I was so excited the day this arrived but to my dismay it just didn’t live up to the shows.All the good recipes from her new show were not present and the ones included werenot really interesting! I’m so disappointed. Ina what happened here?

There were very few recipes from Ina Garten's last book that I would ever use. Her other cook books were great. Afterafter having a chance at a book store to take a peek at Ina's new book I decided not to buy it.

She taught me how to cook, for heaven’s sake! I will say, however, that when taken as a whole, these recipes are a departure from what she’s written about in the past. Maybe that bothers people. Even so, there was a run on Creme Fraiche at my FL grocery today. The woman in dairy was puzzled, and I had to laugh. She said at least 5 people had asked for Creme Fraiche today. Thank you for tonight’s great dinner and tomorrow’s Dijon chicken dinner, Ina.

Because it’s not original material, what she did was try to teach in this book not just dribble out 80 recipes that people will never cook! I was really impressed with it, it’s better than Cooking for Jeffrey

I've made three recipes from this book within the first week of having it, and they have all been delicious. The book is almost worthy of "coffee table" status just for the amazing photos. I do agree that some the recipes are very similar to others from previous "Barefoot Contessa" books. However, the directions are clear, the recipes are not difficult to make, and the end results are very satisfying. I don't have the budget for 3 pound filet of beef or lobster regularly, so it will be a while before I get around to trying some of the more "upscale" recipes, but I look forward to trying them for a special occassion.