Ina Garten was at her prestigious yet gruelling job at the White House when a newspaper advertisem*nt piqued her interest.
It was 1978 and the 30-year-old from Brooklyn spent her work days surrounded by federal policy and budget documents.
She longed for a career change, and so focused in when a speciality food store was listed for sale in The New York Times.
She took a gamble and bought the store.
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Today, Garten is one of the 10 richest celebrities in the food industry, with a net worth of $US60 million (approx. $90 million).
Here, we take a look at Garten's life and career.
The big change
Garten's parents were less than thrilled when she quit Washington for the Hamptons. In their minds, she was throwing away her career to open a general store.
''A grocery store, why?' Garten recalled to The Times in a 1981 interview about her parents' collective reaction to the news to her sudden career change.
''My job in Washington was intellectually exciting and stimulating, but it wasn't me at all."
Garten spared little time considering the possibility of change. One day after reading the newspaper listing, she and her husband, Jeffery, drove to Long Island to visit the store.
For Garten, it was love at first sight.
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"I had no experience in the food business – or in any business – but I knew that this was exactly what I wanted to do," she said.
"I made the owner of the store a low offer, thinking I'd go home and decide if I really wanted to make such a dramatic move. The owner called me the next day and said, 'I accept your offer!' Yikes! I had just bought a specialty food store."
Before buying the store, Garten explored her love for cooking and food. She was known to often spend a week making dinner for six friends.
In the early days, Garten's plan was simple – bake "really good" chocolate-chip cookies and sell them to "happy customers".
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During her second year as the business owner of The Barefoot Contessa – named by the store's original owner – Garten hired a chef named Anna Pump to run the kitchen.
Pump was a stylish woman who grew up in the countryside between Germany and Denmark and carried much knowledge. Garten and Pump became great friends.
"I had very little experience in the food business, and Anna taught me so much about how to make food that was both simple and elegant, a style that has stayed with me ever since," Garten wrote in an April 2024 issue of The New Yorker.
"This was during an era when home cooks were making beef bourguignon, babas au rhum, and other complicated dishes from Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking."
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"Instead, Anna taught me that if you use good ingredients, you don't have to do all that much to make the food taste great."
Humble beginnings to an empire
By year three, Garten's successful gourmet food and catering business was thriving.
In those days she worked from 7 am to midnight six days a week from May through September. Her husband, who worked in New York, joined her on weekends.
In winter Garten stayed in the city, focusing on the catering arm of the business.
After 18 years perfecting fare such as baguettes and chicken salad, Garten sold up.
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"I decided that it was time for a new challenge so I sold the store to the manager and the chef," she said.
"At that point, with nothing to do, I built myself an office over the store and tried my hand at writing a cookbook.
By 1999, Garten released The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. Her ability to communicate entertaining with style, simplicity and a sense of fun proved a hit.
"Happily, that first cookbook was a surprise best-seller," she said.
"By 2002, I had published two more cookbooks and started filming a show for Food Network, also called Barefoot Contessa."
Soon, Garten had built an empire.
By 2015, she had published nine cookbooks and marked 14 years filming TV shows for the Food Network.
"I didn't think that anybody would want to watch me on TV. I didn't know what they saw," Garten told CNN in 2023.
"I just couldn't. I'd never done TV and I just couldn't imagine that."
As well as her TV work and cook books, Garten also had monthly columns with Martha Stewart Living, Oprah Magazine and House Beautiful.
Her popularity knows no bounds, with high profile celebrities Taylor Swift, Jennifer Garner, Meghan Markle, Gwynth Paltrow, Tina Fey and Hilary Duff among her fans.
The late great celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain also sang Garten's praises.
"I'll make a little fun of her now and then," he once told to Refinery 29.
"(But) what she cooks on TV is legit and instructive. If you do as Ina does, chances are you are going to get a good product…I got real respect for her."
Garten released her thirteenth cookbook in 2022.
The 76-year-old lives with her husband in East Hampton, New York.
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