77-year-old Ina Garten, out now with her 14th book, has certainly inherited her mantle as a warm-hearted chef, cook, and joyful online personality.
Ina, known as The Barefoot Contessa, in honor of her famous Hamptons specialty food stores – she had three of them-- Ina is down-to-earth like Julia, but her recipes are simpler and ingredients more accessible. And she can stick a finger in a dessert to see how it tastes, earning the love of fans. Her idea of cooking, including catering, is that it be artfully easy and “elegant, comforting without being boring, and beautifully styled.” As she says, “I don’t think there should be more than three prominent flavors in any recipe,” which must “play nicely with each other and be perfectly balanced.” She says this in her latest publication, which is not a cookbook, though it does contain a few mouth-watering recipes, hers and some from associates.
Called Be Ready When the Luck Happens, it’s a memoir, telling the story of how she moved in her early 30s from a series of boring though important jobs, including writing nuclear energy budgets for the government, to become an award-winning cookbook writer and TV and film star, followed by millions around the world and, after almost 60 years, still adoring of and adored by her husband Jeffrey, who is quoted or referenced on almost every page. Informal, conversational, the memoir is filled with parenthetical humor and self-deprecating italicized asides –who me? --and she still wonders how it all happened, as if she had been graced by accident or coincidence. Or luck as distinct from connections and persistence.
She met Jeffrey when she was 16 and he a freshman at Dartmouth. She concedes that the relationship at first seemed parental, he the parent. They agreed not to have children. She admits she wanted to devote herself to a career, but a recurring theme is that she had enough from a lonely, physically and psychologically abusive childhood, an overly strict, at times, violent father, and a mother who would not show affection. Nonetheless, “Dad” gives her good business advice and her mother an occasional cooking tip, and Ina returns to live with them when Jeffrey is away on business, and they want to save money. A critic might question her “luck” given certain advantages – her father was a surgeon, the family lived in Stamford, CT, and she got married wearing Calvin Klein. Jeffrey, of course, with prestigious positions in government and business, including being undersecretary of commerce, managing director of Lehman Bros and the Blackstone Group, and Dean of the Yale School of Management, had connections.
Later on, with fame, Ina drops names, but it’s clear she was her own force, a risk-taking entrepreneur and a disciplined pro, testing recipes usually a dozen to 20 times. She may play down her talent and fierce determination in facing challenges and barriers, but she was a hard worker and trusted her own judgment. The photos in the book show a sweet, smiling cherubic woman, often with Jeffrey, though the lack of flesh and blood details about her almost 60-year marriage to this soul mate and compliant best friend, suggests that Be Ready When the Luck Happens is not a tell-all memoir. Does it have to be? Ina is enough. . . .and, oh! Those dessert recipes!