FEB 27, 2025 | ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | By Greta Patterson
Welcome back readers to Book of the Block.
Get excited because, for the first time in this column, my book for Block 5 is a memoir! To be candid, I don’t read many memoirs, but when Ina Garten announced she would be coming out with her first memoir, “Be Ready When the Luck Happens” in October 2024, I had to get my hands on it.
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t obsessed with Garten as a person – she’s like Martha Stewart but calmer and with less jail time. “Be Ready When the Luck Happens” is the story of Garten’s childhood, her start in cooking, her relationship with her husband Jeffrey and how she came to start the brand Barefoot Contessa.
Without a doubt, Garten has changed the way that cooking shows and cookbooks are produced. She has published 13 cookbooks and sold more than 14 million copies. Her cookbook, “The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook,” is one of the four most-sold cookbooks of all time. Her emphasis on fewer recipes with more description and beautiful photography make her books accessible to the everyday cook, changing how home chefs approach cooking forever. Garten has had multiple successful cooking shows, yet early on she realized that the traditional structure of cooking shows was too rigid and formal for her liking, leading her to make her own that emphasized casual cooking. In her memoir, she notes the outrage that producers had when she dipped her finger in a sauce she was making to taste it.
Her newest show, “Be My Guest with Ina Garten,” is all about conversations and connections with acclaimed guests such as novelist Ann Patchett, Stephen Colbert and fellow chef Bobby Flay.
Her memoir begins with the retelling of her difficult childhood. While she and her father have since reconciled, her relationship with her mother remained deeply complicated and toxic until her mother passed away.
In her memoir, Garten describes how her childhood home was mentally and, at times, physically abusive. Her own father told Garten that nobody would ever love her, and Garten shared that it took a long time to realize that “I had the power – and the responsibility – to set myself free. To step out of the cage of whatever I’d experienced in the past, to think for myself, and to believe in my choices.”
Even today, Garten shares that she struggles with self-esteem issues due to the harsh criticism her parents gave her. Garten has obviously found love, and a beautiful one at that, with her husband Jeffrey Garten, yet still notes in the book that there were times when they thought their relationship might not make it.
Garten was miserable in her government job in Washington, D.C. When reading a newspaper one day, she saw a for sale ad for a vacant specialty food store in the Hamptons. Having no experience in food or running a business, she went to the Hamptons and leased the store. With Jeffrey still living in D.C. and working for the state department, Garten began running Barefoot Contessa, learning every day how hard the business was. She details the disasters that the business went through, eventually losing the lease to the original storefront and having to relocate and the struggles with seasonal crowds in a place like the Hamptons, N.Y.
During this time away from Jeffrey, the two began wondering if their relationship would ever work, being so far apart and so busy. Garten shared her hesitancy in detailing this hardship in her life, but wanted to be candid and honest with the hope of helping someone in a similar situation. They worked through their struggles and have been happily married for 57 years, with one of her cookbooks even being titled “Cooking for Jeffrey.”
Garten’s biggest piece of advice in the whole memoir is just what the title says – to be ready when luck happens. “You never know your good breaks from your bad ones,” said Garten, reminding readers to stay optimistic and always fight for the good.
While Garten recognizes how important it is to have people on your side during your fight for success, your biggest supporter will always be yourself. Garten was remarkably lucky and privileged in many ways that allowed her to be the culinary icon she is today. Yes, I found it rather ridiculous to listen to how stressful it was to furnish her dream Paris apartment, but perseverance played an enormous role in her journey.
Her memoir truly allowed me to slow down and reevaluate my life, and so I encourage anyone looking for a beautiful testimony on courage, love, strength and struggle to pick up Garten’s memoir. You might even get the best brownie recipe ever out of it – the secret: instant espresso.