Ina Garten

Do you ever watch the Food Network? If so, you know who Ina Garten is. But long before she became the channel's most popular host, Garten worked in the White House, in the Office of Management and Budget. That is, until the opportunity to buy a small rspecialty food store in New York's Hamptons opened up. She kept the store's name, Barefoot Contessa, and grew it very successfully. When I met Ina Garten in 1999, she had finally been persuaded to write a cookbook, which turned out to be far, far more popular than even her publisher had hoped.