Five things you didn't know about the former White House staffer turned culinary icon

Ina Garten has been inspiring chefs around the world for decades, whether with her famous fried chicken recipe or her healthy Hamptons lifestyle.

The Barefoot Contessa's Memoirs entitled Be ready when luck happens, goes on sale Tuesday, October 1st. In her book, she talks about her life as a child and how she developed from a business student to the cooking legend she is today.

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She previously worked in the White House

Garten originally studied economics at Syracuse University before attending the George Washington University School of Business. She worked in the White House under two presidential administrations – Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter – in the Office of Management and Budget, where she focused on developing nuclear energy budget policy from 1974 to 1978. The cookbook author gave up the job to eventually buy a specialty grocery store in the Hamptons, called The Barefoot Contessa.

She revealed why she left politics in an interview in 2022 The Late Show with Stephen Colbert that she worked better when she received quick feedback and that she was unable to “make something happen.”

“I mean, you sent something up the hill, they put it back,” Garten told the talk show host. “We put it back in, they take it out. It was just a nightmare.”

She had a difficult childhood

In her book, Garten describes in detail how she was physically and emotionally abused by her late parents, Charles and Florence Rosenberg. In conversation with PeopleShe explained, afraid that her father would pull her hair if he didn't agree with what she was doing.

“I was terrified,” Garten told the outlet. “I was physically afraid of my father. I literally remember thinking he would kill me if I did something. I was physically afraid of him. And my mother just didn’t support me.”

Ultimately, Garten betrayed BBC News that her family environment contributed to her not wanting to have children of her own after marrying her husband Jeffrey. “It wasn’t something I wanted to recreate,” she told the publication. “And I always look back and realize that a lot of my decisions were based on my childhood. I think that was the motivating factor. And Jeffrey and I were just so happy together.”

Her mother never taught her to cook and she was not allowed in the kitchen

Despite Garten's current career as a chef and cookbook author, she is completely self-taught because her mother didn't allow her to go into the kitchen. “I don't know, I think my mom just wanted me in my room and she wanted the kitchen to herself,” she revealed during an episode of Al Roker's podcast. Summon a storm. “She said, 'It's your job to learn, it's my job to cook. Get out of the kitchen.' So I always wanted to do it.”

The Barefoot Contessa also admitted during an episode of Katie Couric's podcast: Next questionthat her mother was restrictive with her diet during her childhood because she was a nutritionist. “My mother was obsessed with food,” Garten said at the time. “So we weren’t allowed to eat carbohydrates, we weren’t allowed to eat butter. We had margarine. And her idea of ​​a great dessert was an apple.”

She and Jeffrey almost got divorced

After initially leaving her job at the White House to manage her new deli, Garten struggled to figure out what she wanted from her life. “Jeffrey was fully developed and living the life he wanted to live,” she said in an interview with People. “That wasn't me, and I wouldn't be able to figure out who I was or what I wanted if I wasn't alone. I needed that freedom.”

Although she initially considered filing for divorce, the Barefoot Contessa eventually separated from Jeffrey. “I told him I needed to be alone. I didn't say whether it was for now or forever. In true Jeffrey fashion, he said, “If you feel like you need to be alone, you need to do it.” He packed his bag and headed home to Washington, with no plans to return. I buried my feelings and threw myself into my work,” Garten said.

Jeffrey later turned to Garten to make their marriage work. She reportedly asked him to see a therapist to make him realize that she was his equal in the relationship. The chef explained that Jeffrey's agreement to seek professional advice meant more to her than just attending the sessions.

She's not the only person who goes by the name “Barefoot Contessa.”

Garten may be known for her Food Network cooking show. Barefoot Contessabut she didn't come up with the name herself. The reason her Hamptons deli was named Barefoot Contessa was because she shopped that way.

While she planned to change the name, Garten later realized how much she liked it. “I actually liked the name because it's about being elegant and earthy,” she said while speaking to MSNBC host Willie Geist during a virtual writers' dinner in 2021. “It would have been a terrible thing to change him.”

The chef also explained that the shop's old owner, Diana Stratta, was nicknamed the “Barefoot Contessa” as a child, after actress Ava Gardner in the 1954 film. The Barefoot Contessa.

“The family used to call her the Barefoot Contessa, that was her nickname,” Garten said.