The Kitchen Tool Ina Garten Has Held On To For Almost 60 Years

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Ina Garten is a beloved Food Network star and author of 13 cookbooks, so it's safe to say she knows her way around a kitchen. She was on the air for 27 seasons with her longest-running show, "Barefoot Contessa." Over the years, she's used and critiqued her fair share of kitchen equipment. There is one kitchen tool in her possession that Garten admits she's owned for almost 60 years, and at this point, it would be considered vintage — a spatula.

In her memoir, "Be Ready When The Luck Happens," Garten wrote about her longtime kitchen tool. "I was enamored of anything Scandinavian — Marimekko, Dansk," she wrote. "I actually still have a spatula from our first kitchen."

They should give her a commercial and have Garten sell those Scandinavian spatulas because keeping one for nearly six decades is the best cosign a kitchen supply company can get. It also shows the incredible quality of a kitchen tool that can even last that long. Do they still make them like that?

Ina Garten loves to share her kitchen tips with others. One of them is that she is a minimalist when it comes to kitchen tools, preferring to keep what is needed and not collecting an abundance of specialized gadgets. So when Garten says a tool is essential, cooks should listen.

Some items are worth keeping forever, like her vintage spatula from her first kitchen. Others, like vegetable peelers, are a part of Garten's must- haves but they have a much shorter life span. Garten says not only should you have one, but it should be replaced every year. She says the same of a microplane zester, which Garten suggests replacing whenever it is feeling worn.

Other kitchen tools that Garten doesn't replace annually include Wüsthof knives, a food processor, tasting spoons, and a food scale. She also explained that she likes to use cookie cutters to make cute shapes out of noodles and puff pastry to give her soups some character. In the past, Garten has partnered with Williams Sonoma, even designing new kitchen tools for a fundraiser in 2022. Now, the specialty retailer is a collaborator on her book tour that began with the release of her memoir, "Be Ready When The Luck Happens," in 2024.