Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Ina Garten (2020)

Episode Date: October 4, 2020

Ina Garten has spent the last seven months of the pandemic at her home in East Hampton, trying out recipes for her new cookbook Modern Comfort Food with her husband Jeffrey as the lucky taste-tester. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist gets together with the Barefoot Contessa for a virtual catch-up to talk about that new book and what it’s like to film her cooking show by herself at home. Plus Jeffrey and Willie’s wife Christina make a special appearance, as the couples get together for a cocktail party over Zoom. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks as always for clicking and listening along. Got one for you this week, brand new that I think you're going to love. Ina Garten. Who doesn't love Eina Garten? The Barefoot Contessa, of course, the star of that show, Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network for the last 18 years. Best-selling cookbook author. She's got a new one out called Modern Comfort Food that we're going to talk about with her.

just a TV personality and someone that I think is universally beloved. She has no formal training as a chef. She actually worked in the budget office under Presidents Ford and Carter, decided that wasn't for her. A trip to France with her husband Jeffrey changed her life where she went to the local markets and began to get interested in cooking, taught herself to cook through the Julia Child cookbooks, and now is the Barefoot Contessa.

So she and I got together for an interview in 2000. 2018, two years ago, went to her home, which is well known. It's out on Long Island in East Hampton, New York. It's where she lives, but it's also where she shoots barefoot contessa. She's got a big barn that has a kitchen where they make all those recipes and cook all that food for her show. So we got to spend the day with her out there. She drove me around town with the top down on her mini Cooper. It was like riding through a dream with Ina Garten. And so now we're together, but over Zoom. Talk about that new cookbook, modern comfort. food. We had a great time together two years ago. We've been meaning to get together for a drink or dinner or something and we never have, so we had to settle for this. So what we did is we talked for a while, you'll hear about what she's been up to, mixing giant cosmos, making new recipes for this new cookbook and shooting her show all on her own, no crew because of social distancing in her house. So she's setting up cameras. She set up all the cameras for this interview. And I mean that truly, There's no assistant running around.

Ina has a couple of phones set up to give us some angles. It's what she's doing for her show as well. So first you'll hear Ina and me talking in the kitchen, and then we call in our spouses and we sit down and have a drink. So I hope you sit back and enjoy a great time with the great Ina Garten right now on the Sunday Sit Down podcast. I know, I'm so happy to see you. I'm so happy to see you too.

We've been talking. It's not in person, at least this way. Exactly. We've been talking for so long about getting together for a drink, and I guess we'll just have to do it this way. It works for me. It's good. So what's quarantine been like for you? You are such a social person.

You love having dinner parties in your backyard and cooking for people, and you haven't been able to do any of that. What have the last six months been like for you? Well, we kind of locked down on March 16th, and for about two months, didn't do anything, didn't see anybody. Jeffrey and I can work at home, so that was good. and around the middle of May, I was like curled up in a bowl in bed going, I can't make dinner anymore. I can't not see my friends. And so we made another plan about to do two things that really changed how I felt.

One is that we would see people outside socially, distantly. And the other one is that I would start doing takeout. I was making lunch and dinner every day. I was doing Instagram every day so that people could have ideas for cooking for the pantry. I was working on my book and I was working on TV at the day. same time. I was like, this is so hard. Those things really made a difference to me. And seeing people, even six feet apart, was great.

Yeah, I have to imagine for someone like you who makes her life, not just her living, but her life about gathering people. That's what you do. That's what food is, right? It brings people together. Those first few months must have been tough. It was tough. And it's, I love to cook, but I don't just cook to cook. I cook because I love to give people delicious things to eat and have them come together. And that's how you connect. And so I lost the reason why I cook. I mean, it's nice to cook for Jeffrey.

I'm not saying I don't like to, but I would never cook for myself. I cook because I love to take care of people. And the one thing I did when I decided to start seeing people outside, I didn't want people to feel like they were in two chairs that were pushed far apart. I wanted it to feel like you were in a living room. And so I got a big coffee table. in between the four chairs so that you felt like it was natural.

It wasn't like you were being pushed apart. And I set up chairs around. We have this little fountain in a garden at the barn, and I set up chairs around that fountain. And so you're six feet apart, but you don't feel like you've been pushed apart. So I set up all of these places in the garden that we could be outside and still see people.

and just enough cocktails. In the beginning, people will bring their own drinks and their own orders. And at some point, we just got over that. We're really careful. Leave it to you to make social distancing elegant even, but it's facing people out just the right way. But of course you did.

You know, we were talking a minute ago before we started, I was just going to say, you really sort of had some foresight on all of this about where it was going back in early March where a lot of us thought, all right, you know, it'll be a couple of weeks and we'll weather this and it'll be back to normal life. You sort of had a hunch that it was going to be longer than that.

Around March 1st, I was filming, and I remember calling my team together and saying, this is really serious. We need to stock up because this could be a year or two. And I think they thought I'd lost my mind. But we ordered in from the paper company. We got paper towels and toilet paper, and we got four refrigerators, and we stock them from, you know, all these supplies that everybody would need. and about a month later they came to me and said,

we thought you were crazy, but you were right. And we don't know when this is going to end. Even with the vaccine, we don't know when it's going to end. So I think all of us are doing what we need to. You can't just say, oh, I can't do this anymore and just let all the guardrails off. You just need to make a plan that I'm going to do everything I absolutely have to do and nothing else,

and I'm going to do it as safely as I can do it. And then you've got a system, so it's good. And I needed to see my friend. Yes, well, right. That's the big part of it. You were so tapped into the world of food, into restaurants and everything else. That must be difficult for you to watch what's happening to restaurants and watch them have to hustle and see people outside and rely on takeout and these wonderful places that we all love to eat suffering right now. And as you say, with no end in sight of that day, when, okay, everybody back in the restaurants. And also, I think people don't realize how difficult the restaurant business is on a good day. A restaurant that's packed every day has a hard time. So then you say, okay, you can only have 25% of the seats filled and you can do some of it outside.

The model just doesn't work. So it's painful for everybody in the restaurant business, which is why I like ordering out from restaurants. So it just gives me another reason to order out instead of making dinner. I'm doing good here. So with all this cooking you've been doing, have you discovered some new dishes? I mean, you're always inventing,

and you bet the new cookbook we'll talk about in a second. But have you found, oh, I'm pretty good at this that I didn't know I was so good at? Do you know what changed for me that was really interesting? I hate leftovers. I just hate leftovers. I don't like something that I made yesterday. It was fresh.

It was delicious. Put it in the refrigerator and then reheat it the next day. I just, it doesn't interest me. I've already had it. It was better yesterday. What I've found is I kind of wrap myself around leftovers, but to take whatever I made yesterday and make it into something different tomorrow.

So if I'm making like a short rib stew, the next day I'll make it into a pasta sauce and put it on pasta. Or if I'm making a risotto, the next day I'll make risotto cakes. So it's not the same thing. It's not leftovers. It's something better than that.

Most of us with leftovers, we take it out of the fridge, put it in the microwave for a minute and eat it. but you've discovered entirely meals. Actually, the other day I said to Jeffrey, it's not that I don't like leftovers. It's that all we ever eat is leftovers. It's come to that.

You've also, Ina, gotten quite good at mixing a cocktail, and I'm talking about one specific cocktail that became an internet phenomenon. Tell me about the idea behind that giant Cosmo. How crazy was that? It was when we were getting ready for the, you know, just getting supplies. ready. We went downstairs with, I was downstairs with my assistant, and there were shelves there

with all kinds of things that I hadn't seen in like 20 years. And I was like throwing things out like crazy. And there were these two enormous martini glasses that somebody had, um, set me as a gift, as a funny gift. And I said, oh, let's just throw these out. My assistant said, no, no, no, don't throw them out? You never know when you might need them. And don't you know, like two weeks later? It was, it started out kind of as an April Fool's thing, but as it turned out, Nobody felt like an April Foolstope on April 1st. So I just thought, well, I'll just make a cocktail and I'll be funny about it, thinking, you know, a few people would see it.

Did I, I mean, it obviously struck a nerve because everybody needed an enormous cross-a-phone. That was the thing. You hit it at just the right moment. Well, we did a drink that side. Now, how do you hear about when something like that takes off? Does your assistant tell you that, by the way, I know this has three million views today or whatever it was?

You know, I actually do the Instagram myself. Oh, okay. So I follow it all the time. I see people are commenting, and I'm the one who actually does my Instagram. So I saw it like, whoa, but then I started getting Google alerts like crazy. And friends were saying, all their friends sent them 12, you know, 12 people had sent it to them. You really struck a nerve. One of the things that's so endearing about you, and you were talking about this in our interview a couple of years ago, is you said,

I just don't get it. I don't get why I'm so popular. I don't get why people are so excited. So moments like that still must be strange for you when millions of people are so excited about your drink. Really surprising. So let me ask you about modern comfort food. I know this is your latest cookbook, your 12th book.

I have to tell you, my wife made an incredible dish two nights ago that we'll talk about. What's your make? She made the spring green spaghetti carbunera. Oh, yeah. Fantastic. We had it with the kid. It was so good. And I'm sure she'll have her full review and some questions for a little bit.

But tell me about the idea behind modern comfort food. Well, I originally decided this was two years ago when I chose the title. Little did I know. That it was going to come out just before the election. And no matter what side of the aisle you were on, I think people were going to be really stressed. And I thought, well, let's just do a comfort food dish. Let's just do a comfort food book, but let's make it more modern, you know, with fresher ingredients. and easier to make or something like that.

So that's how I chose the title. And it was amazing because this is kind of where I live. I love comfort food. And I love to kind of update things like making the ultimate beef stew with short ribs and red wine and cognate. So it has more flavor. And it was the easiest book I've ever written. It was so crazy.

I just like race through it. I was like, wow, I'm done. So it just felt right. And now, of course, it's what everybody needs. We're all homemaking comfort food. What is your process? You've done 12 of these, as I mentioned. When you set out day one of a cookbook, is it trial and error?

Is it tapping into some things you've already tried before? How do you design a cookbook? What I do is the first thing I do is I sit down at my computer and I make a list of recipes that would be perfect for that particular book. and if I can come up with 50 or 75, just ideas that I haven't done before, it's a good idea. So that's what I start doing. And then I'll just, every morning I'll get up and go, I feel like black and white cookies today. And I'll just start working on that recipe.

Or the next day I'll feel like spring green pasta carbunera and I'll work on that. And over the period of two years, I get summer things and fall of things and winter things. So for each recipe, I'll start with an idea. I'll get together the ingredients and just start cooking. And I'll keep going, you know, three times, five times, ten times until I get the recipe right. And then I'll hand it to my assistant and say, I want to watch you make it because I want to see if you have any problems. Or you do anything that I didn't really intend for you to do. And I learned so much in that process.

It's like the user experience, you know, that I watch somebody make the recipe so I can change the recipe if they have a question. because if my assistant has the question, somebody else will too. Exactly. And then does Jeffrey get a say in it? Does he taste it? Yes. This is cookbook worthy. He does, but he's a terrible critic.

He likes everything I make. So I just discount whatever he says. That's not particularly helpful then. No, not helpful at all. But that's just the way I like it. I find it hard to believe this would ever happen. But do you ever make something that you thought was going to be great, taste it? And then go, you know what, that wasn't so good after all.

It's not going to be. I actually, the other day, I had celery root and onions in the garden, and I had some potatoes, and I thought, oh, I'm going to make soup out of that. It was just boring. I thought, okay, I don't even want to eat this for lunch, let alone put it in a book. Okay, so there are some misses. Among the many hits, there are some misses. Is that a fun process for you? You're so busy. Now we'll talk about the show as well, because you're sort of a one-woman band doing this, your show by yourself. But do you enjoy that? Does it feel like work to do a couple? or is it just what you would be doing anyway?

It's what I would do. I just, I think I'm so lucky that I get up every morning. I think, what do I feel like doing today? And what I feel like doing is testing a recipe. And then I could put it out in the world and give people the tools so that they can, so your wife can make your dinner that you really enjoy. It's just an incredible gift. It's just amazing.

It's amazing to me. You have any favorites beyond the delicious carbunar that we had. Do you have any favorites in this cookbook? that you want to make sure people jump to when they open the book? You know, I think the classic thing in this book is tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. But the tomato soup I made it creamy tomato bis with a little hint of saffron in it, so it's got a little heat. And the grilled cheese sandwiches I make on a panini machine,

and I make them with really good greyer, really good cheese, and some chutney. So that's got great flavor. So I think that's kind of the classic. And then on the other end of the spectrum is Boston Cream Pie, which I literally worked on for like eight years. I wouldn't get it right. And I would put it away and then the next book I'd pick it up again. And this time, with the help of actually Christina Toese from Milk Bar, I nailed it.

She gave me an idea that really just completed the recipe. Right. So we've got, I mean, comfort food in this book includes desserts. We should tell people. Oh, yeah. It's chocolate and Boston cream pie and everything else. Do you feel like are desserts more of a challenge for you? Is that like out of the comfort zone a little bit?

Or do you feel good and put together a dessert? I like, I actually, it's unusual. Most people either like cooking or baking, but I actually like both. So, yeah, it's, it's, there's a dessert in there that actually, Jeffrey and I, for a 50th anniversary, everybody has big parties and they do all kinds of crazy things. We decided we're going to go to Paris, just ourselves, and go to a wine bar in Paris, and just order like six great burgundy's, you know, a glass. of six great bourgandies and have a chakouthery platter and that was going to be our 50th anniversary

it was so wonderful and then for dessert um the owner brought us something called the chocolate bell laws which would i'd never even heard it before it's kind of like an undercooked brownie in a in a in a tort shape and i thought i have to figure out how to make this so i came home and did it and i put it in the book so it's like it's so delicious but it's also so elegant and you know it's got the brownie thing going but it's also really a man we can deserve. So I like that combination. That just sounds amazing. So is that something you look at and you taste and you go, okay, I'm making mental notes? I think I know how to do this when I get home and you just try to replicate it. I don't know why, but I feel like I have a very good taste memory. Like if I taste something, I may not know exactly what's in it. I may have

an idea of what's in it, but I will always remember that flavor. And when I'm working on the rest of that's what I'm shooting towards. Boy, you have some gift that the rest of us. making food. I don't know what it is. I'm not a great cook, but I'm good at knowing what people want to eat. You're not a great cook. No, I'm, you know, I don't just throw things together. I literally follow my own recipes.

I'm not somebody who's worked on a line at a restaurant. So I haven't had that experience. I've never been to culinary school, but I just love cooking. So I've just done it more than most people. So the way we're doing this interview right now, you're in your kitchen. we're on a Zoom together. Yeah. What's it been like putting together your famous show

unlike you've ever had to do it before? Well, I keep describing it as like being the orchestra conductor and playing all the instruments at the same time. It's just insane. When I agreed to do it, I thought, well, I can do this. It's not how hard could it be? Oh, my God.

So first I have to do my hair, then I have to do my makeup. I'm not good at either one of those. then I have to be the food stylist. I have to make whatever it is I'm making. I have to do the prop style. I have to be the prop stylist, get all the dishes set up. I have to be the mic person, which it turns out it's harder than you think.

Because I've done an entire show and I forgot to turn the mic on. So I had to do it again. Oh. I had to turn the mic off to say what I wanted to say and then start a little bit again. It was bad. But I also have an A camera and a B camera. So there's the main camera and then there's a, you know, the close-up camera. So they're all iPhones, which is amazing.

And then at the end of that, I have to be my own director and my producer because I don't have anybody else there with me. So, and then I have to be the presenter. That's incredible. I don't know how, honestly, I don't know how you do that because we're working from home as well, but we have these amazing crews who come and help us do it. So it's literally two iPhones shooting your show.

show? Literally two iPhone shooting the show. And there was one time I did something. There was a pot involved. I can't remember what it was right now, but I did the entire thing and this is one of the time, this is the time that I forgot to turn the mic on.

And I realized when it was over, I checked my mic and I realized I forgot to turn it on. I was like, I can't believe I didn't do it again. And I called my director and told her what happened. She said, do me a favor. The next time you do it, just make sure the pot gets out of the way. because it blocked the B camera, which was both of those.

I was like, oh, good. I would have had to do it again anyway. So I did the whole thing again. I thought, yeah, I nailed it. And then I walked around to the B camera to make sure it all look good. And the handle of the potlop right across the screen. So I was like, no.

That's going to be an exciting episode. I can't wait to see that one. It was, let's just say, I'm not going to make that dish really well. I did it three times. So when they first came to you and they said, I know, we still want to do a season, but here's the catch. We're not going to have anybody in your house. It's not going to look anything like it always looked.

Were you hesitant at all? They actually said, how can you do a show? And I said, oh, I'm terrific. I'm smart. I can figure this out. I can do it. So was your idea? All of a sudden, I had to do it.

So, no, it was my idea not theirs. And they've been incredibly wonderful. I don't think people who watch your show or any cooking show realize how much camera work is involved. Here's a shot of your hands chopping, you know, dicing the garlic. Here's the pot boiling and the sound. The sound is really important.

The egg shell hitting the sink and something simmering away. And yeah, all of that is really important. Have you seen an episode put together? How did they turn out? I haven't seen it yet. You don't want to see it? No. I actually never want to see it.

Even the old way. I'm like, who would watch that? That's why we love you. That's why we love you. So what about this season? What can people expect beyond the production value? What do you hope to do with your meals this year? Well, I think the new season, a lot of them are easy recipes like cocktails

because it's really hard to cook on film. And we have two specials. One's Thanksgiving special and the other one I think is cocktails. It's all kinds of cocktails. So it's going to be fun. It's going to start the end of October. Yeah, you've got, luckily you have the range to make a good drink or to make a good drink. I'm confident you can put together a full season, but I bet you'll be happy when those crews are back,

shooting everything for you. I'll be very. Well, also, I love them. We've been together for almost 20 years. They've actually married each other and had children together. And so we're, you know, we're just, we're like another family. It's just they're wonderful. I was going to ask you about that.

You have such a wide universe now after 20 years of doing this of the people you work with and all the people you've influenced. Has that side of it been hard? I mean, I feel that way about our show. You know, we do Zooms and we do phone calls, but you can't replace that feeling of collaborating. I miss one. I'm talking to the camera, talking to my director. I mean, she's just right there.

We just have a wonderful time together. And the cameramen are hilarious. And we just have a wonderful time. Yeah, I miss that camaraderie enormously. And they can tell you when there's a pot in front of the B camera. Yeah, that's the important thing. And the mic guy, who happily his name is Mike, can tell me your mic's not on. Our audio guy over here is nodding along.

See, it would pretty important, right? Exactly. He said his whole job is to make sure everything works. And now I understand why. Yes. I know one of the things I've noticed even in our own family is that everybody's cooking right now. We're home. We're interested.

We're reading your cookbooks. We're trying new recipes. My 13-year-old daughter has become quite a chef herself and a baker as well. What do you think it is about, it's great. And what do you think it is about food and cooking that's been so important to so many people during this time? Well, first, we can't go out. And the second, we actually have some time. I think that not only did the grocery stores run out of toilet paper, but they ran out of yeast.

Everybody thought, oh, I'm going to learn how to bake. Because, you know, it's a great thing to do. I think it's just, it's about really taking care of ourselves and our families. families and cooking, it's not just the active cooking that's satisfying. It's about feeding people things that make them feel better. And it's also like there's nothing like a house that smells like roast chicken. It just makes us feel cozy and warm and connected to each other. And we're feeding ourselves at the same time.

So I think it's wonderful that people are doing it. You know things have changed when your 13-year-old daughter walks out of the kitchen, plates of chicken pie art and you go wow we have had some time on our hands that's great and you know what she'll always have not how to do that which is yeah yeah yeah so ian i mentioned my wife christina made one of your delicious meals we had it as a family and she would love to talk to you about it and i'd love to have a drink with you and geoffrey what do you say we do it over zoom we can do that all right let's do it i'd love to that would be really fun i'd love to meet maybe one of those cosmos two-hander i think maybe a regular size one this time

Hey guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Ina Garten during our Zoom cocktail party right after the break. Welcome back to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Now more of my conversation with Ina Garten as we sit down for a cocktail with her husband Jeffrey and my wife, Christina, over Zoom. Cheers, guys. Cheers to you. So good to see you. Jeffrey, it's great to meet you over Zoom, I guess.

Nice to meet both of you too. And it's so good to meet you. You too. Always good to see you. I'm afraid to drink. So, Aina, is this a regular thing for you during quarantine, these sort of Zoom drinks with friends? Well, there was a moment where I got really crazy and I said, I missed my friends. So we started setting up Zoom cocktails.

And, of course, we have very good friends who live in like Jackson, Wyoming. So it's the only way to see them. But I think pretty quickly we shifted to socially distant cocktails in the garden. Just because seeing people in person is just, I don't know, there's, they're just energy that is different. And it's just so, so much more satisfying. But this is great. And I'm happy to do it because otherwise, we wouldn't have any friends when this is over. I wouldn't know what happened to people.

I know. I know, this is sort of, I view the Zoom and sort of tied me over, getting us back to reality. Exactly. Just the bridge. It's a bridge. It's a bridge back to normalcy, I hope. Yeah, and thank goodness for Zoom. Really?

Who knew? Who ever heard of Zoom six months ago? Here we are. I know. I mentioned to you that Christina made a delicious pasta out of the new cookbook, the Carbonara. Yeah, I know where she did. And didn't tell us she was doing it. So I got home from wherever I was.

The kids got home. We walked into the kitchen. Boom. She's got the Inagarton cookbook open, modern comfort food. And these beautiful dishes out there. How was it to me? I felt like Ina for a day. It was really fun.

It was really special. I love, love, love Italian food. My mom is half Italian. I grew up in that household. My nana, who lived to be 97 years old, would be rolling meatballs at the kitchen table. So when I went through the book, I was immediately drawn to the Getty Carbonara. But I love that it had all the green vegetables added in because it took the guilt. factor down for me for all of that.

That's what I wanted to be comfort food, but modern comfort food. So that added freshness to it or more modern flavors or, yeah, I'm glad. That's great. It was delicious. It was delicious. And the green vegetables with Carbonara. That's it. And the kids loved it.

I mean, they feel like they're eating spaghetti and they're getting peas and everything else. It worked for everybody. It was perfect. I understand that you guys met before actually Jeffrey and I met, which is pretty hard to do. Well, you were teenagers. You're right?

I was 15. 15. Were you in sixth grade? We have you beat. We were 11. We were 11 years old. Isn't that great? We met at George Washington Middle School in Ridgewood, New Jersey, in Mr. Kaplan's home room.

I was the new kid at the school. Christina had her friends from elementary school who'd moved up to middle school together, and I was alone in the room. And I still, I swear, as God is my witness to this day. Remember, when they lined everybody up by their, elementary school, I looked up and I noticed Christina Sharkey and I thought, hmm, she's cute at 11 years old. And now here I am 35 years later sitting next to her as my wife having a drink with you guys. So it's pretty amazing. There are surreal moments before. Did I hear that he, I'm sorry,

did I hear that he proposed to you, Christina? In that classroom, in that classroom. Not in sixth grade. many years later. So we met when we were 11. We started dating when we were 16. We broke up when we were 22, got back together at 25, got married at 28. And he did, he proposed to me in that same classroom where we first met.

So it wasn't in sixth grade. It was many years later. I would have done it in sixth grade, but I was worried about the answer I'd get. That's actually very different from us because Jeffrey still hasn't proposed to me. He just basically told me when we were getting married. I'm waiting. I'm still waiting.

It's never too late. It's never too late. I do remember. Go ahead. I remember meeting. I remember the first time I saw I know. I was looking out a library. I was in a library.

I was looking out the window. And this beautiful 15-year-old girl was walking by. and I can still picture them all that. The way will we can. Yeah, I really can. I really can. Yeah, when I proposed to Christina, it was an elaborate story that I sort of got her to go back to the school,

but I had our old principal, who was still the principal at the time, I got him involved to open the school, so I got her up to the classroom. By then she knew we were at the point where it had better have been a proposal or she would punch me. But I proposed to her, and then when over the loudspeaker, in our home room for sixth grade, Mr. Neville, our principal, came on the loudspeaker and said, will Mr. and Mrs. Willie Geist, please report to the principal's office?

Just for added players. So he really, he got into it. He was very theatrical with it. Yeah, this was before, you know, camera phones or any social media or anything. So we don't have any, we don't have any record of the moment, which now it seems like people get engaged. and they have to have it, you know, recorded from five angles. And it's so much pressure already. I can't even imagine what it must be like for people today. I think it's better when it's in your mind.

Yes. And you remember it. It's like reading a book instead of seeing a movie. Yes. You just, you have your own vision of it. And it's just, it's a wonderful memory. That's right. Don't you both find, we talk about this all the time that when you know someone for so long and you know them so well.

And in your case, Jeffrey, you knew Ina, before she was Ina Garton, the barefoot contest, who everybody loves it. It's humbling for you, Ina, right? Because he knows who you are. He's not going to be impressed by your latest TV ratings or whatever it is. And Christina does a good job of keeping me humble. I think that's really important. Actually, I always think one of the advantages Jeffrey has is he knew my parents.

Yes. So when I do something, he can always go, oh, that's so Charlie, which is my father. Did you know each other's, you must have known each other's parents? Yes. Yes. Our parents are good friends, actually. Oh, they are? Yes, so they were friends socially in town, you know, since we were in sixth grade on,

even during the phases when we were broken up, our parents stayed together. And they stayed friends throughout. And it was a long road till we got married. But when we finally did, our wedding was a family, high school, and college reunion. Because everybody already knew each other. Because it gets creepy here. We actually went to the same college. This is where people are like, oh, really?

When you were together or apart? We were together, but we didn't intend to go to college together. It was one of those things in high school. Everybody applied to all their different schools, and it just turned out that the best option for both of us on both of our lists was Vanderbilt. And so I discovered that later and had to go over to Willie's House in high school and say, we're going to the same college.

So that was interesting. It wasn't what we expected. but hey, it worked out. All's well that ends well, right? It worked out, yeah, that's right. I'll join you to that. It worked out. Yes.

Cheers. Cheers. So, Jeffrey, I've been hearing from Ina about what quarantine has been like for you guys, kind of staying there on the property. How has it been for you? Well, you know, for most of my life, most of my professional life, I have been away during the week. Ina is here and I've you know worked in New York or I worked in Washington and this is the first time

where I don't know how many years 40 years in 40 years that I am home every single night now I always thought that was going to be great I mean I never crossed my mind it wouldn't be great but I think I had a big question it was like he's going to be ever breakfast lunch and dinner and you know what it is amazing it is just amazing I can't believe I spent 40 years where We would leave on Monday and come back on Friday. No, this is the best. I mean, I think he's going to look back and say, these are the good old days.

When I would cook from all day, he has an office where he writes and teaches at Yale, you know, on Zoom. And he comes home every night. It's just heaven, absolutely heaven. That's amazing. I think as somebody said, good marriages have gotten better during the pandemic and bad marriages have gotten worse. That sounds right?

That is so well put. Yeah, I think you better have a pretty strong foundation if you're going to be in the same place for six months together. We're just kind of having a ball. It's just amazing. I mean, I know people are having a really hard time, and we're really lucky that we can work and live in the same place. But it's just the added layer of being together every night is just unbelievable.

Yeah, because it could, as you say, could go either way. You know, you don't know at the beginning of this. How's this going to work? And thank goodness, we haven't gotten sick of each other until they've gotten better. Jeffrey, the one complaint, Ina has. expressed about you is that you're too easy of a critic. Whatever she makes you say it's wonderful. And she needs you to pack a little more of a punch. It's the best thing you've ever made is there's no credibility whatsoever. I'm not exaggerating. It's really good. And even the stuff

that Ina says, well, this doesn't make the grade. I mean, for me, it's the best thing I've ever had. I'm not putting it on. Imagine coming home every single day and sampling something you say, my God, that's great. I think he secretly thinks if he ever criticizes it, I'll never confirm again. It's not true.

I think the standards are a lot higher in your house than they are. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You guys are runners, aren't you? Well, only recently. That's a liberal term. Runner? I don't know if we're there yet. Well, this is actually part of the stay-at-home conversation, which is that we first of all,

we need to figure out a good way to exercise. We're going to be home for a while, but also we wanted something to work toward, as we saw that this was going to go on for a while. So we said, maybe this is the year. We're healthy enough, we're young enough, we're not getting any younger, where we run the New York City Marathon.

And neither of us... You went from zero to the marathon? From zero. And honestly, if I told you, a mile run was the top. for me. Just not, I like to exercise and play sports, but just was never a runner. And Christina was the same. And we said, boy, this would be a big challenge. It would require us to do some work every day, being out running, being outside. So we took it on and we signed up to run the New York City marathon. And we got up there in terms of how far our runs were. And then somewhere in the middle

of June, we weren't surprised, but disappointed. The email came in and they'd cancel the marathon. But by that point, I'd sort of start to get the running thing. He felt the high and you'd challenge yourself to go a little farther the next day. So now it's become a couple of days ago, I left our house, and the next picture Christina got was a selfie under the Brooklyn Bridge 10 miles away. And she went, she went, what? Do you, is this a cry for help? Do you me to come get you? What is this picture? Are you in trouble? Yeah, I thought you were picking up the kids. Are you? Where are you? I was on a conference call. So I was like, do I need to get off this call and do, you know, go get the kids or you've got this. So he ended up getting on a city bike and getting back in time.

But we've been connected to the Michael J. Fox Foundation and Team Fox. And so we've decided we can't, we can't run the marathon, but we're going to do something on Marathon Sunday. And it will not be a full marathon by any means. But we're calling it the Geistathon. So it'll be something. We'll do something on November 1st to try to still support, you. you know, Michael J. Fox. I'm going to do a half marathon, which is a half marathon more than I've ever run. So that'll be an accomplishment for us. And you know what's great is you always know that it was this year that you did it.

Yes. So it kind of marks the year. I think as time goes on, you know, it's just one year after another. It's kind of like in the pandemic, you don't know whether it's Tuesday or Thursday. Yes. No, that's exactly right. But it really marked that accomplishment. That's extraordinary.

Yeah, so now the only... What are we going to do? I won't be running marathons, that's for sure. I am so bold over that you could go from one mile to the whole marathon. And, you know, if you said, well, it took me a couple of years to do it, I could understand. But the, it's really incredible. The lockdown is only six months. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. That's incredible. I mean, I think we're going to just go by 2020 standards and cut it to a half and make that good enough. That's a good idea. Yeah. Good enough. That's a very good idea.

Because I won't lie when they cancel that I sort of took down the intensity of the training just a bit. I took it easier on myself. We got a pizza that night and just kind of, you know. But now. You don't want to, you don't want to overdo it and hurt yourself either. That's right. Right. It could be crazy.

But now the challenge is next year we'll have to, well, because we've set out this goal to do the marathon, there's a marathon. So now I guess that means we've got to ramp up again next year and do it. But we'll talk then. We'll cross that bridge. You don't worry about that next year. Yeah. Yeah. I have to say some of the things that I find myself doing.

during the pandemic have really changed. Like we had a friend the other night, and we just ordered our pizza. And instead of like just putting it out in a box, we sat outside on this big table, and I lit candles and had flowers on the table. We lit wood in the fire bowl. And we kind of, you know, put the pizzas on platters.

Everybody had their own pizza and salad. I was so aware that eating outside was something we just don't do. Yeah. It's so much easier. of eating the kitchen inside, but it was so lovely being outside. And I think that's always going to change for me now. It was just great. Absolutely great.

It's always worth that little extra effort that it takes to set the table outside and bring everything outside. It's on a beautiful summer or fall night. We've had some great it was just great. It was just great. So we were quite distant. We were distance. So it didn't feel like there were just big candles

in between. It felt right. No, we have a 13-year-old and 11-year-old. So tooth be told, The pizza box doesn't usually make it out of the kitchen. They just rip it open. Wait, we have a setup outside. What? Yeah.

But when we cook for real, everybody's on board. Yes. And, yeah, it was nice. We, we're, I'm from a large family. I'm one of four kids. And Willie has his sister close by and his parents close by. And all of our relatives are, are right here within an hour away. So one of the biggest challenges was being so far away, so close, but so far away.

way and trying to figure out these ways we could still make it work and see each other with the distance in the backyard. And Willie's father turned 75 in May. And he had an, he, his parents love Elvis. And we had an Elvis impersonator come to the backyard and sing. The full rhinestone suit and everything. Oh, yeah. Oh, how great. And you know what? It was one of our most favorite memories as a family. with his parents and his sister and all the grandkids. And there was Elvis, you know, and we probably wouldn't have done that had it not been. He had a mask, Elvis with a mask and a Rhinestone suit.

He had this little portable speaker and he did like five songs. Everybody's dancing in the yard. It was incredible. Yeah. So great. We'll give you his number for your next pizza party. Oh, yeah. That'll really shock everybody.

Yes. So you make fun, you know. if you have family around and people you love, you figure it out. That's exactly right. Yeah. That's really great. Yeah. Well, thanks for letting us into your house.

We love you guys. Will you promise when you come to shelter all and you come visit us? We would be honored. We'll have socially distant cocktails or hopefully we won't have to do it anymore, but we'll just have cocktails. Yes. And I'm coming for a famous Cosmo and I want the XL size. You got it. Yeah.

I really need the big boy. Cheers, guys. Thank you so much. So great. Thank you. It's so great to see you. You too. Thank you.

Thanks, Jeffrey. My big thanks again to Ina, always such a pleasure. And Jeffrey, of course, for a great conversation for welcoming us into their home virtually. Ina's 12th cookbook, modern comfort food, is available October 6th. And you can catch new episodes of Barefoot Contessa starting October 25th on the Food Network. My thanks, as always, to all of you for clicking and listening along. Make sure you click subscribe so you know. never miss an episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. And of course, don't forget to tune in to

Sunday today every weekend on NBC. I'm Willie Geist. See you next week on the Sunday Sit Down podcast.