Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir

Garten is anxious about the size of the new location, wanting to maintain the intimate, casual feel of the original. She anchors the space with a small shop and bakery surrounded by stalls leased to local farmers and producers. As the workforce expands beyond the original crew, Garten nurtures young chefs, such as Kathleen King, the founder of Tate’s Cookies. She also learns that her customers are willing to pay a premium for her products when she raises the price of her brownies from 75¢ to $2.50 (the chapter ends with a recipe for these brownies.) In another instance, a man unwilling to wait two hours for a $15 roast duck offered another customer $100 for hers.

As a result of the Barefoot Contessa’s success in Westhampton, a landlord from East Hampton reaches out to see if she is interested in taking over the lease for Dean & Deluca, a luxury food store that is closing. Garten admires the store and is shocked to hear it is closing; when she reaches out to owner Joel Dean, she learns that he is giving up the lease because the landlord is raising the rent 50¢ per square foot. Garten implores him to reconsider, but Dean refuses.