It’s no secret that we think Ina Garten is the queen of the kitchen. Chicken Marbella, Barefoot Contessa style? Already on the table. If she tells us to cash out our 401k to buy the “good” vanilla, we’re already signing a check to the IRS (kidding...). When Ina says “jump,” we ask, “how high?” So when the author of Go-To Dinners revealed that even she questions the purpose of the most mystifying ingredient known to cooking—namely, the bay leaf—you can bet your ass we’re already tossing ours in the trash. (Again, kidding, but only kind of this time.)
Earlier this month, in an interview with David Remnick for The New Yorker, she was asked by a reader:
“Dear Ms. Garten,
About 10 years ago, I read a short story in Harper’s about which I remember nothing, not the title, the author or the plot, except for a scene in which a character fishes a bay leaf out of a bowl of soup and flicks it away, and he tells his dining companion, ‘bay leaves are B.S.’ Ever since then I’ve been nagged by the question, are bay leaves B.S.? Whenever I put them in anything, I can’t tell what effect they have. Am I using them wrong? Also, is it true that they should be kept in the freezer?”
