Everything You Need to Know About Ina's Husband, Jeffrey

Ina Garten has a fervent fan base, with many fiercely dedicated to her cookbooks and television programs.  But anyone who has ever viewed a season of The Barefoot Contessa or any of her other food programming probably is also well aware she’s in a very happy long-term marriage, and her husband, Jeffrey Garten, has made more than a few appearances on her various shows.

Who Is Ina Garten’s Husband?

Ina has been with her husband Jeffrey for decades. In fact, they met when she was only 15 years old. They dated for a few years and ultimately got married when she was 20 years old and he was 22. The couple, who originally met when Ina Rosenberg was visiting her older brother at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, where Jeffrey was also a student, were destined to be together forever – but they actually are pretty unique people with pretty individual paths.

What Is Ina Garten’s Husband’s Career?

While Ina went on to be a caterer and then Food Network celebrity, her husband’s career has had a rather different trajectory.  He was a member of the U.S. Army Special Forces, has worked for the government in a pretty impressive capacity — he is the former Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade. He is now a revered professor and Dean Emeritus at the Yale School of Management, where he lectures about the global economy. He’s also, like his wife, an author. But his subject matter is not food but global economics and politics. He’s written several books and has had writing appear in major publications as well, from Harvard Business Review to The New York Times, and more.

How Long Have Ina Garten and Her Husband Been Married?

Now well into over 50 years of marriage (they celebrated their 55th anniversary in late 2023), it’s clear that these two are the love of each others’ lives and quite a couples’ inspiration. “We’ve had the good fortune of growing up together in a very compatible way,” he told People in 2018. “We’re like two vines that grew and wrapped themselves around one another.”

“When we’re not together, I’ll send her five or six texts per day,” Jeffrey Garten said in the People interview. “I love looking at her schedule. I can envision where she is and what she’s doing, and it doesn’t feel like we’re apart. If I could be with her seven days a week, 24 hours a day, that would be my ideal.”

While Ina fell in love with cooking while the couple toured Europe in the early ’70s, that’s not when she entered a culinary career — and part of that reason is because it’s about then that the couple moved to D.C. for Jeffrey Garten’s job with the State Department.  While she too worked a very upper-level government job at that time, she did start to host many dinner parties for their colleagues and friends, and that was the beginning of the Ina we know now — and Jeffrey’s path very much played a part in that.

While Ina went on to open Barefoot Contessa in the Hamptons, Jeffrey continued his career in global economics and politics. But he was often an inspiration — in fact one of her most popular early cookbooks was Cooking for Jeffrey, which was a cookbook entirely of Jeffrey’s favorite recipes.

It’s a beautiful relationship with two fascinating people, and clearly that’s the recipe for love that lasts. In fact, in a 2022 interview with The TODAY Show, Ina said her husband was the “secret ingredient” to her life.

How sweet is that?