Call Me Jealous?
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Except that everyone knows who Ina Garten – and Jeffrey – are, I really didn’t know much about her before reading this book. I have not watched her TV show. And I only have one of her cookbooks – which I received as a gift. So, all Ina info presented here is pretty new to me.
- I was interested to hear she had an unhappy childhood.
- I was amazed to learn that prior to being a famous cook, she worked on nuclear energy policy in the Office of Management and Budget at the White House. Her work went directly to the President – first to Ford and then to Carter.
- Bored in that position, she saw an ad for a business for sale in Westhampton: Catering, Gourmet Foods, and Cheese Shoppe. The “shoppe” was called The Barefoot Contessa. Clearly, she bought the business and did NOT change its name.
- She worked crazy-hard running that shop and perfecting great recipes.
- One thing I loved was her customer service. If someone was unhappy with a product and wanted to return it, the return was made immediately with no resistance from the staff. Only after refunding the customer’s money did she ask questions, finding out what was wrong and giving the customer something FREE to try instead.
- I loved learning that at one time there were Barefoot Contessa cake mixes and frozen dinners. Unfortunately, these endeavors did not work out, but oh my, this gal has tried everything.
- Which takes us to her mantra, “How hard can it be?”
All of this was pretty fascinating. But then the book started to go south for me. I think I know why: I thought I was reading about the nice lady next door who made it big! I could identify with such a person, I could root for her and cheer her on.
But by book’s end, I felt like I had fallen into an episode of the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous instead. Perhaps I am just jealous, but here are a few over the top things that caused my turn around.
- When she was opening a second store in East Hampton and sure would have liked to have Jeffrey nearby, he took a job for Lehman Brothers in Tokyo. But Jeffrey was able to negotiate unlimited first-class travel between New York City and Tokyo so they could see each other. Ultimately, they each traveled back and forth for one week a month to be together. That’s almost 7000 miles each way!
- And then they decided to make a lifelong dream come true, to buy an apartment in Paris. She found one that was “dreadful” until her friend said the “magic words.” She needed to “Flip it. Move the living room and kitchen to the front of the apartment, where the light is, and put the bedroom, bathroom, and closet in the back where it’s quieter.” Her how-hard-can-it-be mantra saw her through a major apartment renovation in another country. Yay for her mantra, but ugh, what did that cost? And may I please have just one percent of that total expense?
- And then speaking of expenses – there was one statement about her work expenses that made me nuts. As she explained that all her European travel was good for new recipe inspiration, she also noted that a perk of her travel fun is that it is tax deductible! Argh!!!!
In spite of the fact that I was reading about the rich and famous as opposed to the girl next door, I can still give lots of credit where lots of credit is due. Ina Garten has an amazing can-do attitude, and the woman has sure accomplished a lot.
I should note that I listened to and read the book. The audiobook is great because Ina Garten is the narrator. However, the eBook was good too. It includes photos and recipes that are lacking in the audiobook. And one of those recipes is for her Outrageous Brownies.
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