Ina Garten

 I have been a fan of Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, pretty much since she started her TV show on The Food Network.  I love watching her make food, so simple and easy and, apparently, delicious.

Now she has written a memoir and it's delightful.  I got it as soon as it was released and read it pretty much non stop until I finished it.

My goodness, what a life she has led!  Coming from a family with a rate-a-holic father who would pull her around the floor by her hair when he was angry with her, and a mother who was incapable of showing any affection whatsoever, from a childhood where she was told she was worthless, that nobody would like her, that she would never find anyone who wanted to marry her, she has accomplished such an amazing number of things and has the marriage that everyone would dream of.

After working at many jobs in many fields, she was working at a boring bureaucratic job in Washington, DC and hating it, when she saw a tiny ad for the sale of a specialty food store in the Hamptons and decided to buy it, with zero experience in running a business, working in a food store or anything, but she managed to make a success of it. 

Her story of her love with Jeffrey and their relationship is wonderful, especially their months in driving around France and experiencing all the foods and wines (on a budget of less than $5 a day)

The explanation of how she creates her recipes is fascinating.

Heck, the whole book is fascinating.