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47 pages 1 hour read

Ina Garten

Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2024

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Themes

The Emotional Significance of Food

Although Be Ready When the Luck Happens focuses primarily on Garten’s business success in the food industry, the memoir also stresses the emotional importance of food. The emotional abuse Garten faced at home is reflected in her mother’s austere cooking, meaning that Garten has no happy food memories from her childhood. As a result, Garten pours love into her food as an adult, cooking food that reminds her of happy times with Jeffrey. Garten writes that because her mother Florence “never served anything remotely comforting” (148), she spent her “early life searching—no, begging—for flavor” (16). Garten depicts Florence’s bland cooking not as a reflection of her lack of interest in being a mother. She envies her classmates whose mothers make them “warm homemade cookies and milk after a long day at school” (16), knowing that that’s not a possibility in her house: “not ever” (16). Garten’s repeated references to her mother’s bland, austere cooking style contribute to the depiction of Florence as a cold, emotionally distant mother by suggesting that she does not understand the emotional significance of food.

Because her mother’s food is so austere, Garten has no happy childhood memories involving food and does not truly fall in love with food until she is an adult. Garten writes that “the food we enjoy most connects to our deepest memories of when we felt happy, comfortable, nurtured” (148), things she felt only when she left her parents’ home for college and life with Jeffrey. Significantly, the food she enjoys most is the simple, seasonal food she discovers on her transformative first trip to France after marrying Jeffrey. Because of their limited budget, the couple often relied on the cheap roast chickens commonly found at French markets. For years to come, “a perfectly roasted chicken became our version of Proust’s madeleine—the food that could instantly transport us to a happy memory” of their time together in France (88). When her job at the White House grows frustrating and unfulfilling, she turns to cooking to find joy: “I left it all behind when I came home to my kitchen, where I tried to re-create the incredible meals I’d fallen in love with in France” (100). These passages demonstrate the emotional power of food, which transports Garten back to her happiest memories. Although Garten’s childhood did not include food made with love, the memoir suggests that the food that made her famous is infused with emotion and memories.

The Importance of Instinct and Self-Determination

Throughout her early adulthood and career, Ina Garten relies on instinct to guide her through difficult moments, insisting on doing things in her own way despite the expectations of others. Because she is raised in a controlling and abusive household, Garten enters adulthood desperate to claim her independence. She views college as an opportunity to experience “the freedom to figure out who I was” (31) and knows that, once she finds herself, “I’d take it from there” (31). This passage suggests that, despite not fully knowing who she is, Garten trusts herself and knows that she will be able to build a new life. Garten’s confidence is rooted in the fact that her adult life cannot be worse than her “overly regimented childhood” (35): After years living under her mother’s strict rules, she craves independence and builds her life around the core principle of self-determination. The memoir suggests that Garten’s confidence in her instincts and determination to chart her own path are central to her success.

Garten’s confidence in herself grows during her time as the owner of the Barefoot Contessa, and her pursuit of self-determination puts her at odds even with Jeffrey, whom she previously saw as her savior from the emotionally unfulfilling world of her childhood. The successes of her professional life cause her to make drastic changes in her personal life. After a successful summer at Barefoot Contessa, Garten admits that she is unhappy in her marriage. Despite his loving and supportive character, Jeffrey enters into his marriage with patriarchal expectations. He expects Garten to maintain their household even while she is working full-time, and he expects her to prioritize his needs ahead of her own ambitions. Garten’s instincts tell her that she must put her growing business first, and she writes that “my summer at Barefoot Contessa showed me who I really was […] I came out of the challenging times feeling stronger and more secure, and, for the first time, I had a real sense of my identity” (139). This heightened understanding of her identity leads her to realize she is unhappy in her marriage with Jeffrey. As she explains, “when you’ve figured out what you like and don’t like, and you’re more confident, you can move on to what you really want to do, which might be totally different” (115). The resulting break leads Jeffrey and Garten to be more honest about what they need in their relationship, and Jeffrey shows emotional maturity by reconsidering his patriarchal understanding of marriage and giving Garten the space to reach her full potential. The self-confidence Garten gains after a successful summer at the store leads her to trust her instincts and insist on the break. The result is further success in her business and a renewed, more equitable marriage. These successes reflect the importance of self-determination and instinct in her story.

The Value of Unconditional Love and Support

Ina Garten’s husband Jeffrey is an essential character in Be Ready When the Luck Happens: From the moment they meet when Garten is 16, he provides the unconditional love and support that Garten lacked at home. Garten is explicit in identifying Jeffrey’s unconditional love and support as the foundation on which her life is built, writing “everything changed when I met Jeffrey. This is when my life began” (299). Prior meeting Jeffrey, she has no emotional support system. Garten writes that her parents “didn’t believe in me or my potential, but they held me to impossibly high (and arbitrary) standards, nonetheless” (16). When Garten tries to share her successes, her father refuses to celebrate her, asking, “those are things you wanted to do, but did you accomplish anything?” (15). As a result, Garten is raised feeling “discouraged [and] unmotivated” (20), and believing that “my ideas weren’t good [and] worse still, anything I tried to do would have negative consequences” (20). These harmful beliefs follow her into adulthood: In the final chapter of the memoir, she admits that “I will never truly lose that critical voice in my head that says, ‘Don’t do it, it will turn out badly,’ for as long as I live” (298). These passages suggest that the lack of love and emotional support Garten received as a child had long-lasting effects on her well into adulthood.

When Garten meets Jeffrey at the age of 16, his immediate love and support offers a stark contrast to her parents. Garten is explicit in comparing her future husband to her parents: “behind me were two people for whom I could do nothing right and in front of me was a smart, funny guy who thought everything I did was a total revelation” (34). When Garten is struggling with motivation and considers quitting college, she is shocked that Jeffrey accepts her decision. Garten realizes that “for the first time in my life, someone believed in me and knew I would make the right decision” (61). Jeffrey’s faith in her helps her realize that she can complete college, and she decides to continue. This anecdote demonstrates the transformative power of Jeffrey’s unconditional support: because he believes in her, she believes in herself. This pattern repeats throughout their careers, most significantly when he encourages her to quit her job and buy Barefoot Contessa. At this point in their lives, Jeffrey is financially successful enough to offer Garten financial support as well as emotional support, telling her, “don’t worry about whether you make money. Just do it!” (6). Garten’s emphasis on Jeffrey’s financial and emotional support reflects her gratitude for his role in her life. In the memoir’s final lines, she writes that “we all need only one person to believe in us, and for me, that person is Jeffrey” (299). The fact that the final lines focus on him demonstrates the value of his unconditional love and support.

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