Sara Moulton facts for kids

Sara Moulton (born February 19, 1952) is a famous American chef, cookbook author, and TV personality. She is known for teaching people how to cook delicious and healthy meals at home. A writer for The New York Times once called her "one of the nation’s most enduring recipe writers and cooking teachers."

Sara Moulton was the food editor for Good Morning America, a popular morning TV show on the ABC network, from 1997 to 2012. She also worked as the head chef for the executive dining room at Gourmet magazine for 20 years.

She hosted several cooking shows on the Food Network, like Cooking Live and Sara's Secrets. She was one of the first big stars on that channel when it started. Sara has been working in television and cooking for almost 40 years!

Sara has written many cookbooks, including Sara Moulton Cooks at Home and Sara's Secrets for Weeknight Meals. In 1982, she helped start the New York Women's Culinary Alliance, a group for women in the food industry.

Since 2008, Sara has hosted Sara's Weeknight Meals, a cooking show that helps families make easy dinners. She also wrote a weekly cooking column for the Associated Press for several years. In 2016, she became a cohost on "Milk Street Radio," a weekly show on National Public Radio.

Sara's Early Life and School

Sara Moulton was born in New York City. She went to The Brearley School in New York City.

When she was a child, Sara loved food. But she didn't think about cooking as a career until after she finished college. She studied the history of ideas at the University of Michigan.

In 1975, Sara decided to follow her passion and enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. She graduated with top honors in 1977 and even won a special scholarship.

Sara's Cooking Career

Sara's first job in a restaurant was in 1976 at the Harvest Restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After graduating from cooking school, she returned to the Harvest as a sous chef, which is like a second-in-command chef.

In 1979, a famous chef named Julia Child suggested Sara go to France to learn more. Sara then worked with Master Chef Maurice Cazalis at a restaurant in Chartres, France. From 1979 to 1981, she was the chef at Cybele's, a restaurant in Boston.

After moving back to New York in 1981, Sara worked at La Tulipe, a very fancy restaurant. She was a "chef tournant," meaning she could work in different parts of the kitchen.

Later, Sara decided to leave restaurant work to start a family. She began testing and developing recipes instead. She also taught cooking classes at Peter Kump's New York Cooking School. She loved teaching others how to cook!

In 1984, she started working in the test kitchen at Gourmet magazine. Four years later, she became the chef for the magazine's executive dining room, cooking for important people.

Sara's TV Shows

Sara's TV journey began in 1979. She worked behind the scenes on Julia Child & More Company, a cooking show on PBS. Her friendship with Julia Child eventually led her to a job at Good Morning America. She started behind the scenes there too, but by 1997, she was on camera!

Around that time, she also began hosting Cooking Live on the Food Network. This show was very popular and ran for six years, with over 1,200 hour-long episodes. It ended in 2002. The very next day, her new show, Sara's Secrets, began and ran until 2007.

The New Yorker magazine praised Sara, saying she was one of the few chefs knowledgeable enough to answer live cooking questions from viewers. Cooking Live was even nominated for a James Beard Award, which is a big honor in the food world.

Sara's Weeknight Meals is still on TV! Its thirteenth season started airing in October 2024. This show has also been nominated for James Beard Awards, and Sara herself has been nominated three times as an outstanding TV host.

Sara's Cookbooks and Columns

Sara's first cookbook, Sara Moulton Cooks at Home, came out in 2002. She wrote it to encourage people to cook healthy and delicious food at home with their families. A reviewer said the book helped people cook classic dishes in a convenient way.

Her second cookbook, Sara's Secrets for Weeknight Meals, was published in 2005. People magazine reviewed it, saying Sara is great at creating quick and easy fancy meals.

In 2010, her third cookbook, Sara Moulton's Everyday Family Dinners, was released. One blogger wrote that it was a very helpful cookbook for getting great food on the table quickly and easily.

Sara's fourth cookbook, Home Cooking 101: How to Make Everything Taste Better, came out in 2016. It was described as a very useful "textbook" for home cooks, full of great photos and recipes.

From 2012 to 2018, Sara wrote weekly cooking columns for the Associated Press. She also wrote monthly columns for The Washington Post Magazine and quarterly columns for the University of Michigan's Alumnus Magazine.

Awards and Honors

Sara Moulton has received many awards for her work:

• In 2001, she was named Chef of the Year by the Culinary Institute of America.
• In 2002, she was added to the James Beard Foundation's Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America. This is a special group of important people in the food world.
• In 2011, her cookbook Sara Moulton's Everyday Family Dinners won an award for cookbooks in the Children, Youth, and Family category.
• She received the Beacon Award at the International Restaurant & Foodservice Show of New York in 2016.
• In 2018, she received the Leadership Award from the Culinary Institute of America.

Sara's Family Life

Sara Moulton is married to Bill Adler, who is a music journalist. They have two children together. Sara and her family live in New York City.

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