A thank you note to Ina Garten
Hey Ina. Do you mind if I call you Ina? I feel like you’d be cool with it, like that’s the kind of down-to-earth celebrity chef you are. I’m gonna call you Ina.
I just wanted to drop you a quick note of thanks. Love Taylor Swift, but we all know you have the best #squad on the planet. Your Instagram is flawless. From your friendships to your marriage (love you, Jeffrey) to your career, you are everything a girl could want to be – and you deserve some major thanks.
Because, Ina, you are so much more than a grade-A kitchen goddess.
You are living proof that there is no such thing as dreaming too big. You took your skill in economics all the way to a nuclear energy analyst position in the White House Office of Management and Budget—in the seventies, no less, you lady boss, you, decades before women like Hillary and The Notorious RBG were Washington, D.C. stalwarts—and then said, I bet I can do more.
And you did! You bought one 400-square-foot specialty food store and turned it into a culinary empire with nine best-selling cookbooks totaling more than 10 million copies in print and an Emmy-winning Food Network show that introduced a generation of home chefs to the importance of “good” olive oil.
Do you have the coolest career ever? Maybe. Okay…definitely.
Meanwhile, you’ve maintained a famously adorable relationship with your hubs, Jeffrey, for over four decades, and built a roster of celebrity buddies that ranges from Neil Patrick Harris to Jennifer Garner to the reigning queen of squads, T. Swift herself.
Thank you for being the best role model to ever grace the TV kitchen.
Thank you for inspiring me to occasionally not just eat microwave taquitos for dinner.
Thank you for finally putting your show on Netflix.
Ina, you’re not a barefoot contessa. You’re a barefoot queen.
Sarah Cahalan is a writer and humorist from Indiana. She enjoys Stanley Tucci and hates bees. If you like jokes about food and reality television and not much else, you should check out her Twitter.
[Image courtesy Food Network]
