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In a live moderated conversation with John Grisham at the Kennedy Center, Ina Garten will discuss and elaborate on the themes of her memoir—from childhood to becoming an author of bestselling cookbooks and a celebrated television host.

Ina Garten (aka the Barefoot Contessa) is the author of 13 bestselling cookbooks, a beloved Food Network personality, Instagram sensation, and cultural icon with millions of followers in the United States and abroad. She is the host of Be My Guest and Barefoot Contessa on Food Network and HBO Max, for which she has won five Emmy Awards and three James Beard Awards. In the fall of 2024 Ina Garten will publish her long-awaited memoir Be Ready When the Luck Happens (Crown/Penguin Random House, October 2024). 

In a live moderated conversation, Ina Garten will discuss and elaborate on the themes of her memoir—from her difficult childhood to meeting her husband, Jeffrey; from her experience working a bureaucratic job in Washington, D.C., to her decision to respond to an ad for a specialty food store in the Hamptons; and from her journey from being the owner of one Barefoot Contessa shop to becoming an author of bestselling cookbooks and a celebrated television host. 

Ina Garten has blazed her own trail and, in the meantime, taught millions of people how to cook and entertain. Her gift is to make everything look easy, yet all her accomplishments have been the result of hard work, audacious choices, and exquisite attention to detail. In her unmistakable voice (no one tells a story like Ina), she brings her past and her process to life in a high-spirited and no-holds-barred memoir that chronicles decades of personal challenges, adventures (and misadventures) and unexpected career twists, all delivered with her signature combination of playfulness and purpose.