‘Barefoot Contessa’ graces Cobb Energy Centre

But you won’t see Garten hosting or judging shows such as “Food Network Star” or “Iron Chef America” like Alton Brown, Giada De Laurentiis or Bobby Flay.

“I love doing what I’m doing,” said the former White House nuclear policy analyst and current best-selling cookbook queen. “I love doing it really well. If I did a million things, I wouldn’t be able to. Food Network has been incredibly gracious to me. I really like to concentrate on a few things.”

Garten loves working out of her kitchen in East Hampton, N.Y., conjuring up new recipes. She doesn’t travel much, so this current tour, which hits the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre on Oct. 16, is a special treat for her fans.

“I don’t usually do food festivals or book signings,” she said. “People have to wait so long and literally have five seconds with me. It must be very unsatisfying. I’m shifting gears by doing these shows. People will get a much better experience and have a deeper sense of what I do and think about. It beats standing in line for six hours!”

Belinda Skelton, former producer for the Neal Boortz syndicated talk show and weekend lifestyle host on 95.5 FM and AM750 News/Talk WSB, will be on stage to do an “Inside the Actor’s Studio”-style Q&A with Garten.

“She’s my idol,” Skelton said. “I have all her cookbooks. … Watching her cook is like taking a yoga class. She is just so calm and reassuring. She demystifies cooking for a lot of us who have trouble in the kitchen. Her recipes are not complicated but very elegant.”

Garten said she does not want to know the questions ahead of time. Rather, she wants to be surprised. “Sometimes we touch on business issues,” she said. “How I think about entertaining. We always talk about my husband, Jeffrey.” (Jeffrey Garten is a Yale business professor and head of a major global consulting firm.)

And though Garten could shoot her 11-year-old TV show in a studio, she chooses to do it out of her home. “The house feels more real,” she said. “As much as possible, I try to do things with my actual friends at my actual house. Not to mention I don’t have to leave home to do it!”

Indeed, the magic of East Hampton, she said, is the variance. “It’s really crazy in the summer, quiet in the winter,” she said. “It’s a beautiful, beautiful place. It’s grounded and country yet elegant.”

Garten has accepted one brand extension: frozen saute dinners under her “Barefoot Contessa” name with dishes such as tequila lime chicken and jambalaya. They give consumers the sense of the accomplishment of cooking — at least a little bit.

“I wanted it to feel like you’re making dinner. I want it to smell like it’s dinner,” she said. “But it only takes 10 minutes. Even for people who don’t know how to cook, it’s easy. Then there are people who love to cook but don’t have time on a Tuesday.”

And there is no microwaving her dishes. “Everything comes out of the microwave with the same texture,” she said. “Our shrimp scampi and linguine, the shrimp is raw. You are actually cooking the shrimp.”