The 2 Boozy Beverages Ina Garten Always Has In Her Fridge

We've let foodies in on Ina Garten's 16 essential tips for the best cocktails. Now, we're back with another boozy tip straight from The Barefoot Contessa's home bar. When a daily cocktail hour or an impromptu celebration strikes, our patron saint of home cooking is never caught unprepared. As Garten shared in a 2019 interview with Food & Wine, she always keeps bottles of "vodka and good French champagne" stocked. 

It's no mystery why Garten keeps a bottle of the versatile neutral spirit on hand. With workhorse vodka, foodies can whip up a quick yet elevated two-parter martini with just a splash of vermouth. Vodka also forms the base of Garten's signature giant cosmos, which swaps the traditional cranberry for bright, cheerful watermelon. When it comes to entertaining, a cocktail can be more than a drink; it can also be an invitation for guests to relax and enjoy themselves. You can use that vodka in the kitchen, too. A slug is all it takes to make an impressive homemade vodka pasta sauce. To help you out, we've rounded up 20 popular vodka brands to stock in your home bar. Also, with a bottle of champagne on hand, hosts have an instantly sophisticated, fuss-free way to provide a festive beverage when the occasion calls for it without having to spend the evening making drinks for people or buying a bunch of ingredients.

Regarding Garten's second boozy staple, it's worth noting that (technically) all champagne is "French champagne." Champagne has a protected appellation d'origine contrôlée status. Although for foodies on a budget, we're also loving Costco's Kirkland Signature Prosecco as a quality, cheap "champagne" dupe. Still, Garten didn't pepper the word "French" into the interview by mistake. The Barefoot Contessa has long expressed an affinity for French ingredients. 

Fans won't soon forget her seminal 2004 cookbook "Barefoot in Paris: Easy French Food You Can Make At Home," a collection as much about recipes as steeped in its author's personal love for the city. Twenty years later, on a 2024 episode of Julia Louis-Dreyfus' podcast "Wiser Than Me," Garten shares that her everyday breakfast stars her favorite French butter: Rodolphe Le Meunier brand beurre de baratte with flaked sea salt. In fact, Garten swears not just by French food, but by French attitude on a larger scale. In her latest book, memoir "Be Ready When the Luck Happens," Garten writes, "[I]n France, these little traffic circles are a reminder that life is not about straight lines or the shortest distance between two points. Slow down, they seemed to say, you can take a little twirl and still get exactly where you're going. Such a nice approach to life." Certainly cause for celebration — champagne, anyone? There should be a bottle in the fridge...