Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In her long-awaited memoir, Ina Garten—aka the Barefoot Contessa, author of thirteen bestselling cookbooks, beloved Food Network personality, Instagram sensation, and cultural icon—shares her personal story with readers hungry for a seat at her table. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Time, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Town & Country Ina Garten’s gift is to make everything look easy, yet all her 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. From a difficult childhood and a boring bureaucratic job in Washington, D.C., to marrying the love of her life while still in college and answering an ad for a specialty food store in the Hamptons, Ina, for the first time, presents an entertaining, inspiring, and endearingly personal account of her remarkable journey to authoring thirteen bestselling cookbooks and becoming a beloved Food Network personality. She’s blazed her own trail, teaching millions how to cook and entertain along the way, and now, she shares her most important lessons yet: Do what you love, swing for the fences, and always Be Ready When the Luck Happens.