Bonjour! Ina Garten is in Paris for the 2024 Olympics, taking TODAY viewers through one of her favorite cities in the world, as our French food correspondent. Follow along here.
Friday, July 26: Welcome to Paris!
“It’s the city I’m the happiest in,” Ina told Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie on Friday. “It’s just wonderful.”
The Barefoot Contessa — who’s had an apartment in the City of Light with husband Jeffrey for 25 years — reflected on her love for all things Parisian, especially the appreciative way of life: “The thing about the French is, everybody enjoys their life here.”
When she and Jeffrey go to Paris on vacation, they sit at cafes, go for walks down the Seine, and get a baguette and a rotisserie chicken from the market, she said.
“People are just happy here just having a life,” Ina said of why she loves being in Paris. “We work so hard at home and it’s just so nice to be in a place where people really prioritize having a life.”
She sent Hoda and Savannah some rosé for an afternoon toast, though, she says, “I think in Paris you can drink rosé any time you want.”
Monday, July 29: A Parisian picnic
On Monday, Ina took Savannah, Hoda, Al and Craig on a tour of her favorite food market in Paris — Marché Raspail — in the heart of the 6th arrondissement, where she and Jeffrey have an apartment.
“Fifty years ago, Jeffrey and I went on a four-month camping trip, she told the co-anchors. “And this market we came to, and I’ve always loved it, and it just kind of opened up a world of food to me that I didn’t know existed.”
“I just wanted to show it to you because it changed my life,” she added.
Ina handed them their own TODAY-branded baskets and they set off to pick out finger foods for a picnic in the park.
“First stop: potato pancakes,” she said, showing the co-anchors one of her favorite stalls.
Dividing and conquering, they explored the market, where vendors have sold their fruits, vegetables and prepared foods for over 100 years.
As Savannah, Hoda and Ina picked up fruit, baguettes and cookies, Craig and Al grabbed cheese, croissants and Champagne.
Finally, with their baskets filled, it was time to head to Square Boucicaut — Ina’s favorite local park — for their picnic.
Emphasizing the importance of slowing down and enjoying life, Ina said, “We (Americans) always want to get a coffee to go. (The French) are like, ‘Why do you want to have a coffee to go? Sit, relax.’ If you try and get a coffee to go, they give you an espresso that’s right up to the top of your cup, with no lid. So you spill it all over yourself. So the next time, you sit down.”
Tuesday, July 30: Shopping spree!
“What I love about shopping for food in France is that everything is sold just in season,” Ina said as she headed out for a day of solo shopping.
As she walked the streets of Paris, Ina explains why prepping for her beloved dinner parties is even more special there than it is back home. “Instead of going to the grocery store, you go to the boulangerie for a fresh baguette, you go to the patisserie for dessert,” she said. “But first, I’m gonna start with the fish market.”
She says her favorite fish in Paris is turbot, so she took viewers into Poissonnerie du Bac, a fish market in the city’s 7th arrondissement, to pick some up for dinner.
Next, it was time for cheese.
“This is my favorite cheese shop anywhere on the planet,” Ina said as she stepped through the door at Barthélémy just around the corner, which is a small shop lined with seemingly endless amounts of fromage. “I mean, how do you decide? It’s crazy.”
Ina tells viewers that when she makes a cheese platter, she really put emphasis on achieving a balance of flavors: “Something creamy, something with goat cheese — which is a different flavor — something sharp, blue cheese.”
The queen of “store-bought is fine” loves getting groceries in Paris because each shop has someone who is there to advise you on what to pick. Even still, shopping sprees can be exhausting, so Ina loves to take a proper break for an espresso at Café Varenne.
“Jeffrey and I come in the afternoon, sit at this table, and we figure out the rest of our lives,” she said.
Then, Ina visited Nicolas Verot — the fourth-generation operator of what she calls “the most extraordinary charcuterie place in Paris” — at Maison Verot to pick out some paté en croute. “This is gonna be perfect for appetizers,” she said.
The florist was next, where Ina shared a French tip she learned: Make a flower arrangement with the same varieties, just in different colors, or all different flowers in one color — “that’s the most chic.”
After finally picking up some pastry for dessert, Ina shared parts of her haul with Craig, Savannah and Hoda, who each dove into the cheese and paté as they talked about the differences between grocery shopping in the U.S. versus in France.
“You go to the grocery store in New York or East Hampton — you don’t know anybody, you’re just picking up ingredients,” Ina explained to Savannah after she asked about the process of it all. “Here, the shopkeeper chose the plums, they chose the cheese — they ripen it themselves so that you know it’s exactly right for your dinner party. Isn’t it extraordinary?”
Tuesday, Aug. 6: Behind the scenes at a bakery
Ina calls Poilâne “one of (her) favorite places on the planet,” so she set out to give viewers a tour of the nearly 100-year-old bakery.
Before the couple moved to France (part-time, of course), Ina remembers visiting Poilâne while on a trip with Jeffrey. She loved it so much that, when they were looking for a home, one of her top criterion that she told the realtor was, “I need to be able to walk to Poilâne.”
Known for its 92-year-old sourdough, the bakery opened in 1932. Pierre Poilâne first made the sourdough starter that year, and the teams throughout the almost-century have been nurturing it ever since. Ina says she can smell the history in a slice.
Now, Poilâne’s granddaughter Apollonia runs the shop. She says they bake about 40 loaves of signature bread at a time, leaving room in the wood-burning oven for pastries and cookies as well.
“This is like as old-fashioned and perfect as it gets,” Ina says of the oven and process.
The Barefoot Contessa loves to sit in one particular room of the bakery — a room lined with paintings of bread. The third-generation owner says the artwork was all done by people who have crossed paths with the bakery in one way or another.
As the two sat together, clinking small teacups and slicing into sourdough, Ina took it all in and explained that the bakery really has become a significant part of her life.
“This is my New Year’s Eve dinner every year,” Ina says pointing to the apple tarts on the table. “This is what we get for dessert, and it’s just heaven.”
TODAY
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