Ina Garten's New Memoir Details "Important Life Lessons"

03.05.2024 - 14:16 / bhg.com / Christianna Silva

WWD / GETTY

Ina Garten has written plenty of classic cookbooks: 13 bestsellers, to be exactly. But she hasn't published anything not about recipes—until now.

The Barefoot Contessa recently announced that her new memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, is set to be released on October 1. She told People magazine in an exclusive interview that she never intended to write a memoir, but four years ago her collaborator Deborah Davis told her: “‘Somebody's going to write your memoir, and it should be you.’”

The book will take readers on a journey of Garten exploring different phases of her life, detailing her “difficult childhood” to meeting her husband in college to some of her more “boring” jobs, all coalescing in her becoming one of the most beloved chefs of all time (hence: «the luck» part).

“There is no recipe for writing a memoir, and the process helped me see that what happened to me in my 20s and 30s prepared me for what was to come,” Garten said on her website. “I'm so looking forward to sharing my story with you."

A blog post about the book notes that “Ina’s gift is to make everything look easy.” If you’ve ever cooked along with her show or followed one of her recipes, you know that’s true. The food always comes out delicious and flavorful—and apparently, all of those 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,” the post reads. 

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