Fashion Designer Daniel Roseberry and Ina Garten Toast With Champagne and Smashburgers on 'Be My Guest' Season 7

Daniel Roseberry is the artistic director of the renowned fashion house Schiaparelli in Paris, and flies in to Ina Garten's East Hampton home to talk with his friend about success, family, his career arc and their different views on Paris.

And what better way to appeal to a designer's eye for beauty than a gorgeous (and patriotic!) tri-berry ricotta breakfast cake studded with raspberries, blueberries and sliced strawberries. "Who doesn't like cake for breakfast?" she asks. "I thought when he arrives, it would be so nice to have a warm cake coming out of the oven."

Ina says upon first meeting Daniel several years ago and becoming fast friends, "We just clicked. It’s almost like I’d known him forever.” And the warmth and love are clear from the moment Ina begins baking in anticipation of seeing her friend.

Ina gets started in her famous barn kitchen by creaming butter and sugar and adding eggs one at a time to the mixture. She continues by adding whole-milk ricotta cheese, sour cream, vanilla and lemon zest. Next, Ina blends the dry ingredients: all-purpose flour, baking powder, kosher salt and, finally, mixed berries.

As Ina puts the finishing touches on her cake, she offers the tip to dot the surface of the cake with fruit right before baking it in a springform pan. That allows her guests to get a sneak peek at the fruit hidden inside the cake. For the finishing touch, Ina dusts her cake with powdered sugar.

Outside, Daniel walks up with a gorgeous bouquet of flowers. Such perfect manners! “No one has been as excited as me,” he confides, to visit the home of his dear friend, remarkable chef and American icon. Daniel has an extra surprise for his friend: a gorgeous aubergine parrot tulip brooch that he lovingly pins on Ina’s shirt.

“Even though I’m doing couture in Paris, I’m a preacher’s son from Plano,” admits Daniel of his humble Texas beginnings and the remarkable changes life can bring. It's something he shares with Ina, whose own life has been a remarkable trajectory. In her memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, Ina describes an often unhappy childhood growing up in Brooklyn and Stamford, Connecticut, with parents who did not always give her the nurturing and love she needed. But thanks to her loving and supportive husband, Jeffrey, and her own incredibly hard work, Ina built her business into the lifestyle empire it is today and a life founded on food, friendship and creativity.

Though Ina is the undeniable mistress of delicious, seemingly effortless cooking, and has planned a decadent lunch of smashburgers and champagne, Daniel has some skill sharing of his own in store. Gathering up his sumptuous bundle of brown paper-wrapped flowers, Daniel uses a pair of garden shears and begins to show Ina some of the tips and tricks of flower arranging. First, he separates each type of flower into its own pile before filling a large glass vase with individual bundles of richly colored coral, yellow and pink flowers, to give the feeling of a flower garden with layers of color. “I really try to avoid anything that feels like filler,” he says. As a final touch in the back of the glorious explosion of color, Daniel adds quince branches with tiny white flowers and the vibrant yellow of forsythia branches. “I’m just gobsmacked! I can’t believe how gorgeous this is,” beams Ina.

The son of a minister and an artist mother, Daniel grew up with his three siblings in Plano, Texas. Daniel confesses that he was so nervous about attending fashion college in New York City that he actually considered following in his father’s footsteps and attending seminary school after high school. He did a year as a missionary in the Middle East. But when he applied to the seminary to become a minister, the dean told him, “Absolutely not. You have to go to fashion school.” He followed that advice by attending the prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.

After fashion school, Daniel worked for 10 years as the head of design for Thom Browne, known for his stylish, tailored clothing. Highlights of his time at Thom Browne include designing for former First Lady Michelle Obama. Daniel confides to Ina that his mother Fran Roseberry’s advice when he was growing up was “Leap, and the net will appear.” So, that’s just what he did, leaving Thom Browne in 2018 with nothing lined up.

Fortune was shining on Daniel. In 2019, the Italian-owned and Paris-based fashion house Schiaparelli came calling. Founded in 1927 and known for its avant-garde designs, Schiaparelli allowed Daniel to both honor Elsa Schiaparelli's surrealist design legacy while incorporating his own unique touches, including repurposed denim, bold gold jewelry and molded leather. Both Daniel and Ina spend a great deal of time in Paris, and Ina shares that she and Jeffrey have an annual tradition of spending Christmas Day with Daniel in Paris.

Ina is clearly a student of fashion and interested in a behind-the-scenes peek at how the industry works. Daniel offers insight into how he creates a collection, including printing out and appraising the last collection and using that as a jumping-off point to pursue interesting ideas for his next collection. “It’s always about refining the things that showed a lot of promise, leaving behind the things that didn’t," he tells Ina. "For me, couture is all about mastering the moment.” Ina wants to know about the process of creating a piece for a celebrity, like the billowing scarlet skirt and navy bodice ornamented with an outsized gold dove that Lady Gaga wore to Joe Biden's presidential inauguration in 2021. “If it’s a custom creation, I want to know ‘Who do they want to be?’” says Daniel of how he approaches a bespoke design for a famous woman. He also reveals to Ina that celebrity clients like Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Ariana Grande are not paid to wear his clothes. “When you see someone in Schiaparelli, it’s because they want to be in Schiaparelli.”

The kind of friend who wants to learn more about what makes Daniel tick, Ina asks the designer, who has accomplished so much in his life, “What skill would you like to have?”

Daniel's answer is surprising. “I wish I was 15 to 20% less inhibited," he confesses. "I wish I could dance more freely, I wish I could tell jokes more freely, I wish I was less conscious of myself."

Ina has a revelation of her own. “I’d love to be able to sing on a stage,” she shares.

There are some similarities to their passions, Ina muses. “I always think of whatever I did at Barefoot Contessa as theater,” says Ina. And Daniel agrees about the theatrical dimension to a fashion designer's runway show. “You get 500 people in one space, you get them for 15 minutes, and so you have to hit them where it hurts, and the way to do that is with music.”

One essential difference: their perspective on Paris.

Daniel admits to feeling free and at his most relaxed when he is away from Paris, surrounded by people he loves. Paris, for him, is associated with hard work. “It’s become such a backdrop for the pressure,” he admits.

But for Ina, Paris is all about pleasure, a place to unwind after wrapping a major cookbook or other project. “I just know I’m going to relax there, I’m going to chill out and I’m going to disconnect,” she tells him. Some day, Ina promises him, she will show Daniel her Paris.

Though their perception of Paris may be different, they do have one big thing in common, notes Daniel. When they’re on, they’re really on, and when they’re not? “You and I have two speeds,” says Daniel. Ina agrees: “110 miles an hour and fast asleep,” she laughs.

After presenting a collection on the Paris runway, Daniel has a decadent and elegant way to unwind. His tradition after the show is to seek out the quintessential American food, a hamburger, alongside the most iconic French drink, champagne, at the Ritz Paris, an international beacon whose suites are named for famous visitors like Ernest Hemingway, Charlie Chaplin and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The luxury hotel has welcomed fashion royalty, like Vogue contributing editor André Leon Talley and actual royalty, including Queen Elizabeth and King Charles. In a nod to that happy tradition, Ina has decided she and Daniel will make smashburgers with caramelized onions, accompanied by … what else? Champagne!

Ina has a recipe for burger success: 20% fat and 80% lean is her magic formula for a great hamburger base. Next, she instructs her sous chef, Daniel, add ground mustard, salt and pepper to the meat. Then, the real work begins: kneading the dry ingredients into the meat. “Isn’t a chef’s best tool his hands?” Daniel grins.

“The key to this is, don’t press it together, just keep it light,” guides Ina.

“And fluffy,” adds Daniel.

Surprisingly, Ina says hamburgers are not a food she makes very often. She never served burgers at the shop that started it all — Barefoot Contessa Fine Foods market, first in Westhampton Beach and then in East Hampton — because it was a takeaway destination rather than a place where food was made to eat there.

But there is no denying Ina knows her way around a flawlessly prepared hamburger. After forming four perfectly proportioned patties, she offers Daniel another piece of advice. “I freeze them for 15 minutes, and it just keeps the inside from overcooking,” says Ina.

And now on to the caramelized onions that will top these smashburgers. Ina guides Daniel in sauteing two red onions — Ina prefers their slightly sweeter flavor. She cooks them at a very low temperature for about 10 minutes and adds sugar. Daniel is prompted to add a tablespoon of vinegar to the onions to finish them off. “What that does is scrapes up all the little crusty bits and deglazes the pan,” says Ina.

Then, it’s time to cook the burgers: Ina advises smashing them down with a large metal spatula to form a crust on the burger. Cook them for a minute and a half on one side and then turn them over.

Now, it’s time to build the burgers! Ina adds a healthy pile of caramelized onions and a heap of shredded Gruyère.