Why Ina Garten Was 'Terrified' To Grill Steak And How She Overcame It

Cooking a steak can be a simple yet terrifying cooking experience. A crowd-pleasing dish that's ready in no time, steaks are a staple both in fancy restaurants and home kitchens. What makes them scary is that they're just so easy to mess up — even, it seems, for experienced connoisseurs like Ina Garten. The Food Network star revealed on Instagram that grilling steaks used to make her "so nervous."

The reason was a fear of overcooking the steaks, especially if they were expensive cuts. "I used to be terrified to grill. I'd buy these gorgeous steaks, and then I was sure I was going to overcook them," she said in a video shared with the post. Then, in the video's caption, she added, "We all know what it's like to buy a beautiful cut of meat and accidentally ruin it!"

Garten obviously tackled her fear masterfully along the way, as the post includes a video of her grilling two beautiful New York strip steaks. She was helped, she says, by Mark Lobel, one of the owners of Lobel's butcher shop in New York. Lobel taught Garten to buy steaks that were one and a half inches thick for grilling. This is often the thickness that butchers recommend for people who like their steaks rare to medium, as anything thinner than one inch runs the risk of overcooking on the grill. The best steaks for grilling are usually sirloins, strip steaks, and filets.

Garten's choice is New York strips. To prepare them, as she explained on her Barefoot Contessa website, she rubs them with olive oil and then uses a seasoning mix with things like salt, pepper, brown sugar, coffee, and garlic. After leaving the steaks to marinate in the refrigerator for a few hours, she fires up the grill. Now for Lobel's next trick: Only heat one side of the grill, keeping the other side cool.

Known as two-zone grilling, this method allows for the creation of char marks on the steaks while also ensuring they cook evenly. Garten starts by searing the steaks on the hot side of the grill for two minutes, before flipping them and cooking for two more minutes. She then moves the steaks away from the flames, setting them on the cool side of the grill to finish cooking.

She then covers the grill and leaves it for eight to 10 minutes for medium rare steaks, or until a meat thermometer reads 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Finally, she covers the steaks with aluminum foil and lets them rest for 15 minutes, which helps the juices settle. "This method for grilling guarantees a perfect steak every time," Garten says in her video. You can also try two-zone grilling on a gas grill if it has two burners. 

The method works for other recipes, like Mediterranean grilled chicken, too. Just be sure to avoid any mistakes with your meat thermometer, and your grilling fears should be tackled in no time, too.