The character arc of Ina Garten
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 2 February 1948 in Brooklyn and raised in Stamford, Connecticut, the younger of two children of a surgeon and a dietitian. Between then and now sit a difficult home, a mother who steered her away from the kitchen and towards schoolwork, a marriage in December 1968, a pilot's licence, a four month camping trip through Europe that started the cooking, a degree and an MBA, a job writing nuclear energy budgets at the White House, houses bought and renovated, and a specialty food shop bought from an advertisement in 1978. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Ina Garten?
She wrote nuclear budgets, then bought a food shop.
She was born in Brooklyn to a surgeon and a dietitian and grew up in Stamford, the younger of two. Her home life was difficult: her father was prone to violent outbursts towards his children, and she has reflected that she thinks he loved her but wanted her to be who he wanted her to be, without any consciousness of who she is. Her mother, who had her own intellectual interests, discouraged her from helping in the kitchen and directed her towards schoolwork instead, which is a detail worth holding on to given what she does for a living.
She met her husband at fifteen, studied economics at Syracuse, transferred, and later took an MBA. They married in December 1968 and moved to North Carolina while he served a four year military tour. She started cooking to fill the time and got a pilot's licence. Afterwards they took a four month camping trip through Europe, including France, and the open-air markets and the produce stands there began it properly: she came home and taught herself from a famous French cookbook. In Washington from 1972 she worked first at a federal commission and then at the White House Office of Management and Budget, eventually as a budget analyst writing the nuclear energy budget and policy papers on centrifuge plants. Alongside that she bought, renovated and sold old houses.
In 1978 she saw an advertisement for a four hundred square foot specialty food store in a beach town on Long Island, called Barefoot Contessa. She has said the Washington job was intellectually exciting and stimulating but was not her at all. She used the profits from the houses, went to look at the shop, bought it, and moved. She often worked twelve hour days. Three years later she moved it across the street to a bigger site, and in 1985 opened a second in East Hampton, where she expanded it to more than seven times its original size. The cookbooks, the magazine columns and the television programme all came out of that shop, and she kept the name the previous owner had given it.
The moments
Ina Garten's timeline.
The 1940s
Born in Brooklyn
Everyday. A surgeon and a dietitian, in Connecticut.
The 1950s
A difficult house
Setback, and it changed everything. Her mother kept her out of the kitchen, which is the detail to hold on to.
The 1960s
She meets Jeffrey at fifteen
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Fifteen, on a visit to her brother, and that was that.
Married, and a pilot's licence
Milestone, and it changed her direction. She learned to cook and to fly a plane, in the same stretch of empty time.
The 1970s
Four months in Europe
Milestone, and it changed everything. Four months of markets, and she came home and taught herself from a book.
The White House
Milestone, and it changed everything. The nuclear energy budget, written by the woman who now teaches people to roast a chicken.
Houses bought and sold
Milestone, and it changed her direction. A second job at weekends, which paid for the whole change of life.
An advertisement
Milestone, and it changed everything. She read an advertisement, went to look, and bought the shop.
Answer the advertisement
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: buy the shop, taken, or stay at the budget office. The shop grew seven times over, and the cookbooks and the television programme all came out of it.
Twelve hour days
Everyday. Twelve hour days, behind a counter, in a beach town.
The 1980s
A bigger shop, then a second
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Four hundred square feet became three thousand, and the trade became year round.
The 1990s
The books, and the programme
Milestone, and it changed everything. The shop turned into books, and the books turned into a programme.
East Hampton is where the kitchen has been for forty years, and the shop's old name is still on everything. What it has set moving is a whole way of cooking on television: unhurried, unfussy, addressed to somebody having friends over, taught by a woman whose mother would not let her in the kitchen.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
Hers left a White House desk for a four hundred square foot shop she saw advertised. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Ina Garten: frequently asked questions
What people ask about her line.
What is Ina Garten's character arc?
What did Ina Garten do before cooking?
How did Ina Garten start Barefoot Contessa?
Why is Ina Garten's shop called Barefoot Contessa?
How did Ina Garten learn to cook?
What has Ina Garten written?
Where does this timeline of Ina Garten's life come from?
More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with her.
Sources
- Ina Garten, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- Office of Management and Budget records for her post as a budget analyst.
- Daytime Emmy and James Beard Foundation award records.