NEW YORK (AP) — Long ago Ina Gartens Barefoot Contessa, a mini-empire of best-selling cookbooks and TV series, found herself in an airport and wanted to learn to fly.

It was the late 1960s and she was newly married in Fayetteville, North Carolina. She and her soldier husband, Jeffrey, often passed by a small private airport and Garten was fascinated.

She marched into the terminal to find out about flying lessons. “I’m really sorry,” the man at the front desk told her, “but we don’t have anyone to teach a girl to fly.”

Do you think that stopped Ina Garten?

The story of how she refused to budge until she got lessons in the cockpit is included in her new memoir. “Be ready when luck happens” who transforms stories from her life into lessons for foodies and non-foodies alike.

“I wanted it to be fun to read because otherwise no one would read it,” she tells The Associated Press. “I wanted them to be stories from my life, but I also wanted each story to have a purpose – just like you can take a recipe and bake a chocolate cake, I want you to take the idea with you and be able to use it.” in your life.”

Review key moments and their marriage

The memoir, written with the help of writer Deborah Davis, is packed with stories of Garten championing her vision, not least when she spotted an ad in the New York Times in 1978 and, on a whim, opened a small grocery store called “The New York Times” bought Barefoot Contessa.

At the time, she was 30 years old, writing policy on nuclear energy at the White House, and had never worked in the food industry, aside from reselling Dunkin' Donuts to hungry students in her dorm room.

“It sounded a bit crazy, but I was crazy with excitement. “I didn't know if it would be the best decision or the worst mistake I ever made,” she writes of the store, named after a 1954 Ava Gardner film, but her philosophy of elegance and down-to-earthness perfectly sums it up.

Thanks to their strong sense of quality and commitment to sourcing the best ingredients, Garten would naturally turn this into a global, welcoming brand. She also put in long hours, learning every dish and even sleeping in the shop.

“The process of writing the book really reassured me that this wasn't just luck, but that I worked really hard, with determination and vision for this,” she says. “I stuck with what I wanted. And my life has become so much better than I could have ever imagined.”

Fans already know much of her story, as her cookbooks are full of personal anecdotes, but they may not know about her chilly childhood in Connecticut.

She describes her father as at times abusive, a man who told her when she was 15 that no one would ever love her. Her mother was distant and used food as a source of control, serving fried chicken or fish with canned peas and carrots. “I spent my early life searching—no, begging—for taste,” she writes.

That early nightmare helped her. “Because my childhood was so painful, I developed enormous empathy for people,” she says. This meant she could recognize the customers and put herself in their shoes.

Readers also learn for the first time about her six-month separation from Jeffrey, which brought her to the brink of divorce. Their relationship was recently touted on social media – #pairgoals or #relationshipgoals – as the ideal partnership, but Gartner reveals that it took work.

After finding her new career path, Garten rebelled against the traditional household chores expected of her—cooking, cleaning, shopping, managing. “When I bought Barefoot Contessa, I destroyed our traditional roles – I took a baseball bat and left them in pieces,” she writes. After some time apart, the couple agreed to meet halfway.

“There are lessons that every reader can find, particularly about perseverance and trusting yourself and your instincts and taking risks,” says Gillian Blake, executive vice president, publisher and editor-in-chief of Crown & Currency.

“I think there's a thematic connection between the way she taught people to cook and the way she distills these inspiring lessons for larger life questions.”

Taylor Swift, Elmo and courage

Garten may be known for her approachability, but she admits to having a stubborn streak – “A barrier is not a stop sign to me; It’s a call to action,” she writes – and she’s no blushing flower. She once worked in the back room of a strip club.

She writes that she faced both a robber at gunpoint who wanted $50 and a bank teller who wouldn't give her business a loan because she was a woman and likely to have children soon.

There are also lighter stories about an unforgettable lunch with Mel Brooks and meeting Elmo, Jennifer Garner and Taylor Swift, as well as a boozy story about playing beer bongs with soccer star Abby Wambach.

There are practical lessons – like standing up for yourself even when it's hard or you take a risk. Just find one person who truly believes in you, she argues.

“People who are well-known and successful are not there because they are smarter and more creative. That's because they hit a wall and just said, “I don't even see the wall.” I'll get around the wall. “I really want to do this and I’m going to figure it out,” she says.

“One thing I learned from the book that surprised me is that I had a lot more courage than I thought. And I realized that the things I did courageously shaped my life.”