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** spoiler alert ** Really mixed feelings about this book. I hadn’t heard of Ina Garten really, I mean. Yes I have distantly heard of Barefoot Contessa but I actually picked up this memoir after seeing rave reviews.

There were parts of this memoir I found very inspiring or relatable. Whether it was their attitude on living cheaply abroad, or relationship struggles, or wanting to go after what you want in your own way. I also really enjoyed some of the food/scenery descriptions. I also (despite what it may sound like later in this review) thought her relationship seemed Lovely and very sweet, it is amazing to see that two people were able to grow together for so long. Both of them in their own off-beat ways.

However this book went on a bit� too long and the pluckiness that started off entertaining started to wear on me. I don’t want to claim she hasn’t worked hard, I really feel she has. But she doesn’t seem at all aware (title aside) of how Insanely Lucky she has been or privileged. As a Gen Z in her mid-twenties I can barely fathom buying a first house (though we sure are trying) never-mind making “real estate� and “interior design� my “hobbies. That’s insanely fortunate. She doesn’t seem to realize most people’s dads aren’t mid-life crisis buying one of two houses designed by a world-famous architect that they can then get married in (another thing I stress about paying for!)

That falling in and out of insanely successful businesses and hoping the money appears (which it somehow always did!) is not a usual experience. I have never even been overseas because I simply cannot afford it. Our partners aren’t job hopping from success to success and having our bosses frontload any expense to make our long distance relationship work. And it’s great she has had such a great life but Ina, most of us CANNOT AFFORD to be ready when the luck happens. I wish!

Her writing also started to slog a bit, and was a bit repetitive at times. More than once she started to sound like that 50s housewife she apparently wasn’t trying to be. I am sure Jeffrey is lovely but you don’t Need to tell me that 30 times a chapter. She talks about re-reading her old letters at the end and sliding out a window in a barrel in college? WHERE IS THAT MEMOIR? Even her time in Paris on $5 a day is largely glossed over. Lots of glossing, lots of marriage talk, maybe not enough on the fun little day-to-day details.

Some parts of this were very sweet but ultimately tone-deaf. Even more so once the celebrity besties in the Hamptons and Paris, friends of friends and guests on her show started rolling in. I would love to have a life like Ina’s but I really am not holding my breath.

However I did enjoy her passion for food, her desire to uplift her younger employees, and her stubbornness. Her recipes did seem good too, might have to pick up one of those cookbooks (or find the recipes online).

SPOILERS

“Here are my plans/dreams. We go to Paris once, at least, in the next five years. We won't have much money but that will be all the fun.
Maybe we could go camping. But instead of touring the Louvre, etc., I'd like to get up at 4 a.m. and walk the streets...down the Champs de L'Esse [his spelling!] while the sun comes up... around the markets... along the Seine. That's us...not the fancy restaurants, etc.�

“…grapes in the middle, put the cheeses back around the grapes, then a few groupings of strawberries and crackers, and then stop yourself." Anna taught me that often, "less is more," and quality is everything.�

“As a finishing touch, I added an old-fashioned screen door to the entrance-the sound of that door slamming shut was the essence of summer, of vacations and carefree times, a signal to relax, indulge, and eat!�

“Everywhere I went there were inspirations the warm goat cheese salad from Café Varenne and the blue cheese soufflé I loved at Le Récamier. My goal was to make these dishes accessible for Americans at home with American ingredients. We don't have the classic French potiron squash, but I found the combination of canned pumpkin and fresh butternut squash made the perfect classic soupe au potiron-without the potiron! I loved writing this cookbook because I was living it!�