"Always splurge on brisket," Blaire told Business Insider. "If you want to know the true essence of a pitmaster's passion, attention to detail, patience, and culinary rockstar-ness, it will be in the brisket."
The way it's prepared, its flavor profile, and other details can all tell you a little something about the chef — maybe it's where they come from, a nod to a family recipe, or a trade skill that's fairly unique.
Ribs are often worth splurging on
Regardless of the price tag, ribs get her splurge stamp of approval.
She told BI if you want to really enjoy the wood-fired flavor of the meat, keep your sauce on the side at first. This way, you can really get a sense of the ribs' flavors and all the work that went into them.
After a few bites, you can go ahead and sauce them up if you'd like.
If you see pastrami on the menu, give it a try
"If I see smoked pastrami on a menu, I'd definitely go for it, regardless of the price," she said.
Blaire says marrying the intense smoky brined flavor you typically get from pastrami with the "melt-in-your-mouth tenderness" of barbecued, smoked meat is as good as it gets.
"It's a delicacy that's hard to replicate at home, so I'm willing to splurge on it when dining out," she said.
Chipotle cheddar crackers are Garten's go-to homemade appetizer for any gathering, and we think they're perfect for a holiday party.
"I just like to make one thing and then buy the rest," Garten told Bon Appétit when discussing how she constructs a cocktail hour or appetizer spread. She said these crackers are typically the only thing she'll make.
We loved how the crackers tasted like a Cheez-It combined with the texture of a biscuit.
Our favorite part of the turkey breast recipe was the wet rub that seasons the poultry. We used it to flavor our green beans and boost the brightness of our potatoes, and we put the rest in a bowl for the perfect dipping sauce.
If you're looking for a citrusy, fresh, herby way to tie multiple dishes in your hosting spread together, it's worth pulling it out of the turkey recipe — even if you're not making the bird.
This recipe is both flavorful and comforting. It would be perfect for a cold and rainy winter day but also ideal for a cozy holiday meal served on the floor or on the couch by the fireplace.
The only hangup is that this one takes a few hours to make — but we think it's worth it.
Plus, if you're cooking for less than five people, you'll have plenty of leftovers for days and weeks ahead.
This recipe isn't simple, but it's delicious and would be a great way to show yourself some love this holiday season. Nothing says holiday decadence like putting in some work to create an indulgent, satisfying, soul-warming meal for yourself.
With three types of cheese and thick-cut bacon, it tastes like a sophisticated version of the lunch we ate as a kid.
While there are several steps, Garten's recipe is precise with measurements and easy to follow, which can help even a timid home cook successfully complete it.
The Barefoot Contessa's giant chocolate-chip cookies are a great way to close out any holiday meal. They're sweet and salty, with a texture that manages to be crispy, flaky, crunchy, and gooey all at once.
The characteristic that sets these cookies apart is that they ripple out from the center to the edges, thanks to the Barefoot Contessa's tip of banging the tray on your counter every few minutes while baking. This can feel like a hassle, but it's worth the extra effort.
Garten's delicious corn bread is the perfect balance of sweet and savory. Its salty and crunchy crust gives way to a moist and fluffy filling that everyone loves.
The recipe is also easy and foolproof, even for novice bakers. And with such a stunning golden color, it's a showstopper at the dinner table.
Garten has a plethora of potato recipes that are great for the holidays, including her rosemary roasted potatoes and Parmesan mashed potatoes. But the "Barefoot Contessa" star's potato-fennel gratin is our favorite.
The gratin is a creamy dream. The combination of Gruyère cheese and heavy cream is so comforting, and the potatoes come out perfectly cooked every single time. The sautéed fennel also adds a lovely mild sweetness that cuts through all the cheesiness.
Garten's potato-fennel gratin also pairs well with everything, making it the perfect side dish for any holiday protein. It can also be made ahead of time and reheated, giving you some much-needed oven space on a busy cooking day.
Garten's recipe requires you to warm up the store-bought mashed potatoes, throw in sour cream, unsalted butter, and freshly grated Italian Parmesan cheese, then season with salt and pepper.
It might sound too good to be true, but these potatoes wowed us. The Parmesan cheese infused the dish with a delicious richness, and the sour cream added so much creaminess that no one even realized the mashed potatoes were store-bought!
We've made nearly a dozen Ina Garten pastas, but one of our absolute favorites is the penne alla vodka.
Garten's trick is to roast the vodka sauce in the oven, which infuses the tomatoes with so much delicious flavor that it truly takes this dish to another level.
Plus, it's such a visually stunning pasta. There's no doubt you'll hear everyone say "wow" when you bring this to the dinner table.
Garten said her rigatoni with sausage and fennel pasta is one of her "all-time go-to dinners" — and it's perfect when you've got a big group.
The one-pot pasta is packed with delicious ingredients, including sweet Italian sausages, chopped fennel, freshly grated Italian Parmesan cheese, dry white wine, and heavy cream.
The dish is rich and creamy, and we loved how the sweetness of the sausage worked together with the saltiness of the Parmesan cheese. As we brace ourselves for a chilly holiday season, this one-pot pasta is sure to warm you up (without filling the sink with dishes).
Garten's garlic bread with a twist features a French baguette, freshly grated Parmesan cheese, butter, parsley, lemon zest, and plenty of garlic.
And the "outrageous" garlic bread lives up to its name in the best way. Each piece was delightfully crunchy, with a zingy brightness from the lemon zest and parsley. One of our friends declared that she "could have eaten an entire baguette's worth."
While pumpkin pie might dominate the Thanksgiving dessert table, we get to be a bit more creative in December. And who doesn't love some chocolate cake after dinner?
Garten said her Beatty's chocolate cake recipe is "the most fabulous chocolate cake that I've ever made." The delicious dessert features a secret ingredient — one cup of hot brewed coffee — which enhances the chocolate flavor.
We were blown away by how fluffy and moist the cake tasted. It's packed with chocolate, but the texture is still light as air — an incredible feat. The cake is huge, so there's plenty to go around if you've got a big guest list. And it still tastes fresh days later, so everyone gets to enjoy some leftovers.
Garten's bourbon chocolate pecan pie features a store-bought crust, and she told The New York Times that it tasted even better than one made from scratch. Since the frozen crust is less buttery, it doesn't distract or compete with the rich bourbon-chocolate filling.
The recipe features diced pecans, semisweet chocolate chips, vanilla, and some good bourbon. And the pie couldn't be easier to assemble. After chopping some pecans and mixing everything together, it was ready to go in the oven — talk about a stress-free holiday dessert!
We loved all the texture and flavor in Garten's bourbon chocolate pecan pie. There's the crunchiness from the pecans, the creaminess from the chocolate chips, and those sweet notes of caramel from the bourbon. It also tastes fantastic with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
The Walmart heirs' combined estimated net worth is nearly $380 billion.
All three of Sam Walton's surviving children have now made it into the $100 billion club.
In public, the Waltons live relatively modest lifestyles despite their wealth.
All three of Walmart founder Sam Walton's surviving children have made it into the $100 billion club as the retail giant's share price continues to soar.
The combined wealth of the Walmart heirs — which include founder Sam Walton's children, Rob, Jim, and Alice, as well as his grandson Lukas — is nearly $380 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Together, they're significantly ahead of the top individual names on the list, such as Jeff Bezos, Bernard Arnault, or Mark Zuckerberg, though Elon Musk has recently seen his fortune outstrip their collective net worth.
While some have worked in the family business — whether that's serving on the company board or working to manage the family's wealth — others chose to pursue areas of personal passion.
Sam Walton, the original man behind the company that now encompasses both Walmart and Sam's Club, set his family up for financial success when he divided the ownership before he died.
Most recently, the Walton children have expanded voting control to their own, giving eight of Sam's grandchildren a say in the family holdings.
Sam wasn't a man of flashy luxury, but you can see how his children are living a slightly more lavish life now. Here's a look at how the Walton family empire spends its money:
Sam Walton opened the first Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962.
He married Helen Robson on Valentine's Day in 1942.
Together, they had four children: Rob, John, Jim, and Alice.
By the time Sam died in 1992, he had set up the company ownership in a way that minimized the estate taxes anyone on the receiving end would have to pay.
He set up his ownership of Walmart's stock in a family partnership — each of his children held 20% of Walton Enterprises, while he and Helen each held 10%. Helen inherited Sam's 10% tax-free when he died.
John served in Vietnam as a Green Beret. When he returned from the war he held a series of jobs — like the Walmart company pilot, a crop duster, and the owner a few yachting companies — before becoming a Walmart board member.
In 2013, Christy decided to sell their Jackson Hole mansion. She also sold the family's ranch for an undisclosed price in 2016 after listing it for $100 million in 2011.
James "Jim" Walton is the youngest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton. He is 76 years old.
He is chairman of the board of the family's Arvest Bank Group. One of the state's largest banks today, Arvest Bank has assets totaling more than $26 billion.
He also served on the Walmart board, starting in 2005 to fill the vacancy after his brother John died. Jim Walton's son, Steuart, took over his father's seat on the board in 2016.
Now, he presides over Walton Enterprises — the private company that deals with the investments and finances of the Walton family only — from modest offices in Bentonville, Arkansas.
The youngest of founder Sam Walton's children, Alice Walton is worth $112 billion, according to Bloomberg. She has been divorced twice and has no children. She is 75 years old.
Alice has never taken an active role in running the family business.
Instead, she became a patron of the arts, which she fell in love with at a young age.
When she was 10, she bought her first work of art: a reproduction of Picasso's "Blue Nude" for about $2, she told The New Yorker.
She has an immense private art collection, with original works from Andy Warhol and Georgia O'Keeffe. Alice opened a museum in Bentonville called Crystal Bridges in 2011 to house her $500 million private art collection.
The collection includes a Georgia O'Keeffe painting that Alice spent $44.4 million on in 2014 — the biggest sale for a woman's piece of art in history.
Her Millsap, Texas, property, Rocking W Ranch, sold to the Three Amigos Investment Group of Kermit, Texas, in September 2017 for an undisclosed amount.
It had an initial asking price of $19.75 million, which was reduced to $16.5 million. The working ranch had over 250 acres of pasture and outbuildings for cattle and horses.
In January 2016, Alice donated 3.7 million of her Walmart shares — worth about $225 million at the time — to the family's nonprofit, the Walton Family Foundation.
Sam and Helen started the foundation as a way to teach their children how to give back and how to work together.
The charity awards millions of dollars in grants to causes that align with the foundation's values.
The foundation has three main areas of focus:
The foundation's focus on education was led by John. His brother Jim said John was really interested in being able to give parents choices when it came to their child's schooling.
Rob spearheaded the foundation's venture into environmental protection. One of the first grants they gave helped develop a sustainable fisheries label.
A commitment to the family's home of Arkansas is another large part of the foundation. The website says this area of focus is about "advancing our home region of Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta."
Walmart Inc., which owns Walmart and Sam's Club, is the largest retailer in the US in terms of revenue.
Even though the Walton family is raking in billions as a result of the company's success, they remain relatively under-the-radar in terms of flashing their wealth — much like their patriarch, Sam, did in the early years.
In December, Walmart disclosed that Sam's children had granted voting rights to eight of their own children, bringing the total number of voices in the family fortune from three to eight, and keeping with Sam's vision for his legacy.
But when it comes to which dishes to include in your holiday feast, we think these nine recipes should make the cut.
Garten says her go-to homemade appetizer is a batch of chipotle cheddar crackers, and we agree they can be a hit.
When it comes to appetizers, the Barefoot Contessa says she likes to make one item and then buy the rest. In October 2022, she told Bon Appétit that her tried-and-true homemade dish for this purpose is a serving of chipotle cheddar crackers.
Garten says she keeps a log of the cracker dough in her freezer. This way, even if she has some surprise guests over for drinks, she can pull them out and bake off a few as she needs them.
We thought this recipe tasted just like Cheez-It crackers but with the consistency of a biscuit. These could be a pre-meal crowd-pleaser at your Thanksgiving gathering.
Garten says this brown-butter skillet corn bread is the best she's ever made, and we feel exactly the same.
We first made Garten's brown-butter skillet corn bread for Friendsgiving, and it was the biggest hit on the menu.
The corn bread — which serves 10 to 12 people — has a gorgeous golden-brown hue, making it the perfect centerpiece at the Thanksgiving table.
Garten's corn bread also tasted deliciously fluffy and moist, with a salty and crunchy crust and delightfully sweet filling. No one could resist getting seconds, and the leftovers still tasted just as fresh on the second and third day.
The recipe was also super easy. It's no wonder the brown-butter skillet corn bread has earned a permanent spot in our holiday cooking repertoire.
Garten's overnight mac and cheese is the perfect make-ahead dish.
We love making — and ranking — Garten's pasta recipes, and this overnight mac and cheese is among our favorites.
Garten calls this recipe the "creamiest, crustiest, most delicious mac and cheese" that she's ever made. It features cavatappi or elbow macaroni, heavy cream, Gruyère and sharp white cheddar cheeses, nutmeg, breadcrumbs, and plenty of butter.
This mac and cheese is the perfect make-ahead dish. We first made it the night before Friendsgiving and just threw it in the oven when the party started. It was ready in less than 30 minutes and made a big day of cooking much less stressful. Plus, it's extremely delicious.
And her easy turkey-breast recipe might save your meal at the last minute.
Whether you're looking to keep the main dish low-lift this year, or you find out you're in charge of cooking turkey the day before Thanksgiving, we think this recipe should be your go-to.
This dish was easy to put together and doesn't require the same amount of time and prep as cooking a full-size bird, which makes it ideal for last-minute chefs.
This wet rub from Garten's turkey recipe is worth making, even if you're not cooking the main dish.
This quick marinade was our favorite part of the turkey-breast recipe. You can use the extra rub to season green beans, sauce up potatoes, or even serve it as a general dipping sauce for the table.
Even if you're not making Garten's turkey breast, you should pull out this part of the recipe and add some bright, citrusy, fresh-herb flavors to your otherwise rich plate.
Garten's Parmesan smashed potatoes are a fun twist on a Thanksgiving classic.
Garten's Parmesan smashed potatoes, which serve six to eight people, feature red potatoes, unsalted butter, half and half, sour cream, and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
This dish blew us away. The potatoes were delightfully thick, deliciously creamy, and packed with tons of flavor thanks to the salty Parmesan and subtly sweet potatoes. One friend even said it was the best mashed potatoes they've ever tasted.
And the recipe is incredibly easy and quick. After giving the potatoes some time to just sit on the stove, we barely had to do five minutes of work. It's another great make-ahead dish from the queen of hosting.
And Garten's roasted rosemary potatoes are the easiest Thanksgiving side dish.
If you're looking for something a little more classic, we recommend trying Garten's rosemary roasted potatoes instead.
The recipe only requires a few basic ingredients: small red and white-skinned potatoes, garlic, olive oil, and fresh rosemary leaves.
The potatoes looked gorgeous when they came out of the oven, and were an instant crowd-pleaser. They had a deliciously crispy exterior that gave way to a perfectly warm and creamy middle, and the rosemary added a burst of surprising flavor to the dish.
With so many dishes to juggle on the menu, Garten's recipe is a great way to get delicious potatoes on the table with as little effort as possible.
But if you want to try our favorite "Barefoot Contessa" potato dish, you have to make Garten's potato-fennel gratin.
Garten's potato-fennel gratin recipe appeared in her very first cookbook, "The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook." It only requires a few main ingredients: russet potatoes, one small fennel bulb, yellow onion, Gruyère cheese, and heavy cream. And it's so comforting.
Garten's gratin is deliciously creamy and satisfying thanks to the Gruyère, and the potatoes are perfectly cooked. The fennel also adds a lovely mild sweetness that cuts through the saltiness of the cheese.
Better yet? You can even make it ahead. Garten says her gratin can be cooked the day before and reheated for 30 minutes — perfect if you want to save some time on Thanksgiving.
When it comes to dessert, we think these massive chocolate-chip cookies are certainly impressive.
What makes these cookies special is that they're super thin and ripple out from the middle to the edges. This wrinkly effect is due to Garten's tip for banging the pan on a counter or stovetop several times throughout the baking process.
These cookies were both sweet and salty, and their texture was a combination of crispy, flaky, crunchy, and gooey. The finished product was well worth the effort.