This is a true story about how a chance meeting over the Barefoot Contessa’s roasted chicken launched a lasting love story.
Picture it. The year was 2004. I was walking through the living room one day when I heard Paula Deen talking about cooking fried chicken and something about sandwiches. I stopped in my tracks and watched her show on the Food Network. I thought, “I can do that”. After all, the only show I knew was “If Yen can cook so can you” but that wasn’t for me.
That began my journey of learning to cook. Then, I stumbled on the Barefoot Contessa. Ina Garten elevated my cooking game. She taught me what “shocking a vegetable” meant. She taught me how to give my creme brulee a “bath” in the oven.
How Ina Garten’s Roasted Chicken Unknowingly Set a Couple on the Course for 18 Years of Love
But what most impressed me was her love for her husband Jeffrey, who “makes her life so delicious”. She loved to cook roasted chicken for him on Fridays when he returned from his University job. I was intrigued and decided it would be my New Year’s resolution to reaaaalllly learn how to cook.
That is where this love story begins. My sister Amy was kind enough to go to Wal-Mart for me in our town on NEW YEAR’S EVE to get a roasting hen. She called from the store. I felt badly to tell her the chicken had to be a “roasting hen”, not just a regular chicken. She put it back. My sister left the store and drove 17 miles to another town to go to their Wal-Mart where she did, indeed, find a “roasting hen” good enough for Ina’s Jeffrey.
That night, at the cash register, on New Year’s Eve 2004, Amy met Tito. Her friend noticed Tito staring at Amy and was rude enough to comment something about “ask her out if you are just going to stare at her”. Amy was mortified. Tito remarked something to the effect of I was going to ask her anyway. He then gave Amy his phone number. He confided in me that Amy was the prettiest thing he had ever seen and he would normally never in a lifetime do something like that.
There was one problem. Tito was a career soldier stationed in Oklahoma but down in Louisiana for a month training at JRTC FORT POLK. During that time, they got to know each other. Amy was a cajun girl from deep in the country working on an Army base briefing brigades of soldiers. Tito was the quintessential Texan who likes the city. He then felt the need to retire after 23 years in the Army and marry Amy. He moved to her town and began his career training soldiers for war in civil service as he did in the Army where he still works today.
The Journey of True Love, All Thanks to Barefoot Contessa’s Roasted Chicken
They set a wedding date and had a problem with their license. They were dressed for the wedding and their wedding day was ruined. The license was not valid. So, days later they walked into a Texas court room while on a trip to get a license. They found out they could have been married the day they planned. Shocked, they got married on the spot in their shorts and t-shirts.
Meanwhile, 18 years later I still take credit for getting them together. When Ina Garten comes out with a new cookbook, I buy it for them.
So, I would just like to give a shout out to Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa and her husband Jeffrey for unwittingly launching the love story of a lifetime. An unlikely pair, in an unusual place at an unusual time, began the life they deserved the first time around. Here is to Tito Rodriguez, salt of the earth, and to my sister Amy, who deserves all the happiness that Ina has with Jeffrey.
This video is just a sample of what their life is like together. In fact, 18 years later, Tito was singing their song during Karaoke night “Someone Like You” by Van Morrison and tears stopped him from finishing the song.
Take the time to read everything on the video and see the famous people they ran into over the years, the chances they took that neither would have taken alone, and how it has worked out all thanks to me and Ina Garten. I hope she sees this and can know for sure that what she says all the time is true. Her roasted chicken is the key to engagement.
These two are regular people who have met Presidents and other famous people. They are regular “salt of the earth” people who took a chance. They are the couple who shows up. They showed up for their country. They showed up for their kids and grandkids and everyone in between.
You will be inspired. Here is to Ina, Jeffrey, Amy & Tito. Later, when it was my turn to meet the love of my life, Ina’s Shrimp Scampi recipe sealed the deal for me. But, I digress.