The Barefoot Contessa

by George Alex
 

            With a job in the White House working as a budget analyst, Ina Garten had the itch for something more. She had the need for creativity and found comfort in food and entertaining so she followed her dreams to become a household name. Ina Garten has been a role model to many individuals, including myself due to her passion, drive, and persistence to not only be a success, but a success at something she loves to do. As I walk onto Wall Street each morning, I know that I took a chance and made a change as Ina did. My family background consists of restaurateurs and chefs that was always the path I thought I would end up following but it just was not the right fit for me.  Ina Garten, in my opinion, is someone that has led a fascinating and fulfilling life from a very young age. Her childhood, background, intelligence and risk taking personality make Ina Garten an inspiration to both men and women.

            Ina Rosenberg was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up in Stamford, Connecticut. Her father was a surgeon and he encouraged Ina to always focus on her studies. She excelled in school and seemed to have a scientific mind that she used to experiment with different foods and recipes (Wikipedia.com). Ina met her husband Jeffrey Garten while she was visiting her brother at Dartmouth when she was only 15 years old. Jeffrey and Ina wrote letters back and forth for over a year until they decided to start dating. The two were eventually married and relocated to Fort Bragg, North Carolina where Jeffrey was in the military. Ina was originally going to Syracuse University and wanted to study fashion and economics and decided to put her schooling on hold to be married and start her life with Jeffrey. Ina stayed in North Carolina while her husband honorably served a four year tour in the Vietnam War (Wikipedia.com).  Ina was without her love for those four long years and was obviously stressed given the circumstances. She used cooking and entertaining friends to pass the time and relieve some of these anxious feelings. Upon Jeffrey’s long awaited return the couple decided to take a four month camping trip to Paris, France. This is where Ina found her true love of food and more specifically, French cooking (Wikipedia.com). Ina was intrigued by the French approach to food and ingredients. The French passion for food served as an inspiration to her.  Upon Ina’s return to the United States she began studying French cooking, and indulging herself with the idea of making a career out of cooking and entertaining.

            After Ina’s time in France the couple relocated to Washington D.C where Ina worked in the White House.  She started in a basic, entry level government position and worked her way up to a position in budget analysis. During her time in D.C, Garten decided to earn her MBA at George Washington University (Wikipedia.com). Ina had a career to be proud of yet felt something was missing. Ina found that cooking and entertaining, hosting dinner parties, and studying different cuisines was her true passion, her escape from the high stress environment of a White House career.

            Eventually Ina came across an advertisement for a small specialty foods store for sale in Long Island, New York.  Ina and Jeffrey traveled to the Hamptons to take a look at the store. They decided to take a shot at it and offer a very low amount and went home that night to think about if this investment would really be something they would be interested in. Ina got the call the next morning that she was the new owner of the store, the offer had been accepted.  She rose up to the challenge, not having any experience in food or training in cooking and became the new owner and manager of Barefoot Contessa (barefootcontessa.com).

            The store became a huge success as Ina used her passion for food to offer simple yet unique foods with a warm and inviting atmosphere. Ina credits Eli Zabar in much of her work for being an inspiration and guide for her as well as a good friend. She worked very hard to learn and grow the business.  Barefoot Contessa expanded rapidly, moving across the street, and eventually to East Hampton. Due to Ina’s following in the Hamptons, she decided to publish some of her recipes from her store and personal entertaining experiences in cookbooks.

            Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, Barefoot Contessa Parties, Barefoot Contessa Family Style, just to name a few, were published in a short period of time and were an unbelievable success (barefootcontessa.com). As if publishing books on an almost yearly basis was not enough for this motivating woman, Ina Garten received the opportunity to have her own show on Food Network. At first Ina was not fond of the idea and actually rejected the show concept.  She finally committed to the show in 2002 and was instantly a household name. Like other chefs, the fame of cookbooks and more so the television show gave Ina the kind of attention and exposure she needed to market different product lines successfully. Not only did she become talented as a self-made chef, writer, and television star, but now moved on to become overwhelmingly victorious as a business woman (Wikipedia.com).

            Above all Ina has a truly inspiring and not at all typical self-made success story. Typically we hear about people starting from less fortunate beginnings and moving on to become successful, but Ina came from a well-educated family in a middle class lifestyle. Ina was following a path to become an intellect yet left that behind to follow her true passion. She left behind a successful career to follow her dream. She used the passion and drive to mold her dream into a set of goals, and from this she created an empire.

Works Cited

 

“Ina Garten.”Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ina_Garten. np. nd. March 4th 2012.

Barefoot Contessa - http://www.barefootcontessa.com/index.shtml. np. nd. March 4th 2012.