su·per·fan
/ˈso͞opərfan/
noun: superfan; plural noun: superfans;
a person who has an extreme or obsessive admiration for a particular person or thing.
group·ie
/ˈɡro͞opē/
noun: groupie; plural noun: groupies
a person, especially a young woman, who regularly follows a pop music group or other celebrity in the hope of meeting or getting to know them.
dev·o·tee
/ˌdevəˈtē,ˌdevəˈtā/
noun: devotee; plural noun: devotees
a person who is very interested in and enthusiastic about someone or something.
I think the third definition is the best label for me. I am very devoted to the art of Food. I love to read about new cuisines, food trends and techniques and pore tirelessly over any article related to dining, baking and cooking. I collect cookbooks, new and vintage, and have happily stood in line for an hour (or two!) to “meet” and get an autograph from several famous chefs. (Tieghan Gerard, Thomas Keller, Giada de Laurentis, Rachael Ray, and Ina Garten, but who’s counting?
In particular, I have greatly admired Ina Garten over the years. Her recipes are delicious and yet uncomplicated. She keeps the ingredient list as short as possible, enjoys eating as much as cooking, and she has a penchant for perfectly shaken cocktails—a kindred spirit for sure! I am also quite taken with her personal love story…her sweet Jeffrey always features prominently in her stories and the way she talks about their relationship often mirrors that of mine and my husband/best friend. (minus the apartment in Paris and cottage in the Hamptons, of course)
So I was very excited to see that Ina Garten was planning a new book tour for her latest work Modern Comfort Food. The publication was due to be published later in the year but with so much time on her hands, the production timeline was moved up a couple months. September became the perfect month to market and sell Ina’s 12th cookbook. But how to have a book signing in the time of Covid-19?
Why, virtually, of course! After ordering a copy from one of the venues offered on the Barefoot Contessa website, I awaited the email providing the Zoom call link for a date in the future. And so it was at 4pm on a Saturday afternoon in October, that I sat in front of my laptop, Cosmopolitan in hand, to watch an intimate conversation between this greatly admired chef and the broadcast journalist, Lynn Sherr.
And it was truly a treat to listen and watch their interaction. Ina was as natural as can be, sharing funny moments from her life…like how she has been recording her own shows (without any assistance as she and Jeffrey are isolating) during the pandemic using 2 iPhones and how she had to completely re-record an episode after her production team informed her that she had blocked one camera’s view with a pot! For her part, Sherr acted like one of us, obviously such a fan, she gushed about the recipes that she’s already attempted from Modern Comfort Food and how she has earmarked numerous pages in the book to denote her favorites.
The two chatted about how baking and cooking have exploded across social media during the pandemic, leading to ingredients becoming scarce, as (seemingly) every household in America attempted to bake sourdough bread or cakes shaped like other objects. Sherr asked Ina, why have people turned to cooking? And she answered simply that in the kitchen you can start with different ingredients, whatever you have, and when you finish, you end up with something delicious…whether soup, stew, bread, etc. and it makes you feel good. You are comforted by the end result.
The final ten minutes of the Book Tour was devoted to questions submitted by the audience. Naturally, one fan asked about Jeffrey and the secret to their lifelong, loving relationship. Her answer was very self-assured — “we put one another first in our lives” but then she added that they’d never had children, the addition of which probably would have made this factor difficult. And no surprise, when queried about one or two ingredients that make the difference between a ‘good’ or ‘great’ dish. her reply was simply Salt. Or Butter. And then she laughed out loud.
In a normal year, I would have found myself patiently waiting in a line for her autograph and a chance to say hello personally. However, for this virtual event, I had a front row seat to an entire conversation, hearing light-hearted banter among friends, and acquiring some insider tips as well. Added bonus: a signed copy of said book was delivered the following week. So I will happily raise my cocktail in hand to Ina Garten for a pandemic-induced version of a book tour, or in any other year as well. Cheers!
