The Martha Stewart Mishap That Launched Ina Garten's Career

It's hard to imagine the Food Network without the celebrity chefs who've been on the channel for nearly decades. But there was a point in time where the cooking show lineup looked a lot different. 

Guy Fieri, for example, got his first show by winning Season Two of competition show "The Next Food Network Star" in 2006 and hasn't left the network since (per Food Network). Bobby Flay, on the other hand, became a regular when he competed on "Iron Chef America" in 1994, after which he went on to host a series of grilling shows, Britannica states. Then there's Giada De Laurentiis, the former food stylist turned TV personality who landed an audition after a Food Network executive saw her photography in an issue of Food & Wine, Parade reports.

As for the iconic Ina Garten? She's been on the Food Network since 2002 (per Lifetime), but it wasn't an audition or a cooking competition that got the network's attention. Instead, it was an outtake from an episode of "Martha Stewart Living."

Most people now associate the name "Barefoot Contessa" with Ina Garten's cooking show. But back in 1999, it was just the title of her newly released cookbook and her gourmet food store in Easthampton, New York. That same year, Garten was invited to guest-star on an episode of "Martha Stewart Living." You won't see it in the version that aired, but 22 years later, Garten revealed to CBS that one of the outtakes ultimately changed her career. 

"I took a spoonful [of food] and tasted it and go, 'This is really good.' And the Martha Stewart crew said, 'Cut. You can't talk with your mouth full.' And I was like, 'Why? It's a cooking show,'" Garten recalled to CBS.

After a Food Network executive saw the outtake, they immediately became interested in giving Garten a show. Though Garten shared to CBS that she initially turned the offer down, she said she later agreed with the condition that she didn't have to film in front of a studio audience.

"I first met Ina Garten about 10 years ago while I was shopping in the Barefoot Contessa," Martha Stewart shared as she introduced viewers to her longtime friend on the 1999 episode of "Martha Stewart Living." 

This longtime friendship, Garten later reflected in a 2007 interview with Time, was what really launched her career. "My desk was right in front of the cheese case and we just ended up in a conversation," she told the outlet of their first meeting at her store. "We ended up actually doing benefits together where it was at her house and I was the caterer, and we became friends after that."

Stewart connected Garten with a book editor, through which the first "Barefoot Contessa" cookbook came about. Stewart also ended up being the one who wrote the foreword, as she proudly announced during Garten's guest appearance on her show. After that first appearance, Garten was invited back for a second time before officially landing her own show in 2002, which she's hosted ever since (per Food Network).