How I'm Like (and Unlike) Ina Garten

This morning, after a scheduled meeting was cancelled and I was free to do anything at all, I watched a cooking video posted by celebrity chef Ina Garten, a.k.a. the Barefoot Contessa. My affinity for her stems from my dear friend Noreen Welle who loved all things Ina, to the point that when we were in Paris together we spent half a day searching for and finally finding Ina's favorite street market for ingredients for our home-cooked dinner that night.

That Paris trip in June 2006 was Noreen's first and last as she succumbed to multiple myeloma at age 57 just days after Christmas that year. I still miss her dearly despite all the time that has passed and somehow seeing Ina Garten reminds me of Noreen, who was an ardent cook and credited her skills to watching Ina's cooking show.

The video I watched today showed how to make Chicken Piccata, which I do quite often only I call it the far less glamorous name of Pounded Chicken Breasts. Anyway, hoping to learn a few new tricks I watched it and was amazed that she made it exactly as I do, down to the very last detail. So great minds cook alike! Yet Ina's famous and I'm not. Close in age, also Jewish and born in Brooklyn, our similarities end there. Ina's net worth today is $60 million while mine is $0 million, and she has a swimming pool at her mammoth Connecticut mansion. (See photo.) 

I console myself with the knowledge that she's fatter than I am: at 5'3" she weighs 159 pounds, and I am 5'5 and weigh 142. Ha -- take that Ina! (Believe me, I'd rather be fatter with all the money and a pool.)