Ina Garten Recalls Her Husband Jeffrey’s Unconventional Proposal Over ‘Very Messy Sandwiches’ (Exclusive)

Jeffrey Garten’s proposal to Ina Garten was not the grand, romantic gesture you might expect from the adorable couple.

Ina, 76, recounts their relationship in her new memoir Be Ready When the Luck Happens, excerpted in this week’s PEOPLE cover story. It all started when Ina was 16, visiting her brother Ken at Dartmouth College. While she was there, her mother asked Ken to set her up with a classmate.

“I’d dressed in my best blue skirt, my favorite blue-­and-­white wool and angora sweater, the new blue Pappagallos that I’d bought with my own money so my mother couldn’t refuse to buy them for me, and a blue grosgrain ribbon in my hair,” the Barefoot Contessa star writes in her book.

“At some point, I passed the library, a building right off the beautiful Dartmouth Green. I later found out that a Dartmouth freshman was inside, admiring me. As he tells the story, Jeffrey Garten saw me on the Green and, in an instant, was smitten! ‘Look at that beautiful girl,’ he said to his roommate, who recognized me [and said] ‘I know her. That’s Ina Rosenberg and we’re going to the movies tonight.'”

For more on Ina Garten, including the the full excerpt from her memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

The date with Jeffrey’s roommate didn’t turn romantic, so Jeffrey asked if he could write to Ina himself. Read his first of many letters over the course of their relationship below:

Dear Ina,

… I have the impression that [my roommate] Roger’s attempt to get me a date with you affected you the wrong way. If you felt that he was trying to “pass you off,” you could not be more mistaken. Truth is … I saw you (but we were never introduced, unfortunately, when you were up here this Fall)…

If the idea of dating a Jewish freshman from Florida whom you have never seen doesn’t repel you, how about dropping me a note and we could work something out. If you are not at all interested, don’t even waste the stationery.

The two started dating, often visiting each other while Ina attended Syracuse University and Jeffrey finished his tenure at Dartmouth on an ROTC scholarship.

“One spring day in 1968, when Jeffrey was about to graduate from Dartmouth and go off to fulfill his military service and I was heading into my final exams, we went to our favorite German restaurant in Syracuse and ordered very large, very messy sandwiches,” writes Ina.

“Out of nowhere, between bites, Jeffrey said, ‘I think we should get married in December.’ What? Did I hear that right? Get married? It wasn’t really a traditional proposal with an engagement ring and Jeffrey down on one knee professing undying love, but okay! I knew how he felt, and I felt the same way.”

They did indeed marry in December at her parents’ home in 1968. Today, they “really don’t fight,” Ina tells PEOPLE. There was only one bump in their road — a separation in the 1970s, resulting in an even stronger relationship.

“We negotiated a different kind of relationship, which was more of a partnership,” says Ina. “He’s such a kind, supportive, positive and constantly kind of adoring guy that it’s just been wonderful.”

Be Ready When the Luck Happens comes out Oct. 1 from Crown Publishing Group and is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.