5 Stars
Ina Garten is an absolute queen. A total ‘it girl’ in her senior years, Ina has become synonymous with comfort, elegance, and, yes, romance. And her memoir, BE READY WHEN THE LUCK HAPPENS, is not only a testament to her diligent hard work, her business savvy, her keen sense of people, and her willingness to take risks, but it’s above all a love story. Her relationship with Jeffrey is a love story for the ages, and I loved hearing the ways it was tested along the way as well as how it’s both traditional and so untraditional in other ways. Through it all you feel his unwavering support for her and her ambitions, which is such a testament to their relationship and to him as a wonderfully modern feminist. I loved this book and her voice in it so very much.
Ina tells her own story here and starts with her meeting Jeffrey, which happened at 16. Her childhood was both lonely and abusive having been raised by parents who held her to unmeetable standards and consistently drilled into her that she was unloveable. Ina also has an older brother Ken, but she mentioned that she felt they were raised almost like only children—they spent time in their individual rooms being lonely and not interacting with each other. It was her introduction to Jeffrey that allowed her to start breaking the constraints of home and coming into her own. When they married a few years later, it was her first real test of freedom.
I loved Ina’s attitude throughout her story—it’s easy to see how such a painful childhood would have been so difficult to recover from. But it felt like Ina took on any challenge like this, any barrier, and just kept saying to herself, how do I overcome? She rarely if ever just accepted defeat in the face of challenge. She tells the story of her early career, having important government jobs that required her intelligence but were extremely boring. On a whim, she bought Barefoot Contessa having never spent time in the Hamptons and not having any background in food preparation or service. It was so inspiring to go on this journey with her and recognize the number of times she took a leap of faith in her life. They didn’t always work out, but she kept jumping anyway. And Jeffrey, for his part, always found ways to support her. Their marriage is so modern in a way because both parties worked and built high flying careers, many times not in the same location (and at times not even in the same country). I never really thought about the idea that she was always cooking chicken dinner for Jeffrey when he arrived home on Friday nights which was because he was spending the week days pursuing his career in DC, New York, and at Yale. This is an enormous pressure on a couple, and the two of them made it work for so many years. Finally seeing them get their Paris apartment and the joy they shared in that was uplifting.
I also appreciated how Ina struggled so much with gender roles in her life and in her marriage, and constantly fought for the things that felt right to her. She made a decision early on not to have children, which in and of itself marked a different path for her. And as much as she loves cooking for Jeffrey and we see her in some of these domestic roles, she spoke a lot about how those are roles she chose. When they were forced on her or became an assumed gender expectation, it created difficulties in her marriage. How inspiring and modern to see her be able to make those choices because of her own passions and business acumen.
I think this would be a great book recommendation for any lover of romance—Ina is a strong and fascinating ‘character’ to follow, and I felt like I lost my whole heart to her along the way. Her relationship with Jeffrey is #relationshipgoals, but she makes a point that it hasn’t always been easy and their flexibility and ability to compromise along the way has been the foundation of that. If this were not a memoir but a work of fiction, I’d still think there romance was adorable—from love at first sight (on his part) through 50+ years of marriage. Yes this is a memoir, but its inspiring, uplifting, and incredibly swoonworthy.
Synopsis (from Amazon):
In her long-awaited memoir, Ina Garten—aka the Barefoot Contessa, author of thirteen bestselling cookbooks, beloved Food Network personality, Instagram sensation, and cultural icon—shares her personal story with those hungry for a seat at her table.
Here, for the first time, Ina Garten presents an intimate, entertaining, and inspiring account of her remarkable journey. Ina’s gift is to make everything look easy, yet all her accomplishments have been the result of hard work, audacious choices, and exquisite attention to detail. In her unmistakable voice (no one tells a story like Ina), she brings her past and her process to life in a high-spirited and no-holds-barred memoir that chronicles decades of personal challenges, adventures (and misadventures) and unexpected career twists, all delivered with her signature combination of playfulness and purpose.
From a difficult childhood to meeting the love of her life, Jeffrey, and marrying him while still in college, from a boring bureaucratic job in Washington, D.C., to answering an ad for a specialty food store in the Hamptons, from the owner of one Barefoot Contessa shop to author of bestselling cookbooks and celebrated television host, Ina has blazed her own trail and, in the meantime, taught millions of people how to cook and entertain. Now, she invites them to come closer to experience her story in vivid detail and to share the important life lessons she learned along the way: do what you love because if you love it you’ll be really good at it, swing for the fences, and always Be Ready When the Luck Happens.
