Be Ready When the Luck Happens

✮✮✮✮

Nov 26

This Spells Love - Ina Garten

my review : ✮✮✮✮

This book was an utter delight. I am not a big audiobook listener but I knew I wanted to hear this story straight from the woman herself and I am so glad I did! I highly recommend listening to this (if only to hear Ina speak French to you!). Ina has led such a fascinating life and her path to massive success in the food world is windy, unconventional, and a blast to read about. I had no clue she had no classic training and I found her whole approach to cooking (& life!) to be refreshing and SO fun to read about. Her story is so gorgeously told it at times felt like an Elin Hilderbrand novel. I could taste the coconut cupcakes and smell the fresh baguettes cooling in the boulangerie. The writing was literally mouth watering. Ina is charming and her love story with Jeffery rivals many romance novels. I love her confidence, her business acumen, and her approach to all things. I know some people have a devil or an angel on their shoulder, I just want to have an Ina on my shoulder going forward… “what would Ina do”! I think it’s easy to chalk her up to having a charmed life (the barn! The house in France! the cosmopolitans!) but she is not without her hardships. This whole book kind of reminds me that life is too short and you have to savor the good stuff. While listening to her decorate her French pied-à-terre might not necessarily be relatable, it’s unrelatable in the best way. It’s aspirational! And fascinating! And downright fun.

Long story short, you don’t need to be an Ina superfan to find this book delightful. Listening to her voice calmed me and she was the perfect companion on a fall walk.

I have MANY drink pairing ideas for this book because Ina is bursting with brilliant cocktails. If you want to pair this with something nonalcoholic, try Ina’s hot chocolate from her first Barefoot Contessa cookbook (swipe for recipe!). If you want a cocktail, try mixing up a whisky sour (her favorite drink!). If you’d rater do minimal mixing and Maximum spending, pick up a bottle of Chateau D’Yquem, her favorite wine!