All About Jeffrey Garten, Ina's Husband, Best Friend and Biggest Cheerleader

The premise of Be My Guest is simple: Ina Garten invites someone fun and interesting into her home for a day of good food and great conversation. But for this week's episode, she didn't have to look very far to find the perfect guest.

After all, who better to spend the day with than her husband of 57 years, Jeffrey Garten?

Born in New York City, Jeffrey grew up with a highly decorated military officer for a father, whose footsteps he would eventually follow. But long before joining the Army, Jeffrey attended Phillips Academy Andover before enrolling at Dartmouth College, where a chance encounter would change his life forever.

Ina Rosenberg, as she was known at the time, was visiting her brother at Dartmouth when Jeffrey spotted her through a library window. Although Ina initially went on a date with Jeffrey's roommate, Jeffrey wasn't about to miss his chance. He wrote her a letter asking her out and included a photograph of himself.

During their conversation, Ina asked Jeffrey whether he believed in love at first sight, and his answer couldn't have been sweeter.

"Well, yes, I really do," Jeffrey said. "Because when I saw you, you must have been 20 yards away. I saw you through a window in a library, and you were outside. And I knew at that moment you were going to be in my life forever."

More than five decades later, Jeffrey still remembers that moment vividly.

"I can see that picture right now. It's absolutely indelible. I know everything you were wearing. I know the expression on your face. And I remember thinking, everything in the world that I want is right there in that package."

Of course, this was long before cellphones, email or the internet, so Jeffrey had to take a more traditional approach.

"I wrote a letter to you saying, I mean, it sounds crazy, 'I saw you through a window, and I'd love to see you again.'"

Ina, however, remembered one particularly clever detail.

"But you did a really smart thing. You enclosed a photograph, and I just remember seeing the photograph and going, 'Whoa, this guy is really cute.' And the rest is history."

Ina and Jeffrey's love story began when she was just 16 years old and still in high school. Their first date took them to Port Chester, New York, where Jeffrey attempted to bring Ina to a bar. There was just one problem: The legal drinking age was 18, and Ina didn't have an ID.

After being turned away, the young couple settled for coffee instead.

Their first date in New York City, Ina recalls fondly, was a little more successful, with Jeffrey taking Ina to Tad's Steakhouse for a $1.29 steak dinner.

My, how far they've come!

Anyone who's watched Ina's longtime Food Network series, Barefoot Contessa, knows that Jeffrey is on record (many times!!) saying that he loves everything his wife cooks for him, but soup remains one of his all-time favorites.

So, what better way to kick off their day together than with a bowl of Ina's Butternut Squash and Apple Soup?

Ina and Jeffrey married in 1968 at her parents' home in Stamford, Connecticut, before moving to North Carolina, where Jeffrey served as an Army officer with the 82nd Airborne Division and Special Forces, better known as the Green Berets.

During his military service, Jeffrey was stationed in Thailand, thousands of miles away from Ina. But even the distance couldn't keep the newlyweds from staying connected, with Jeffrey writing his wife a letter every single day.

After leaving the Army, Jeffrey moved to Washington, D.C., where he earned a PhD from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. During his time in D.C., he wrote speeches and developed policy for Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Cyrus Vance before heading to Wall Street, where he became a managing director at Lehman Brothers and The Blackstone Group.

During two of those years, Jeffrey lived in Tokyo and Hong Kong while Ina lived and worked in East Hampton.

In 1993, Jeffrey returned to Washington to serve as undersecretary of commerce for international trade under the Clinton administration before eventually becoming dean of the Yale School of Management. Although he is no longer dean, Jeffrey continues to teach at Yale.

With such an eclectic career spanning government, banking and academia, Ina was curious whether Jeffrey found it difficult to transition between industries.

"Well, I think in each case I was a total fraud," Jeffrey joked. "In each case, I managed to convince people that I actually knew more than I did."

He admitted that the transition to academia was probably the most challenging.

"I think maybe the hardest one was going to academia because I came across a different culture based on professors who wrote very academic articles, and that was the indication of their success," he explained. "As the dean, you needed the support of the professors. I wasn't so good at first, but I got much better when I really understood what motivates them."

Touching back on Jeffrey's time in Hong Kong and Tokyo, while the couple was apart, Ina was curious whether those two years had been difficult for him. In a response that only a loving husband like Jeffrey could give, he replied, "The hardest thing is when you came there, you had to sleep on a very hard bed."

"It was like a tatami mat, which is about that thick," Ina recalled, holding her fingers about an inch apart.

Jeffrey went on to explain how Ina would pile practically every piece of clothing in the apartment onto the bed, including her coat, towels and just about anything else she could find, to make it more comfortable to sleep on.

Over her many years on Food Network, Ina has often talked about the four-month camping trip that completely changed her life. This time, with Jeffrey by her side, she asked whether the trip had been just a fun adventure for him or if it had made a lasting impact on his life as well.

Once again, Jeffrey's answer wasn't about his own experience, but rather what he remembered about watching his wife discover something she loved.

"Well, you know, since I grew up in a military family, I was used to traveling around a lot. So, being in these countries was not such a big deal for me," Jeffrey explained.

"It was your first time outside the US, but the thing that I remember the most is how excited you got when you saw these specialty food stores that just made one thing, and you just lit up."

Jeffrey continued, "And I could see that there is something here that just struck you right in your soul. And that's what I remember most about that trip."

Although Ina and Jeffrey had built a wonderful life together in Washington, D.C., Jeffrey could tell that Ina wasn't particularly happy with her career. So when she approached him about a specialty food store for sale in Westhampton, New York, he was more than willing to take a look. However, he never imagined that the little store, which would eventually become the famous Barefoot Contessa, was a serious possibility.

"I thought, I can actually hit a home run here with no sacrifice," Jeffrey recalled. "I'm going to say to her, 'Let's go look at it.' She'll never, she'll never want to do this. I thought it was a total freebie for me."

But Jeffrey couldn't have been more wrong.

"So, we drove up there and, lo and behold, I was wrong. I knew after 10 seconds that our lives had changed. I think you almost saw an opportunity that was going to change your life," he told her. "I just really didn't think you were going to do it."