And her drink of choice won’t shock you a bit.
Key Points
- Ina Garten’s ideal “girl dinner” is a charcuterie board with prosecco or Bellinis.
- Though “girl dinner” is typically a solo endeavor, Garten says she’d invite friends over.
- For something sweet, Garten recommends her chocolate cake or coconut cake.
Ina Garten: cookbook writer, Food Network star and… fan of girl dinner? As it turns out, the Barefoot Contessa is just like us.
If you aren’t already familiar, “girl dinner” is a playful TikTok term coined by Los Angeles-based influencer Olivia Maher in 2023. (Olivia, coincidentally, is the sister of Olympic medal-winning rugby player Ilona Maher.) Broadly, it’s come to describe a type of dinner you might eat when you’re home alone, usually an assortment of no-cook snacks or antipasto.
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In a Q&A for her new podcast, Happy Hour with InaGarten revealed what her girl dinner is: “I think it’s a cheese and charcuterie board that I can get from a cheese shop and some kind of bubbly champagne or prosecco, maybe with peach juice in it [to] make a Bellini. And everybody sits around the table and has a wonderful time. That sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?”
We love this quintessentially Ina answer—only she could turn the typically solitary girl dinner into a dinner party.
And speaking of, Ina also shared her go-to drinks to serve at a dinner party. In the summer, she leans towards a cosmopolitan, since it’s “fresh and delicious.” And in the winter, she opts for something “dark and warming,” like a bourbon sour.
Garten also answered some other delicious fan questions. For instance, if you’re stumped about what birthday cake to make for a loved one, Ina has the answer. Depending on the birthday person’s taste, Ina recommends making either her Beatty’s Chocolate Cake or coconut cake. We couldn’t agree more—both recipes are incredibly delicious. If you’re looking for something a little different, we recommend options like our Lemon Sheet Cake and Vegan Carrot Cake, and we have plenty more tasty birthday cake recipes to choose from.
Another fan wanted to know what her favorite cookbook is—outside of her own, of course. Ina’s answer is The River Cafe Cookbook by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers, which shares recipes from the London restaurant, The River Cafe.
“I love the recipes because at a time when people were making complicated recipes, it was really simple and it focused on good ingredients,” Ina said. “I think it really inspired me to write cookbooks.” Coming from someone who’s authored 14 cookbooks, including the upcoming Simply Inait seems like the inspiration worked.
Need some more simple bites to add to your next girl dinner spread? Here are a few of our favorites: