I am incompetent in the kitchen and I detest cooking. It’s just too much work if I have to use a knife. I live by my signature three-step meal: open the frozen food, put it on a tray, and heat it in the toaster oven. Ding! Dinner’s done!
But when I was a young mom, I immediately fell in love with The Barefoot Contessa on The Food Network, a channel devoted to making you crave dishes you can never make. Barefoot Contessa was the name of her wildly successful restaurant.
Ina was different. Unlike all the past TV cooks that were shot in a fake kitchen studio, Ina took us outside to her house with a view to the garden. It was refreshing to see a relaxed home cook (an oxymoron) in a sunny kitchen with hydrangeas. She was brimming with excitement to pick up a baguette — and she smelled the produce! How can you not love her?
Ease and Jeffrey
So I binge-watched Ina’s calm cooking and wished she lived with me. I knew Ina was my kind of cook when she used a whole bar of butter. To get the taste, this contessa did not care about calories. She won my heart when she introduced me to Valrhona, an ultra high quality dark chocolate. None of that American chocolate chalk. As an unrepentant chocoholic, I was hooked.
Like all great cooks, Ina makes it look easy. Her goal with every recipe she creates and shares is to simplify it so anyone can try it and it comes out as tasty as hers. It almost made me want to try to cook. Almost.
From the start, Ina always mentioned her husband Jeffrey. She would tell stories about Jeffrey in relation to the dish she was making— that she was preparing Jeffrey’s favorite, or Jeffrey was on his way home and she wanted to cook him a special dish or surprise him. Always the overflowing love for Jeffrey. “Wow! She really loves Jeffrey,” I thought as I heated my instant ramen.
Well, Ina tells you all about Jeffrey and their love story in her memoir, “Be Ready When the Luck Happens”. The title captures her life philosophy. There’s even a surprising reveal about their marriage.
It’s not easy being a girl
After 40 years as a celebrity chef, it’s easy to mistake Ina’s unbelievable success as something that came easy to her. Hey, I really thought she was a bored contessa who liked to walk barefoot in her beach house and just did a TV show in the Hamptons for kicks.
But no. Ina wrote that she lived in a time of great 70s sexism amidst the women’s liberation movement. Though she wasn’t an activist, she constantly had to overcome men’s condescension — from being dismissed as a young girl, to obtaining a house loan, and then starting a restaurant. She had to prove her worth.
After she became a successful brand, Ina continued to evolve with the times as she opened a store, collaborated with other brands, wrote cookbooks, produced her show, and managed her business.
Ina never lets up. Once things were on a successful autopilot, she got bored. So she sought new challenges that excited her. She renovated a house, then bought another house, or built a house. To reach more customers, she created new products, wrote more books, and hosted another show. During Covid she kept our spirits up with her kitchen antics on social media. Her brand is worth over $60 million.
Recipe for excellence
Ina writes with the same relaxed relatability that she exudes on her shows. I admire her high standards of excellence and she refused to compromise on quality or customer satisfaction. She will only stand behind something she knows is great.
No matter how big or successful she became, Ina stayed true to her sweet self. She nurtured a healthy work environment and maintained longstanding friendships in various continents. She never became a Boss B that rhymes with witch. Ina was always gracious, warm, and classy. All the traits that endear her to viewers like me.
All entrepreneurs can learn from Ina’s example: that hard work and a good heart, coupled with courage and smarts can lead to amazing success. You can be All That by just following your passion with excellence, without losing your soul.
Ina inspired me so much that I dug out her 2006 cookbook that I bought aspirationally as a new mom, “Barefoot Contessa at Home: Everyday Recipes You’ll Make Over and Over Again: A Cookbook”. It has the Beatty Chocolate Cake that she mentioned in her memoir, which was a bestseller in her restaurant. My daughter is baking cookies now so maybe we can bake this together. Maybe.
Ina has foolproofed all her recipes so many times to ensure that any non-cook like me can make a meal that’s Contessa-worthy. I have so much respect for her hustle that I may just try to hustle in the kitchen too. To borrow Ina’s favorite phrase, “How great is that?!”
— @Ivy Digest on YT, FB, IG
Be Ready When the Luck Happens – A Memoir
By Ina Garten
Paperback, 397 pages, 2024.
Random House
BUY : https://amzn.to/45apqmR
Barefoot Contessa at Home – Everyday Recipes You’ll Make Over and Over Again
By Ina Garten
Hardcover, 256 pages, 2006.
Clarkson Potter
BUY : https://amzn.to/3Zq4Wml
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