Prepped for Anything

During a particularly occupied phase of Sara Moulton’s famously jam-packed career, she was the full-time executive chef at Gourmet magazine, had two kids at home and was working a third gig as the host of a live, call-in cooking program on the Food Network.

Brearley unleashed her on the world with a strong sense of how women could help each other. When Sara came to New York in 1981 to seek a chef’s position, she was armed with a letter of introduction from former employer Julia Child. Still she couldn’t land a job in a top-tier restaurant, where the chefs were all European men. Sara had been active in the establishment of the Boston Women’s Culinary Guild, and it quickly became clear that a similar entity supporting women in food was needed in New York. The call for interest in a New York Women’s Culinary Alliance led to a first meeting of 70 women at La Tulipe, the Greenwich Village gem where Sara had eventually landed a chef gig—in a kitchen run by a woman. 

Since that time, while cooking with one arm—her stint at La Tulipe led to the position she held for over 20 years at Gourmet—and changing the landscape for women in food with the other, Sara has maintained a consistent television presence on the Food Network, Good Morning America and PBS as well as written multiple top-selling cookbooks.