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56 W hen it comes to cookbooks, a straight line runs from Irma R o m b a u e r 's T h e J o y o f Cooking to the works of Helen Corbitt, doyenne of food at Neiman Marcus (indispensable in her day to women in Dallas), to The Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, which gave way to the world of Martha Stewart, and then Ina Garten, who was, for 25 years, the reigning diva of the Barefoot Contessa food shop in East Hampton. Garten's 10 cookbooks — about to be 11 — have sold millions, and dominate the kitchens of American cooks. These LEE CULLUM CHATS WITH INA GARTEN ON THE EVE OF THE LAUNCH OF HER 11TH BOOK AND HER SOLD-OUT TALK IN DALLAS, WHICH CULLUM WILL MODERATE. REIGNS THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA books follow her life on the Food Network, where her husband, Jeffrey — an accomplished policymaker, financial wizard, Yale School of Management dean, and now a professor there as well (not to mention an all-around nice guy) — also wins raves from her fans for his happy support of her enterprise. And a going enterprise it is, I learn as I prepare for our interview at SMU's McFarlin Auditorium Wednesday, November 14, to tout her latest book, Cook Like a Pro. Until we spoke by phone, I hadn't understood how savvy a businesswoman she is — which is what she always intended to be. Her college major, partly at Syracuse, was economics, and she pursued an MBA at night at George Washington University in the nation's capital, working by day on nuclear energy policy in the White House Office of Management and the Budget. Neither lasted. She left government because "nothing was happening" and let the MBA go, too. It was time to do something on her own. "I thought, 'I must have my own business,'" she says. "'Otherwise, I'll always be working for some guy who won't let me run it.' I knew I would have my own business. I just didn't know what." What it turned out to be was the Barefoot Contessa, a specialty food shop PHOTOGRAPHY QUENTIN BACON Ina Garten Ina Garten's East Hampton barn