Ina Garten’s ‘Barefoot Contessa’ a calming show before the holidays

When the end of the semester seems too far off to bear, a little virtual comfort—courtesy of “Barefoot Contessa”—is the next best thing to actually being home. Ina Garten, the Food Network personality who stars in “Barefoot Contessa,” is the perfect antidote to this final two-week slog.

Garten tells a food story in every episode. She begins with a wonderfully insignificant problem (Jeffery, my husband, commutes two hours to work and just can’t go without some homemade espresso ice cream) and solves it by enlisting fabulous Hampton friends such as Miguel the florist and Ana the specialty foods purveyor to help her whip up simple yet luscious versions of classic comfort foods. She spares no indulgence. “Make sure to use good cognac. It makes all the difference,” she counsels.

Every problem gets solved, just in the nick of time, with lots of butter and white roses, and each episode comes to a satisfying close. The table is set, lemon-roasted chicken steams above buttery French croutons she has prepared earlier in the show, and some blonde, 60-year old women file into her house and laugh uproariously until the screen fades to black.

The Food Network star never makes very many dishes—she averages about two per 30-minute segment—and each dish rarely has more than four or five ingredients. However, it’s the simplicity that makes the show such a guilty pleasure.

Garten’s problems are minor, but her execution is major, and for that, “Barefoot Contessa” can always calm students down when real problems have them stressed.