My Life Before Barefoot Contessa

After high school, I attended Syracuse University, but decided to postpone my educational pursuits to marry my now husband Jeffrey Garten. Later, I took business courses at George Washington University, eventually earning my MBA. In 1978, I worked in the White House on nuclear energy policy. Although this was the experience of a lifetime considering all my ideas were going straight to the President, I wanted to do something independent with my own life, and this is how I got the idea to start Barefoot Contessa. Despite the techniques and recipes I know today, I had no formal training; I taught myself culinary techniques with the aid of French and New England cookbooks. Later, I relied on intuition and feedback from friends and customers to refine my recipes. I was mentored primarily by Eli Zabar, owner of Eli's Manhattan and Eli's Breads, and food-show host and author Martha Stewart.

Syracuse University in New York, where I attended until deciding to marry Jeffrey

Michelle Obama and I when I revisited the Whitehouse years after working there