Ina Garten's Go-To Ice Cream Brands For The Best Vanilla Flavor

Celebrity Chefs — they're just like us. Turns out that Ina Garten also screams for ice cream and her favorite flavor may surprise you. It's vanilla! While vanilla ice cream might seem sort of, well, vanilla in today's world of highly complex ice cream flavor options, it turns out that when it was first brought to the U.S., it was considered hard to come by.

According to Seconds Food History, vanilla ice cream came to the United States by way of one of our historic presidents. Thomas Jefferson, who was the minister to France at that time, brought vanilla ice cream to America after first trying and loving it in France.

At the time, vanilla bean pods were exceedingly difficult to get your hands on, so Jefferson used his contacts in France to help get the expensive pods from Mexico. The original recipe that Jefferson wrote down is in the Library of Congress, per Seconds Food History.

Vanilla is now a classic American flavor so if you love it, should you make it at home? Or buy a tried-and-true brand?

If you're the kind of person who likes a DIY experiment, there are plenty of ways to make delicious vanilla ice cream at home, but if you don't have the time or interest, Ina Garten has a few brands that she thinks make the best vanilla ice cream.

When it comes to enjoying this sweet, creamy treat, everyone has their favorite brands, and Ina Garten is no exception. Even though her culinary prowess is well-documented, and she has her own ice cream recipes, Garten says that making a really good vanilla ice cream is deceptively difficult, per the Kitchn. When she's got a hankering for vanilla, Garten's favorite brands are Häagen Dazs, Ben & Jerry's, and Ciao Bella.

Vanilla ice cream is perfect enjoyed on its own with fresh berries, but is also wonderful atop other desserts like this blackberry peach cobbler, or this death by chocolate cake.