Ina Garten Just Revealed Her 'Favorite Cheese Shop' And The Selection Is Incredible
Ina Garten is beloved for her canonical cookbooks, casual brilliance, neckerchiefs, the very nice garden in which she entertains her very nice celebrity friends, and, of course, the coastal grandmother vibe she effuses on "The Barefoot Contessa." Chief among the subcategories of her greatness, however, is her undying passion for cheese. Some of the Food Network star's most popular recipes are teeming with fromage, from her truffled mac & cheese (one of her many iconic variations on the comfort food) to her cacio e pepe roasted asparagus to her jazzed-up grilled cheese oozing with sharp cheddar and chutney.
Knowing this, it's not at all surprising that Garten is enchanted with France, the cheesiest country of them all. The celebrity home cook appears to be in Paris at the moment, and she took to Instagram this week to reveal her "favorite cheese shop in the world," which happens to be located "around the corner" from her part-time digs in the city's seventh arrondissement.
Barthélemy in Paris in Ina-approved
"Too much cheese; too little time!" reads the caption on Ina Garten's recent Instagram post, which shows a gorgeous array of fromage displayed in a charming-looking cheese shop called Barthélemy, located on Rue de Grenelle in Paris.
The four slides of the post show a bounty of fancy French mainstays like round, craggy Gaperon flavored with cracked peppercorns and garlic, heart-shaped Saint-Félicien from the Rhone-Alpes region of France, brick-hued cones of herbaceous Boulette d'Avesnes, and bells of chèvre bleue that look like Mexican wedding cookies on sticks. A photo of the storefront reveals other provisions, like rows of jam and bags of bread and sweets.
The host of a 2014 YouTube video posted by ChannelCheeseTV calls Barthélemy "one of the city's best cheese shops" before introducing viewers to its longtime owner, Madame Nicole Barthélemy. "She has served very prestigious customers, including the Prime Minister of France," the video host says before heading inside. Given its reputation for selling cheese to high-profile customers, it's no wonder Ina Garten is a regular.