Barefoot in France

How a life-changing recipe inspired Ina Garten's career

- CHANDRA RAM

You can't help but feel a bit romanced by the picture of a young couple driving around France, searching for adventure. And the story behind how that trip happened for Ina and Jeffrey Garten, featured in Garten's new memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, is fully as idyllic as that image. In the late spring and summer of 1972, after Jeffrey had completed his military service in Colorado Springs and before he planned to start graduate school in Washington, D.C., the couple had four free months to kill. They debated their options, took a hard look at their limited budget, and decided to embrace the trend of traveling through Europe on $5 per day.

Ina recalls being somewhat shocked by the circumstances as she and Jeffrey settled into their car for the summer, a tiny cherry-red Renault hatchback crammed with a bright orange tent, a camping stove, all their bags, and a couple of tennis rackets. "For the first time in our lives, we were free as birds!" she writes, remembering the prospect of a summer to be spent driving through Europe with her husband.