How Ina Garten Whips Up an Epic Party Spread in 10 Minutes Flat (Really)

Ina Garten's absolute best piece of advice of all time? Keep it simple. That's why perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that the "Barefoot Contessa" would be able to whip up an entire spread of party food in 10 minutes flat. But is it something us mere mortals might hope to be able to replicate at home? Well... maybe? And it's definitely worth a shot...

On her Instagram, she shared a series of delicious-looking — and beautiful — photos of a simple but elegant bar and snacks setup. She captioned it,"We just finished filming a new season of Barefoot Contessa and I wanted to throw a party for the crew — but after filming all day, there was no time to cook!!I decided to do a simple appetizer buffet of things I could assemble at the last minute — the only real cooking involved was roasting the shrimp for 10 minutes and making a few easy dips. All I had to do just before the party was arrange the platters and pop the Champagne!!"

"Now that's my kind of party!" she wrote. And there's no question that that kind of crowd-pleasing spread — a cheese platter, smoked salmon, guacamole, and roasted shrimp Louie — would likely be most guests' type of party, too. Ready to try it at home? All the recipes are on BarefootContessa.com.

And if you're feeling inspired, consider Garten's salad dressing that will knock your socks off, using only four basic ingredients; her hack for cutting a cauliflower (spoiler: you've been doing it wrong your whole life); and a roasted chicken recipe so good... it actually spawned the royal wedding. (True-ish story.)