There's Something About Sara

Food Network's Sara Moulton Dishes on Life as a Celebrity Chef and Author

By Suzy Feine

"I've always loved to eat and cook," says Sara Moulton, host of Food Network's Sara's Secrets, of her road to success. But these two critical ingredients were mixed with real talent and a dash of lucky breaks to bring Moulton to this point in her career.

It all began in 1974 when Moulton graduated from the University of Michigan and contemplated her life's direction. "I floundered around after college, not knowing what to do, so I attended the Culinary Institute of America for two years," says Moulton. She quickly realized her life's direction was indeed in cooking when she graduated with high honors in 1977.

After graduation, Moulton accepted various restaurant and catering positions to fine-tune her cooking skills when an opportunity opened to work behind the scenes on public television's Julia Child & More Company. She accepted and soon made an acquaintance that would change her professional life. "I worked with Julia Child for three months and one day asked her what I should do next," says Moulton. "Julia told me, 'You need more training; go to France! All great chefs go to France.'" Shortly thereafter, Child's long-time friend, master chef Maurice Cazalis, visited the set. Child asked him to take Moulton back to France to study classical cuisine and Cazalis agreed.

Upon returning to the United States, Moulton became chef tournant at New York's La Tulipe restaurant. She also worked as an instructor at Peter Kump's New York Cooking School from 1983 to 1985, and in 1984 she became a food editor for Gourmet magazine.

Through it all, Julia Child remained her mentor. "My connection with Julia Child has been invaluable to my career," says Moulton. Child assisted Moulton in obtaining another behind-the-scenes job, this time on ABC-TV's Good Morning America

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