It’s unnerving to watch Ina Garten get weepy.

We were at the dining table in her Park Avenue apartment, sharing a chicory salad and a few sandwiches from Sant Ambroeus. (Store-bought was fine, really.)

Her memoir, “Be Ready When the Luck Happens,” which comes out Oct. 1, is already receiving a lot of attention. But not the kind she was hoping for.

The book recounts a life just as fabulous as it seems on her shows “The Barefoot Contessa” and “Be My Guest.” There were homes to remodel, trips to take and adventures to be had. It is also a case study on the sweat, savvy and risk-taking required for a woman raised in the housewife era to build a multimillion-dollar media empire that started with a tiny specialty-food shop in the Hamptons named after a 1954 Ava Gardner movie.

ImageHer memoir’s publishing date is Oct. 1.Credit...Crown Publishing Group

But all anyone — including People magazine and the New York Post — seemed to be talking about was the time she nearly ended things with her husband, Jeffrey, 77, the affable financier turned Yale economics professor, and her violence-filled childhood that emphasized accomplishment over affection.

Ms. Garten, 76, has published 13 meticulously tested cookbooks, which have sold more than 13 million copies. Although she is something of a natural writer, Ms. Garten never intended to write a memoir. “She had to be convinced because she truly thought no one would be interested,” said Deborah Davis, her co-author and a longtime friend. Ms. Davis laid it out in language Ms. Garten understood. Writing her memoir was about control.

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