Ina Garten's Unique 4th Of July Menu Includes Julia Child's Favorite Potato Salad

Ina Garten frequently shares her fabulous menus for her holiday entertaining, including Fourth of July dishes that make us collectively yearn for an invite. While she often sticks to classics like grilled hot dogs and hamburgers for her annual summer gathering, the famous hostess has announced in an Instagram post that this year's menu would be looking a bit different and, she says, "a little more special." She'll be wowing guests with lobster rolls served with coleslaw and potato salad. And not just any potato salad, but Julia Child's favorite potato salad.

Garten's version, called Potato Salad à la Julia Child, is a fairly simple dish that relies on perfect texture blends and a creamy dressing. Crunchy ingredients include celery, shallots, and cornichons, and the dressing comes together with mayo and sour cream. Chives and dill add flavor and color. What helps this dish shine is drizzling the cooked potatoes with vinegar and reserved starchy water as they cool. Using potato water like pasta water is Garten's secret to elevating potato salad. 

Lobster rolls are a quintessential summer favorite hailing from the Northeast, where they originated in the 1950s as an easy, cheap sandwich and later became a classic dish at the area's lobster shacks. Because lobster is harvested year-round in the Northeast, these rolls are widely available in New England and commonly found throughout America on the menus of seafood restaurants.

If you want to take inspiration from the Barefoot Contessa, you can easily replicate — or reimagine — her July Fourth party menu. Garten's recipe is for warm lobster rolls, which are also known as Connecticut style, so you can follow her lead and either use her recipe or any other you like. For your sides, if the Julia Child potato salad or veggie coleslaw aren't calling to you, opt for a different potato or pasta salad and green or fruit salad instead. Try a Red, White, and Blue Potato Salad alongside a Strawberry Arugula Salad. Or, skip the salads altogether and serve up the classic lobster roll side of french fries.

Garten's drink and dessert items are fresh lemonade and s'mores with homemade marshmallows. Customize your lemonade by adding mint or strawberries, and include vodka or beer for the adults. Sticking with classic s'mores is a great dessert, but you can put a spin on it with s'mores cookies. Or, return to a different tradition and make a beautiful flag cake. With this delicious and simple menu, it's easy to create your own Ina Garten-esque Fourth of July get-together.