I'm Alan Alder, and this is clear and vivid conversations about connecting and communicating.

Talk about scientific. I probably test each recipe 10 times, at least, sometimes 20, before I feel like it's exactly what I'm looking for.

And then I give it to one of my assistants.

I give the recipe to them, the paper from the printer, as you would have it in a cookbook and watch them make it.

And then I'll give it to somebody else and have them test it as well.

So it's very important to me that it's something that's doable for somebody to make for a dinner

party before I put it in a book.

And then after that, I'll do it on a television show, but not until it's absolutely perfect.

That's IMA Garden, better known as the Barefoot Contessa.

In her immensely popular cookbooks and television shows,

she's dedicated to the idea that cooking, especially cooking for friends,

is more than creating delicious meals.

It's creating moments of connecting and communicating.

This is great. I'm talking to the queen of cooking here, and I get the impression from what I've read

and what I've seen you'd say that you weren't to cook all your life. You did other things. You studied other things.

Is that right? That is right. I actually started out my life in Washington, working in the government.

I worked in a nuclear energy policy in the White House and office management and budget.

Not too related to cooking.

How did you get into that?

My husband Jeffrey was in graduate school in Washington, and I just went out and looked for a job,

and I had a couple of jobs, and somebody said they were looking for somebody in the, in OMB,

and I applied for the job and got it.

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