finding foody balance

Ina Garten is one of my favorite celebrity chefs. Every recipe I've tried from her books comes out marvelously.

In a NYT article that questions her nonchalance about expanding her ventures in the same manner as her friend and mentor, Martha, she says:

“There is a balance between having a life and having a business,” she said during a recent day spent at her home and in her offices.

So the interesting thing I learned is that there may be hope for me yet. Garten is one of the slew of food personalities who has accomplished a great deal of success without having run a kitchen or been a chef.

She got her start selling comfort food, and suggests that you stick to those dishes when having the boss over for dinner.  The success of her first cookbook was largely in part to it's "lush photography."

Really fascinating article. It goes on to describe her three-book deal and how the industry norm these days is for a celebrity chef to crank out a cookbook per year. Seems like lots of hard work thinking up new recipes and testing them.

And, Garten has plans for a new set, built inside a barn on south of her property  in the Hamptons.  And you wondered what this had to do with anything southern. There is is; had to wait for it.

Comments

[dawn]

ooh, i can't wait to read the article. i hope i can catch repeats of her chefography episode this week on foodnetwork.

[rebecca]

i'd like to see that, too. one of my colleagues emailed me to say she watched the chefology on Sandra Lee a few nights ago. i've got to watch more tv! i'm missing out on too much good food biography.so the interesting similarity between Ina and Lee is that they both took a chance and spent lots of their own money to have their cookbook published (Garten) or to start a curtain business (Lee). Wish i had the bravado and access to cash to change my life like that.