You know I was thrilled to see this piece on my chambray queen, Ina! (New Yorker, don't think I didn't notice she's wearing corduroy and not her usual denim chambray.)
When I was in college, a friend and I, both Ina fans, started an anonymous student club called CHILL. I can't for the life of me remember what it stood for but something along the lines of “come hang...” Our undergrad was rather homogenous and folks typically stuck to their cliques when it came to socializing. In our little social experiment / effort to get folks to mingle outside their usual groups, we decided leave anonymous, private invitations in student mailboxes, inviting them to a mid-day mingle complete with full charcuterie snacks and wine/drinks.
Invites were absolutely arbitrary—we opened the student directory and just selected random names across classes. A hefty student government budget afforded us 2 things: pretty stationary from the local Paper Source in Wellesley for our invitations and our pick of our favorite snacks from Wasik's, our local cheese shop—curry apricot chutney (absolute crack) and chantilly spread, complete with all the fixings, and our favorite Sancerre. We truly had no business having such expensive taste for college kids but thank god for that SGA $$$$.
We'd also invite faculty and admin to stop by to give students a chance to shoot the shit with admin outside of a classroom setting. And guess what. It worked. They would show up to find out who the crazies were behind the operation but they also took the time to chat and meet new folks whose paths may never otherwise cross (yes, even on a tiny campus of 1700 students). And we had the best time even if it was a bit of a social experiment. 😉
Ina's ability to disarm and make you feel welcome through her cooking and entertaining is so interesting when juxtaposed with Martha. They explore a bit of this in the profile in addition to Ina's decision to not get involved in anything political. I grew up watching both of them on TV (who remembers Martha's obscene and envious stationary room) and I still watch episodes of Barefoot Contessa when I get the chance.
“Let’s invest in it as though we were starting a business,” she remembers telling Jeffrey—and, thanks to his time as an investment banker, they could. “I mean, the store made some money,” she said. “But certainly nobody was getting rich running a food store.”
Anyways, I just want to shoot the shit with Ina and have a husband like Jeffrey who will foot my business and real estate empire dreams. 😌
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“Skim milk,” Garten told me. “You might as well pour water in your coffee.”
Amen sister.
