Sara Foster: Chef, Entrepreneur and Cookbook Author

Sara Foster is one of the country’s most respected experts on simple, honest food prepared with fresh, local and seasonal ingredients. Her warm, relaxed approach to food and cooking resonates with consumers across the country for its emphasis on authenticity and ease. She is a firm believer that any home cook can prepare fresh, flavorful home-cooked meals with comfort and convenience. Her approach to cooking emphasizes the soulfulness and simplicity of home.

After graduating from New York Restaurant School, Sara worked alongside Martha Stewart as a chef for her catering company. As well as, many of New York’s most respected restaurants and caterers. In 1984, she started a catering business in Greenwich, Connecticut, venturing back to her roots of simple, easy elegant food. Her recipes connected with the community, and Sara soon had a large following of loyal customers from New York City to New haven, CT.

After years of success with her catering business, Sara desired to pursue a lifelong dream of opening a gourmet food market and cafe;. She and her husband, Peter moved to Durham, North Carolina and opened Foster’s Market in 1990, introducing great seasonal prepared foods to eat in or take out, specialty grocery items, locally roasted coffee and select wines. The market/cafe; was such a success that Sara opened a second Foster’s Market location in 1998 in Chapel Hill. Over the years Foster’s Market has won many awards from “Small Business of the Year” to “Best Lunch Spot in the Triangle.” Sara also received the award for “2010 Restaurateur of the Year” from the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association.

Following the popularity of Foster’s Market, Sara wrote her first cookbook, The Foster’s Market Cookbook: Favorite Recipes for Morning, Noon, and Night (Random House Publishing, Oct. 2002), sharing more than 200 New Southern recipes found at both Foster’s Market locations. The cookbook won the SEBA (South East Booksellers Association) “Cookbook of the Year” award. Sara’s second cookbook, Fresh Every Day: More Great Recipes from Foster’s Market (Clarkson Potter), was released in May 2005 and has been a big hit, reaching the Top 10 on Amazon and the Los Angeles Times best seller lists. It was frequently named one of the Top 10 cookbooks of 2005. Sara’s third cookbook, Casual Cooking: Simple Fresh Recipes for the Way We Eat Today(Clarkson Potter), released in March 2007. It features more than 100 simple, great recipes.

Sara Foster has been featured in the New York Times, Woman’s Day, Bon Appetit, Reader’s Digest, Southern Living, Martha Stewart Living Magazine, House Beautiful, Real Simple, Country Home, Redbook and many others. She also has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, Martha, From Martha’s Kitchen, Turner South’s Home Plate, NPR, PBS and QVC.

Sara is a member of the IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) the James Beard Foundation, SFA (Southern Foodways Allaince) and serves on the board for SEEDS(South Eastern Efforts Developing Sustainable Spaces)