I just read Ina Garten’s memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens. It was amazing and a true walk down memory lane for me. I am so glad she wrote this.

Sitting here in Seattle, I started my days early this week. Each morning at 4 am, I schlepped out of bed. I grabbed my coffee and devoured every word, earmarking pages as well.

I read the 306 page book in three morning sprints before starting my day at the office.

A great eye opener indeed.

I worked for Ina in the 1980s. Her specialty food shop, The Barefoot Contessa, was on Main St in West Hampton Beach. It was a wonderful experience. I have held it dear to my heart for many years, even after all these decades. I had interviewed for the job earlier in the spring which took place in her airy loft in Manhattan. Shortly after that meeting I got the summer job. I was thrilled.

To this day, I recall my first day at Barefoot.

Ina and Martine were sitting at the desk next to the high-topped deli counter. Gourmet Magazines littered the desk, and I was promptly handed “The Manual.”  I was parked in a corner and told to read it which, of course, I did.

Shortly thereafter, Ina bounced over to the bakery and gave me a 1:1 lesson on using the coffee machines and in no uncertain terms I was told to use COLD water. I got direct eye contact at that moment and it’s something I do to this day, of course!

Next up at the bakery counter, I was told “Keep the muffin baskets full. No one wants to buy the last muffin.”  Duly noted.

In the afternoon when the pound cakes were lined up. Instructions were: “Cut the first slice and lay it out on the cutting board because no one will be the first to ask you to slice that.” Yep. Got it.

Next? Lox in the deli department.
“Slice it thin on angle, using only the long fish slicing knife, and lay it out carefully. If it isn’t right the customer won’t be happy and remember the customer is always right.”   Roger that!

Jeffrey? I have fond memories of this quiet and very gentle man circling around the store. He always had a lovely smile. He’d often be back from Tokyo or wherever and Ina was thrilled to have him home.  I did not know he had been a Green Beret or that he has written so many books and articles. His books are now on my reading list.

While reading this memoir, I so enjoyed hearing Ina’s voice and revisiting her wisdom and humor. I loved her heartfelt reflections which started with her lonely childhood and wove all the way to the Pandemic and beyond. Ina shared her moments of joy, anxiety, surprise, and fortitude and she did in a way that made her sense of humor and compassion shine. In many instances I was laughing out loud at 5 am or shedding more than a few tears long before the light of day.

In the memoir, she demonstrates how she navigated her life’s course without a road map and somehow kept getting to her destination! Yields. Detours. Disappointments. Roadblocks. Ina encountered them all yet through critical thinking and analysis she somehow circumvented them.

There is so much more I could say here, but I think the essence and the takeaway for me on this is laugh while you work hard, nourish your intuition, and keep all energy fields open for whatever surreptitious blessings may come your way.

Maybe Ina’s recipe for life reads like this?

Start the day with cold water, read the manual but take it with a grain of salt, keep the muffin baskets full, and  always wear a smile.

Thanks for a great read, Ina!