Ina Garten, better known as the Barefoot Contessa, has authored several cookbooks and, since 2002, has been one of the Food Network’s most popular TV personalities. She focuses on homemade recipes but gives viewers the option of using ingredients purchased from a store, if they must. Some of the lesser known (read: completely fake) allowances she’ll permit include substitutions for ingredients in wine-braised short ribs (“If you don’t have 15-year-old Cabernet Franc made with grapes from your own vineyard, store-bought is fine”), mac and cheese (“If you don’t have a certified organic cow to milk for fresh cheese curds, store-bought is fine”) and lavender sugar cookies (“If you don’t have fresh lavender picked by monks in your serenity garden, store-bought is fine”). Garten appears in conversation April 2 at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, 50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa. 8pm. $45—$65. 707.546.3600.
