Tuesday, March 1st, 2011

When I Had Lunch with the Barefoot Contessa

Yes, that’s me. Up top. In the kitchen of Ina Garten. This is no CGI generated magic or photoshop trickery. That’s really me with the Barefoot Contessa and we have our armmmmmmmmmmmms around one another, yes we do. This might make a certain kind of person crazy with jealousy, are you one of them? Are you a little jealous? You might be if you’re one of those people who LOVE the Barefoot, like some people love their mother, cool auntie, or Oprah. I am one of those people. And this is the story of how I got to have lunch with one of my food idols, a story I’ve been meaning to share for months and for some reason now felt like a good time…

One of the benefits of my day job as a magazine editor is that I occasionally get to meet, or be in close proximity to, very cool people. I get to have lovely lunches with lovely and interesting authors, and brush shoulders ever so gently with the occasional celebrity at the occasional event. I’ve been in an art gallery bathroom with a surprisingly girly Drew Barrymore. I’ve marveled at Matt Dillon’s too tight shirt and shark necklace as he stood in front of me at a GQ event. I’ve watched Ben Affleck stride through a cocktail party at Lincoln Center as I ate a tuna roll. I’ve even been bumped into on a hotel rooftop by Kanye West and his entourage, who I think were all wearing Louis Vuitton sneakers.