Book Review by Lupita Franco Peimbert
Published June 2026 • Books • Memoir • Personal Reflection
I just finished reading a memoir by Ina Garten, and I have a thing or two to say.
Her book found me at the airport, where I had arrived way too early for an international flight. The moment I began reading “Be Ready When the Luck Happens,” her story sucked me in, awakening both empathy and awe. I couldn’t stop reading.
Granted, I had no idea who Ina Garten was before this book. No idea whatsoever! She has been a successful business owner, television host, and practitioner of a perfectly fun and well-fed life for decades, and I didn’t know.
That proves once again how my life experience is quite different from many people’s. Formerly a television news reporter, I didn’t own a television for 20 years after a left the newsroom. A divorcee with no children or pets, I am not particularly inclined to cook; I love cleaning the house, but I cook only when I must. Aside from making delicious chiles rellenos from scratch, I don’t enjoy cooking. I dread it. I don’t follow recipes. I find the entire before-and-after process quite time-consuming.
Yet there I was, reading every page of the memoir of an accomplished chef and queen of the kitchen, absorbing the nuances and details, smiling most of the time.
What a remarkable woman, entrepreneur, creative spirit, and human being. Equally remarkable is the life she and her husband Jeffrey built, the opportunities they had, the challenges they overcame, and the serendipitous nature of their life together.
Ina talks about her childhood, how she met her husband, their early adventures together, and how certain decisions unfolded through time. She recounts the friendships, the gatherings, the home renovations, and then came Paris!
What makes Ina such a compelling memoirist is not only what she has lived, but how she tells it. She writes with warmth and vulnerability. She is witty, straightforward, and refreshingly unpretentious. Somehow, she even makes the Hamptons sound like the neighborhood next door.
She is clearly gifted as a storyteller. I have only one potentially negative critique: by the final chapters, I could often predict where certain stories were headed, and that predictability can take away the magic. Yet, that hardly diminished my enjoyment. The difference, I think, is that Ina is not merely writing about meaningful experiences, but rather she made many of them happen.
The best compliment I can give this memoir is that it left me wanting more. It compelled me to pick up her other published materials. It did what my favorite books do: it made me eager to keep reading and inspired when I turned the last page.
As I was reading her memoir, it began to dawn on me that Barefoot Contessa was based in the Hamptons, that Ina was a celebrity, that she came from a middle-to-upper-class background, and, most of all, that her personality and character possessed many of the qualities one needs—or needs to cultivate—if one wants to succeed. Ina is a natural leader.
At some point, I even thought: Is she still alive?
As a woman and a creative, many things resonated. Resilience, for one. Risk-taking, for another. Hard work pays off, for sure. If someone wants to be successful, they must be diligent and invest enough hours, or the equivalent effort, in whatever they choose to pursue.
At certain moments, I couldn’t help but think that she has also been very lucky (a theme she explores herself). I am going to be honest, even though I feel slightly uncomfortable saying it.
She was fortunate to be born into a family with a roof over her head, food on the table, and access to education without question or struggle, opportunities that many equally talented people do not receive. Meeting her husband was another blessing, and having someone willing to support her and lend a hand when needed was part of that blessing. As she moved through life, the advantages that class can provide cannot be overstated. Access to certain circles can expand your life tremendously.
For instance, many people dream of leaving a job to pursue something closer to their purpose or vocation, but life is rarely that simple. Most people live paycheck to paycheck, including professionals earning decent salaries. Ina was able to leave her job, buy a business, and start over. No unemployment line. No paperwork. No waiting for benefits.
Yet, as she suggests in the book, she could have had all those advantages and still done nothing with them. She could have lacked the talent, discipline, or drive to make something meaningful happen. On that point, I completely agree. Ina deserves enormous credit for who she appears to be at heart, and I write “appears” because I do not know her personally, and for how she developed into a successful businesswoman, communicator, and beloved chef.
Throughout the pages, I lost track of her age, but the truth is that age and eras do not matter when a person or a life is genuinely interesting. Ina’s age became blurry to me. What remained clear was her kindness, reflected both in her face and in her words.
I was in the middle of reading the book when my sister, Muñeca, called. I told her about this inspiring memoir I was reading, about a woman named Ina Garten who loves to cook. To my surprise, my sister immediately knew who she was! “The one that had a TV show,” my sister said. Muñeca is also an excellent cook. She lives in Puebla, Mexico. She had watched Ina’s show for years. Her first question was whether the memoir had been translated into Spanish.
New York City and the Hamptons are often portrayed as places of sophistication, wealth, beauty, and status. Along with that comes the familiar cultural expectation that women should be thin, stylish, and effortlessly polished. Perhaps that is why Ina surprised me. As elegant as she is, she comes across as remarkably comfortable in her own skin. Throughout the memoir, I found little concern with image, dieting, or the pressure to look a certain way. Her focus seems to be elsewhere: on food, friendship, work, curiosity, and creating a life she genuinely enjoys. I found that refreshing.
Admittedly, these are my subjective observations and opinions about Ina Garten’s memoir. Here is what stays with me: I am in awe. Of her and her life experiences. Of her intuition, kindness, and enormous love for food and people. It all shines through her writing. As the book draws you in, her stories invite you to imagine a universe full of possibilities.
Do you know how certain books leave you with a wonderful feeling, a lingering taste of something memorable? If Ina’s memoir were a dish from Barefoot Contessa or one of her recipes, it would be rich with flavor, carrying the aromas of gardens and home kitchens, comforting and welcoming in whatever season the readers happens to find themselves.
Great book! A must-read for women and men, gay or straight, single or married, and for anyone ready to reflect on what may be missing from life, or what they truly want from it.
—Lupita Franco Peimbert
