Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa, Looks Back In Memoir 'be Ready When The Luck Happens'

Long before Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa mini-empire of bestselling cookbooks and TV shows ever took off, she found herself at an airport, wanting to learn to fly.

It was the late 1960s and she was a newlywed in Fayetteville, North Carolina. She and her soldier-husband, Jeffrey, would often pass a small private airport and Garten was intrigued.

She marched into the terminal to find out about taking flying lessons. "I'm really sorry," the guy at the desk told her, "but we don't have anybody who'll teach a girl how to fly."

Do you think that stopped Ina Garten?

The story of how she refused to budge until she got lessons in a cockpit is included in her new memoir, "Be Ready When the Luck Happens," which distills stories from her life into lessons for foodies and non-foodies, alike.