Food was part of Lidey Heuck’s growing-up years in Pittsburgh but she didn’t think consciously about it. She would cook for fun — nothing too involved.

Her mother wasn’t into cooking, but her maternal grandfather was; he prepared big, family-style Italian dinners. So were her two uncles, who owned the now defunct La Charcuterie in Shadyside, Vermont Flatbreads in the Strip District, LaForet in Highland Park and Cross Keys Inn in Fox Chapel, where Ms. Heuck cleared tables in her high school days.

On getting her driver’s license, she started exploring restaurants around town. She felt “very grown-up” when she treated herself to coffee at Dozen Bake Shop in Lawrenceville, and loved the French-inspired food at Cafe du Jour in the South Side. She ordered Korean food for the first time at Oakland’s Korean Garden, intrigued by the description of bibimbap (egg-topped rice bowl).

“I grew up eating a lot of spaghetti and roast chicken. So these flavors were totally new to me,” said Ms. Heuck, who grew up in Shadyside and Fox Chapel. “To this day, I remember the feeling of excitement over discovering a whole new world of food.”

Her interest in food really grew after she moved to Maine to major in English and political science at Bowdoin College. When she came home for the holidays, her uncles would teach her to carve a turkey, make prime rib and roux, and introduce her to interesting wines.

At Bowdoin, she threw dinner parties for friends. Almost Ina Garten-esque, the parties were about getting people together around the table for a memorable time. She would use mismatched forks “stolen from the dining hall” and set the table with whatever napkins she could find. Like Ms. Garten, she preferred recipes that focused on good food and avoided the froufrou, chefy ones. 

Channeling the TV host and author was not a coincidence. It came from all those hours of watching Food Network during Ms. Heuck’s high school days and perusing cookbooks that her mother owned.

“I have always loved her,” she said. “Although the pictures of Ina and the Hamptons were so far from what my life was, there was something about it all that resonated with me.”

Snagging the job

Never in her wildest dreams did she think that she would ever cross paths with the Barefoot Contessa or end up as her assistant in East Hampton, N.Y. However, at 21 and just two weeks after college graduation, she did.

Ms. Heuck credits it to dumb luck.

“In my last year of college, when everybody was scrambling trying to figure out what to do next, I got this idea that maybe I could work for Ina,” the 29-year-old recalled in a phone interview. “I didn’t even know what that would be. It sounded crazy, but I had a tiny connection and thought something could come off it.”

A classmate and friend at Bowdoin was from the Hamptons, and his father knew the celebrity TV host and cookbook author. So he passed on a letter that Ms. Heuck wrote, introducing herself as a longtime fan and offering to help Ms. Garten with social media.

The timing could not have been more perfect; Ms. Garten had an opening at that time on her three-member team. Although Ms. Heuck was hired to do social media, she ended up doing everything from grocery shopping to recipe testing to accompanying Ms. Garten to events.

“It was anything and everything,” she said.

Grocery shopping for the cookbook author was no ordinary errand. It was done several times a week and sometimes every day. When the team was stocking up for a weeklong photo shoot for a cookbook, Ms. Heuck would hit the big shops. “I called those the two-cart-ers,” she said.

Sometimes it was a quick run to the store for something as minor as one lemon for freshly squeezed juice or parsley leaves for garnishing. The shopping list was very specific, and only the exact ingredient was acceptable. So if a recipe called for a particular apple or cheese variety, a close substitute was not good enough and that meant trips to multiple stores.

Testing and retesting

Ms. Garten’s cookbooks are successful in part because she is diligent, methodical and tests recipes scientifically, Ms. Heuck said. Recipes were tested until they were perfect, and some took more tries than others. Ms. Garten tested them a couple of times and then the assistants would each test the recipes. When it was time to photograph the dish for the cookbook, it would be tested again. There were occasions when something was tested 20 times.

The Boston cream pie recipe, filled with Grand Marnier pastry cream and topped with chocolate glaze, in Ms. Garten’s latest cookbook, “Modern Comfort Food,” was years in the making.

“Ina would work on it, take a break and then come back to it. There were so many different elements to it, and she wanted it to be exactly perfect,” Ms. Heuck said. “We tested it about 40 times. I wasn’t counting, but we also ate a lot of Boston cream pies.”

So what was it really like to work with the Barefoot Contessa?

People think that working for someone like her was a grueling “Devil Wears Prada” situation, Ms. Heuck said, but it was quite the opposite.

“I think you get some idea of Ina’s sense of humor on the show. But in person you saw it even more,” she said. “The frequency with which we would just erupt into laughter was one of the great things about my job.”

As an assistant, the young cook learned everything from cooking techniques to writing recipes and conceiving an entire cookbook, to running a business and making decisions. It’s also where she picked up the basic three-dish dinner party menu trick: One is made in the oven, one on the stovetop, and one in advance and served at room temperature.

No two days were the same, and Ms. Heuck learned to multitask. Initially, she found it challenging to test recipes; she needed to be thorough, take notes and write questions.

“I wanted everything to turn out really well. But with time I realized that it didn’t have to be perfect,” she said. “What mattered was my honest experience. If I had questions and comments, that was a good thing. It was constructive.”

Photographs of Ms. Heuck along with others in the team have been featured in the Barefoot Contessa’s cookbooks such as “Cook Like a Pro,” “Cooking for Jeffrey” and “Modern Comfort Food.” Including her assistants in her books, she said, showed Ms. Garten’s generosity and thoughtfulness.

Branching off

In 2019, after almost seven years, she left her job with Ms. Garten. She was ready for the next adventure in her life — becoming a recipe developer and food writer in New York City. She had always loved to write and grew up thinking that she might follow in her parents’ footsteps. Her mother was longtime Post-Gazette Style editor Marylynn Uricchio, and her father, Douglas Heuck, was a writer and editor at the paper and then founded Pittsburgh Quarterly.

But after working with Ms. Garten, Ms. Heuck decided to intertwine her passion for writing with food. She has adopted many of Ms. Garten’s concepts when developing recipes for her blog, “Lidey Likes” and for The New York Times. When shopping for ingredients, she is cognizant that slight substitutions here and there don’t hurt.

If the recipe calls for an expensive ingredient like a nice cut of meat, she keeps the rest of the dish fairly simple. “Ina’s whole cooking philosophy was that if you have really good ingredients, you don’t need to have to add a lot of them,” she said.

She keeps recipes budget-friendly not only for herself but also for her followers. If she doesn’t want to splurge on a particular ingredient, she said, she can’t expect other people to do it.

“I try not to skimp where I think it matters. So I won’t buy a cheap, humongous chicken breast full of water. But at the same time I don’t look for organic parsley. Regular parsley is just fine.”

When developing recipes, Ms. Heuck first tries to get a mental picture of the dish before jotting down the ingredient list. Then she adds the amounts and makes notes as she tests it. She pays attention to the directions as well, making sure they are descriptive, clear but not too long.

She doesn’t tailor her recipes to any one particular kind of diet. She might question if a salad requires cheese or whether a pudding should be garnished with nuts, but she essentially develops recipes for foods that she would like to eat. Staying true to herself is one of the most valuable lessons she has learned from Ms. Garten.

“I don’t think it would feel true to me if I came up with recipes that I wouldn’t eat,” she said.

Arthi Subramaniam: asubramaniam@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1494.

Quick and easy does it

As a recipe developer, Lidey Heuck constantly thinks about good foods that she can make effortlessly for friends and family. Here is a sampling:

For an unexpected visitor: Tuna melts. It is a retro sandwich that is so good. I follow the perfect ratio of tuna to mayo and like to use a really sharp cheddar cheese and good bread. If I have capers, I would throw them in, too. As long as the person likes tuna, he/she will be very happy with this lunch.

If Ina drops by: Veggie and grain bowl. I would roast whatever vegetables I have and cook some grains. My favorite is farro, but barley or quinoa can be used, too. Even lentils are fine. I would add some chopped nuts and maybe olives and finally toss it all together with a good dressing. I used to make it for lunch when eating with Ina.

To surprise her fiance, Joe Piscina: Nachos. For parties, I've made a giant sheet tray of nachos, and it always disappears in about five minutes. He would be really surprised if I made a big pan for just the two of us.

On a lazy Sunday morning: Scrambled eggs on a piece of good bread. To the eggs, I would add butter, pecorino cheese and black pepper. If I have some arugula, I would toss it with some olive oil and lemon juice for a side salad.

For dinner on a busy weeknight: Chickpea pasta. I would serve it with wilted baby spinach in marinara sauce and top it with a lot of Parmesan cheese. It is really hearty and comforting.

White Bean and Escarole Soup With Chicken Meatballs

PG tested

If escarole is not your thing, Lidey Heuck suggests using spinach instead. When you finish a hunk of Parmesan cheese, don’t toss the rind — freeze it. But if you don’t have rinds, you can find them at Italian specialty stores.

½ cup panko breadcrumbs

⅓ cup whole milk

1 pound mild or spicy raw chicken sausage, casings removed (see note)

1 large egg, lightly beaten

4 slices prosciutto, finely chopped (2 ounces)

⅓ cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, plus more for serving

¼ cup minced fresh parsley, plus more for serving

Kosher salt and black pepper, divided

3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more as needed, divided

2 medium yellow onions, diced small

1 cup carrots, diced small (about 2 carrots)

1 cup celery, diced small (about 3 celery ribs)

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 (15-ounce) cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

8 to 10 cups homemade or good quality chicken broth

1 small piece Parmesan rind (about 2 ounces)

1 large head escarole, leaves washed and chopped

For meatballs: In a small bowl, combine panko and milk. Stir and set aside for 5 minutes or until the panko has softened and absorbed the milk.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine sausage, egg, prosciutto, Parmesan, parsley, 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper. Add panko and milk mixture and mix well.

Coat your hands with olive oil and begin forming the mixture into small meatballs. (I use a heaping teaspoon or 1 ounce of the mixture for each meatball.) Whenever the mixture begins to stick to your hands, coat them with more olive oil. This also will prevent the meatballs from sticking to the pan when you cook them. You'll have about 50 meatballs in total.

In a large Dutch oven or other heavy pot, heat 3 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat. Add about a third of the meatballs, evenly spaced, and cook for 2 minutes or until browned on the bottom. Flip and cook for an additional 2 minutes, then set aside on a paper-towel lined plate and repeat with the remaining meatballs.

Turn the heat to medium-low and add onions, carrots and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are translucent and the carrots and celery are beginning to soften, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 30 more seconds until fragrant.

Add cannellini beans, 8 cups chicken broth, Parmesan rind and 1 teaspoon salt and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the escarole and cook, stirring often, until wilted. Remove and discard the Parmesan rind, then add the meatballs and cook until just heated through.

Taste for seasonings and add additional broth to taste if the soup has become too thick. Serve hot sprinkled with parsley and lots of grated Parmesan.

Serves 8 to 10.

Note: This recipe calls for raw chicken sausage; not pre-cooked chicken sausages.

— Lidey Heuck

First Published: January 27, 2021, 10:51 a.m.