Ina Garten]

A flute, Whichever. And you know what, if you want to drink it out of a tumbler, knock yourself out. It'll still be delicious.

[Willie Geist]

Whatever makes you happy. So I think we've made our choices. Okay, great. Yep.

[Ina Garten]

You take. I'll take this.

[Willie Geist]

Thank you.

[Ina Garten]

On our way.

[Willie Geist]

Well, Ina, I think we've got everything we need.

[Ina Garten]

Did we clean the place out?

[Willie Geist]

I think we did. Let's go make dessert.

[Ina Garten]

Okay, good. Everybody have keer oil. Excellent.

[Willie Geist]

Did you get the kir royale? We should have a cure oil.

[Ina Garten]

I think it's in tumblers.

[Willie Geist]

That is. Yeah. Wait, I've got.

[Ina Garten]

I think we need some.

[Willie Geist]

Let's make a little kiroyle of our own.

[Ina Garten]

Perfect. Okay, wonderful.

[Willie Geist]

Not tumblers, but we'll do our best.

[Ina Garten]

I like a recipe. That's two ingredients. That's it. And one of them champagne.

[Willie Geist]

Now which go, remind me, which goes in first.

[Ina Garten]

The cassis. The cassis.

[Willie Geist]

Okay, you're gonna have to walk me through the.

[Ina Garten]

Just a portion size.

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[Ina Garten]

Perfect.

[Willie Geist]

Okay.

[Ina Garten]

Yeah, perfect. I love these old fashioned champagne glasses. That's great.

[Willie Geist]

Isn't that nice? Guys, I don't like to brag, but I was the co valedictorian of the 1993 Metropolitan Bartending School.

[Ina Garten]

He was. It's true.

[Willie Geist]

I was a senior in high school looking for something to do with my free time. So I went to bartending school, which I think was illegal. I was 17. All right, heads up now.

[Ina Garten]

And Willie knows the way to do it is you turn the bottle, not the cork. Right, right, right. That's the key. Thank you.

[Willie Geist]

And then just top that off.

[Ina Garten]

Oh, yeah, just top it off. Just keep going.

[Willie Geist]

Still got it. Wow.

[Ina Garten]

Perfect.

[Willie Geist]

Look at this. Boy, that's a beauty.

[Ina Garten]

How gorgeous is that?

[Willie Geist]

Cheers, everyone. Cheers.

[Ina Garten]

Cheers, everyone. Cheers.

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Cheers.

[Willie Geist]

Ina.

[Ina Garten]

Cheers. Justina.

[Willie Geist]

Okay, so here are all the things we bought at Eli's the other day. By the way, how great to see Eli, your old friend.

[Ina Garten]

I know. Isn't he wonderful?

[Willie Geist]

He's amazing.

[Ina Garten]

He's fabulous.

[Willie Geist]

So what do we have here? Let's walk through it.

[Ina Garten]

You know, if you have so much to make for a dinner party, I always like to try and think of something that you can make for dessert that's just assembled. And I was in the south of France at a restaurant and there's this. They walked in with like a six foot board filled with strawberries and little tarts and chocolates and all kinds of dessert things and just put it down in the middle of the table. And I thought, why would you ever want to cook if you could do that? I mean, it was so gorgeous and so appealing. So that's what we're going to do. We're going to make a dessert platter. Not a six foot one, but just a little one. And green leaves are really important because they really make everything look so much better. So I'm just going to.

[Willie Geist]

So you get like a little bed of leaves?

[Ina Garten]

Yeah, just a couple of leaves so that you can put things on top of it. Okay. So we want something in the middle to give it focus. So I'm. These gorgeous strawberries.

[Willie Geist]

Look at the size of these things.

[Ina Garten]

Absolutely gorgeous. And some grapes, because green is a really important color.

[Willie Geist]

Have you guys noticed that about strawberries and blueberries getting bigger? There's some like mutant thing happening on fries.

[Ina Garten]

It's crazy. It's just crazy, you know, Grapes too. The first time I did a cheese platter, when I was at the store, I had a chef and I thought, well, a cheese platter. Somebody asked me for a cheese platter and I thought, well, I can do it myself. It doesn't require cooking. So I got a platter and I did the whole thing. And the chef came over to me and said, okay, so this is what you want to do. You want to take everything off that platter. I said, okay. And she said, you want to put a big bunch of grapes in the middle of the platter and then you put the cheese around and some strawberries and some apricots and then stop. And she was right. I mean, it's really about keeping the focus of like, groupings of colors and flavors and things like that, but make them interesting. So what I always do is I take these squares. Do you want to help me with this?

[Willie Geist]

Yeah, of course.

[Ina Garten]

And I cut them in half in fingers and then take These little muffin cups. White muffin cups. Just white ones, not fancy ones.

[Willie Geist]

Rectangle shape.

[Ina Garten]

Yeah, I like kind of like the finger of. So these are the raspberry crumble bars. Just do two of these.

[Willie Geist]

Okay, let me get this.

[Ina Garten]

Yeah, you want to. And then you want to cut more for me. Brownie and brownies. Yeah, more of these guys. You want to put a large group of each one. You don't want, like. You don't want it to look like a bowl of M&M's, like, a grouping of each one.

[Willie Geist]

Okay.

[Ina Garten]

And then. So if you have things that are rectangular, you want things that are round next to it. That's perfect, actually. We can even just put it on. How's that? We don't even need the paper cuts. We'll just put it on like that.

[Willie Geist]

That's nice.

[Ina Garten]

Really? And brownies.

[Willie Geist]

Don't worry. We'll pass this around in a minute.

[Ina Garten]

And actually, I'm not gonna put the brownies next to the crumble bars because they're the same shape.

[Willie Geist]

Too much rectangle.

[Ina Garten]

How about if we do too much rectangle?

[Willie Geist]

Is that correct?

[Ina Garten]

You got the message?

[Willie Geist]

Yeah.

[Ina Garten]

So if we do round cookies. These are raspberry. These are great. Jam thumb prints. You have to make sure they're good. It's very important. Extremely important. They're good.

[Willie Geist]

Yeah.

[Ina Garten]

And then something rectangular, like a lemon cake. I'm just gonna put this on and then slice it.

[Willie Geist]

Come on. Oohs and ahs. Mmm. Wow.

[Ina Garten]

So it's about texture and flavor and. And kind of like, make it really. To make it really interesting. And everything is accessible. So if you put this in the middle of a table, everybody would just go, oh, that looks so fabulous.

[Willie Geist]

Do you want one of these, or is it too much?

[Ina Garten]

Should we run out of room? I think it's too much right now. How about the macaroons?

[Willie Geist]

Okay.

[Ina Garten]

You want to make sure they're good?

[Willie Geist]

Yeah, I should.

[Ina Garten]

It's a public service, right? It's very important. Okay. So big groupings. You just want to. Big groupings of things everywhere. Coconut macaroons. Aren't they great? Yes.

[Willie Geist]

Delicious.

[Ina Garten]

And then what should we put in this corner? What do you think?

[Willie Geist]

All right, so we've got a little.

[Ina Garten]

Spoon, maybe more strawberries.

[Willie Geist]

We haven't done the brownies yet. Do we want to do that?

[Ina Garten]

Oh, yeah. We need brownies. Exactly. Okay, perfect. Got to have brownies and a couple more. Is it too much? Yeah, perfect.

[Willie Geist]

Look at this.

[Ina Garten]

Just kind of piled them up. I think we need one more brownie.

[Willie Geist]

How's that? Yeah.

[Ina Garten]

Yep. I mean, who wouldn't want that for dessert?

[Willie Geist]

Look at that.

[Ina Garten]

Right? And then one more thing. What do we have? Maybe the chocolate, the chocolate loaf.

[Willie Geist]

A rectangle of that one, too.

[Ina Garten]

Yeah. Perfect.

[Willie Geist]

Like a slice. Okay.

[Ina Garten]

Well done.

[Willie Geist]

Now where do you put that? Like, you just put this out after dinner.

[Ina Garten]

You just put it right in the middle of the table and let everybody help themselves.

[Willie Geist]

Okay.

[Ina Garten]

I mean, like, who wouldn't want that, guys?

[Willie Geist]

I love that.

[Ina Garten]

And, you know, there was no cooking at all.

[Willie Geist]

How's that? That's gorgeous.

[Ina Garten]

Isn't that pretty? Very pretty. Let me put a little strawberries around.

[Willie Geist]

Look at that.

[Ina Garten]

And dessert is served.

[Willie Geist]

Well, what was fun when we were shopping at Eli's was Ina already had the vision. She's going to need those to cut into the rectangular shapes. We need round of these. We need these fruits and these colors, like you already kind of saw it when we were walking.

[Ina Garten]

I think you have to have a plan. And you don't want all things that rectangular or all things that are round. And you want a variety of flavors and things that are delicious. Always chocolate. Something chocolate.

[Willie Geist]

How about it, guys?

[Ina Garten]

Cheers.

[Willie Geist]

Okay, stick around for more of my conversation with Ina Garten right after a quick break.

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[Ina Garten]

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[Willie Geist]

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[Willie Geist]

Here's a quick podcast for all you true crime fans. The case of the missing Reese's. It was me at the store with my mouth. Motive. Um, they're Reese's. What was I gonna do? Stop myself? Tune in next time to see if I do it again. Spoiler. I will. Wow. That had everything. Reese's Suspense Reese's.

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Welcome back.

[Willie Geist]

Now to the rest of my conversation with Ina Garten. Now, before we let you go, Ina, we're gonna do some audience questions you guys have submitted. Uh oh, we'll get through as many as we can in the next few minutes. Okay. Where's Faye Evans of Philadelphia? Faye, are you here somewhere? Hi, Faye. Okay, I love this question. Ina, do you ever have one of those nights where you just want to order takeout? If so, what is your go to takeout?

[Ina Garten]

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, every day? No, what's my go to? I like really simple takeout things like a souvlaki from the Greek restaurant or. Right. I love Greek food. Just simple, wonderful. There's a restaurant near us called 1770 house that has great meatloaf. So on a cold winter night, it's wonderful. Yeah.

[Willie Geist]

Do you ever do like a fast food drive through on a rubber catch in there?

[Ina Garten]

Not so much, no. Do you?

[Willie Geist]

Not getting a super size number one?

[Ina Garten]

No. I don't even know what that is.

[Willie Geist]

Highly recommend. It's the Big Mac meal. If you supersize it, the fries are big and the drink, it's fantastic. I mean it's not this, but it's close.

[Ina Garten]

I have been known to go to In n Out burger when I'm in California.

[Willie Geist]

There you go. In and out burger. In and out burger. Okay, how about Nicole from Katona, New York? Where's Nicole? She's here somewhere or she submitted a question. Anyway, this is for Ina. I am a self over here. Oh, great. Hi, Nicole. I'm a self taught cook. I've always struggled with the timing for a meal with multiple dishes. What's the secret to getting all the dishes to the table at the same time? I grill and I struggle with that too.

[Ina Garten]

It's the hardest thing and what I do is I make literally a battle plan. I figure out if I have four things I have to make and I want to serve everything at 7:30, I work my way backwards and literally right, turn on the oven to 400 degrees when I have to turn the oven on and then put in the meat for 25 minutes, take it out, put the string beans in. I mean literally have the whole thing organized. Otherwise I'm always going, oh my God, do I have to put the string beans in now? Right. It's really hard.

[Willie Geist]

At what point do you start to enjoy a dinner party? Because it is.

[Ina Garten]

When it's over.

[Willie Geist]

When it's over. Because it is. It's stressful. All day is stressful.

[Ina Garten]

From the time that I lived in Washington, when I was like in 24, I would, every single Saturday I would give a dinner party and every single Sunday I'd go, oh, I'm so tired. I'm never giving another dinner party again. And then on Monday, I'd start inviting people for the next weekend.

[Willie Geist]

There you go.

[Ina Garten]

Go figure.

[Willie Geist]

Can't help yourself. Thank you, Nicole. Okay, this is from Susan. Amarillo, Texas. Thank you, Susan.

[Ina Garten]

Oh.

[Willie Geist]

Oh, this is a good one. Do you play music while you cook?

[Ina Garten]

Always.

[Willie Geist]

And if so, what do you play? Always?

[Ina Garten]

I actually have playlists that I have on Spotify and Apple, like. Oh, you do? Oh, good. That's wonderful. I have like a French playlist and dinner party playlist and road trip playlist. And so, yeah, I always love to listen to music.

[Willie Geist]

Any favorite artist that pop is it like Edith Peele, Taylor Swift.

[Ina Garten]

I'm really a teenage at heart.

[Willie Geist]

She's working that booking hard tonight. Taylor Swift. Get that out to the press. Okay, we mentioned our lunch in Paris. How often do you get to Paris and what is your favorite restaurant there?

[Ina Garten]

Ooh, you know, Jeffrey and I go to Paris certainly twice a year, but usually like three or four times a year. And you know, the thing I love about Paris is not the fancy restaurants, it's the brasseries and the really simple places. And one of the things we love to do if we, like, go to Belgium for the day and then come back late at night and go to Flor and have an omelette and a glass of champagne, I mean, it's the best omelette in the world. And it's just the simplest meal. And that's kind of what I'd like to do.

[Willie Geist]

Simple and delicious.

[Ina Garten]

Simple.

[Willie Geist]

The Ina Garten way. Okay, here's one for both of us. This is hard. Who are the three people, living or dead, you would like to have dinner with? Todd from Huntsville writes this question. Yeah, Todd. And Todd points out Ina is always on our list of three.

[Ina Garten]

Thank you, Todd.

[Willie Geist]

So you're kind of having that too.

[Ina Garten]

How about Julia Childs? Eric Ripert from La Bernardin's, who's the other food person? That would be really fun. And Jacques Pepin, who's so much better. Wow. Wouldn't that dinner party be fabulous? Yes, that'd be great.

[Willie Geist]

Talk about stress making that dinner.

[Ina Garten]

Oh, God. I actually had Eric Riperto as a guest. And afterwards I remember thinking, oh my God, I have to cook something for him. I was in a full panic. And then I thought, I remember that when he was a little boy, his mother used to make literally get up at 5 o' clock in the morning and make a two course breakfast, a three course lunch and a three course dinner for them. And she would make. And she worked. She worked. She was in the fashion business. And she would make him a tarte tatin every day. So when he came home from school and she was away at work, he would eat the entire tarte tatin. So I made him a French apple tart when he came. And he was just adorable. Yeah, it was really nice.

[Willie Geist]

This is impossible. You can go historical figure. I went Dolly Parton, our greatest living American.

[Ina Garten]

Oh, yeah, that's good.

[Willie Geist]

You want some energy and comedy. At the party I went Marty Short, I thought would be a.

[Ina Garten]

Can you imagine Marty Short at a dinner party?

[Willie Geist]

And then if we're doing living or dead, I went a little family. My great grandfather, Herbie Lewis, my mom's grandfather, played in the NHL for the Detroit Red Wings. Really huge, huge figure in our family. And I would love to now sit and talk and get to know him a little bit.

[Ina Garten]

That sounds like a good party.

[Willie Geist]

Sounds like a good party. Marty Short's running that party though, let's be honest. Okay, time for a couple more. For those of us that do not cook, this is from Mike in Haddonfield, New Jersey. How do you recommend we start? Where do you begin? If you're not good in the kitchen but you kind of want to get.

[Ina Garten]

There, I would say get a really simple cookbook and learn to make two things. You don't have to make a million things. Make a roast chicken and some kind of pasta, like a pasta bolognese, if you just follow the recipe and you don't have to nail it on the first try. Just keep making it over and over and over again until you feel comfortable with it and then you've got two great dinners. You don't have to make a million things.

[Willie Geist]

Good advice, right? Good advice.

[Ina Garten]

Yeah.

[Willie Geist]

Okay, before we say goodnight to you guys, we want to do a mug shot with everybody.

[Ina Garten]

Literally a mug shot.

[Willie Geist]

So Mark is our photographer. He's going to be out here and Ina and I will stand here. You guys will be in the background. He's got a wide angle lens and we're gonna take the mug shot and get everybody on the show when this interview airs next Sunday, June 1st with Ina. So we'll get in position. Okay, if you have a mug, lift it up. Ready? Cheers. Cheers. Thank you.

[Ina Garten]

Thank you guys. One more time for Ina Berman.

[Willie Geist]

My big thanks again to Ina for that convers and of course to City Winery for hosting and sponsoring our Sunday Sit down live event. Stay tuned for the next one. Ina's best selling memoir, Be Ready when the Luck Happens is available wherever you get your books. My thanks again to all of you for listening this week. If you want to hear more of my conversations with our guests every week, be sure to click follow so you never miss an episode. And don't forget to tune in to Sunday Today every weekend on NBC. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sit Down Podcast.

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