Sara Moulton | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1952-02-19)February 19, 1952 (age 73) New York City, U.S. |
| Education | • University of Michigan (1981) • Culinary Institute of America (1977) |
| Occupations | cookbook author, television personality |
| Spouse | Bill Adler[1] |
| Children | 2 |
| Culinary career | |
Television show(s)
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| Website | saramoulton |
Sara Moulton (born February 19,[2] 1952) is an Americancookbook author and television personality. In an article forThe New York Times,Kim Severson described Moulton as "one of the nation’s most enduring recipe writers and cooking teachers...and a dean of food television and magazines".[3]
Moulton was the on-air food editor forGood Morning America, amorning news-and-talk show broadcast on theABC television network, from 1997 through 2012. She was the chef of the executive dining room atGourmet for 20 years, a stint that ended when the magazine ceased publication in 2009.[4]
Between 1996 and 2005, Moulton hostedCooking Live (1997–2002),Cooking Live Primetime (1999), andSara's Secrets (2002–2005) on theFood Network, becoming one of the original stars of thatcable-and-satellite-television channel during its first decade. Her career in television and cooking has spanned nearly 40 years.[citation needed]
Moulton is the author of several cookbooks and videos, notablySara Moulton Cooks at Home (2002),Sara's Secrets for Weeknight Meals (2005), andSara Moulton's Everyday Family Dinners (2010).[5]
In 1982, Moulton co-founded theNew York Women's Culinary Alliance.[6]
Since 2008, Moulton has been the host ofSara's Weeknight Meals, a cooking show distributed byAmerican Public Television. From August 2012 through October 2018, Moulton was the author of a weekly cooking column for theAssociated Press.[7]
In October 2016, Moulton joinedChristopher Kimball's "Milk Street Radio," a weekly show broadcast byNational Public Radio, as a cohost.[8]
Moulton was born in New York City, and attendedThe Brearley School in New York City.
The idea of channeling her childhood passion for food into a career did not occur to Moulton until after she graduated from theUniversity of Michigan inAnn Arbor, Michigan, with a major in thehistory of ideas.[a]
Moulton enrolled at theCulinary Institute of America inHyde Park, New York, in 1975 and graduated with highest honors in 1977,[9] winning a scholarship fromLes Dames d'Escoffier in the process. In October of 2025, Moulton was among the founding roster of CIA grads honored on the school's new Walk of Fame.[10]
Her first restaurant job was as an intern under ChefLydia Shire at theHarvest Restaurant in Cambridge, MA during the summer of 1976. After graduating from the CIA in the spring of 1977, Moulton returned to the Harvest as its sous chef, a job she held for nine months. In 1979, at the suggestion ofJulia Child, Moulton undertook a postgraduate apprenticeship with Master Chef Maurice Cazalis of the Henri IV Restaurant in Chartres, France. From 1979 till 1981, she was the chef at Cybele's, a Boston restaurant.
After moving to New York in 1981, Moulton was hired as thechef tournant atLa Tulipe, a three-star restaurant.[11]
In the interest of starting a family, she left restaurant work and began devoting herself instead to recipe testing and development. Moulton worked for two years as an instructor atPeter Kump's New York Cooking School (now known as theInstitute of Culinary Education), where she discovered her love of teaching.
In 1984, she took a job in thetest kitchen atGourmet.[12] Four years later she became chef of the magazine's executive dining room.[13]
In 1979, Moulton's television career began when she was hired to work behind the scenes onJulia Child & More Company, a cooking program on PBS. Her friendship with Ms. Child led eventually to Moulton's job atGood Morning America,[14] where what started as another behind-the-scenes position ripened in 1997 into on-camera work.
By then, she had begun hosting the Food Network'sCooking Live. Six years and over 1,200 hour-long shows later, that show ended on March 31, 2002.[15]Sara's Secrets, which began the next day, ran until 2007.[16] “Sara Moulton is a chef, and one of the few people knowledgeable enough to field live phone-in queries, the basis of her show," wroteThe New Yorker'sBill Buford.[17] "Cooking Live" was nominated as the James Beard Awards' Best National Television Cooking Show in 1999 and 2000.
The fourteenth season of "Sara's Weeknight Meals" began airing onAmerican Public Television in October 2025.[18] The show was nominated for a James Beard Award in 2013 and 2015, while Moulton herself has been nominated three times as Outstanding Personality/Host, most recently in 2014.[19]
Her first cookbook,Sara Moulton Cooks at Home, was published byBroadway Books in October 2002,[20] and was meant to counter America's disastrous love affair with fast food by encouraging everyone to cook delicious and healthy food at home and to dine with family and friends.[21] "While rooted in classic French technique, the book also accommodates the American hunger for convenience, novelty and freshness," wrote Mike Dunne forThe Sacramento Bee.[22]
Moulton's second cookbook,Sara's Secrets for Weeknight Meals, was published byBroadway Books in October 2005. It was reviewed by Michelle Green inPeople magazine, who wrote: "Sara has a gift for creating quick, accessible fine cuisine. Why suffer to make a gorgeous meal?"[23]
Her third cookbook,Sara Moulton's Everyday Family Dinners, was published bySimon & Schuster in April 2010.[24] Blogging forStoveTop Readings in November 2010, Greg Mowery wrote: "If there is a less pretentious, more accessible, and creative cookbook that gets great food on the table in good time with the least amount of fuss, I haven't seen it this year….This new book belongs in every family kitchen."[25]
Moulton's fourth cookbook,Home Cooking 101: How to Make Everything Taste Better, was published byOxmoor House in March 2016.[26] Diana K. Rice, inThe Huffington Post, described it as "extremely useful to the home cook. [Looks] like a textbook, albeit...with fabulous food photos and enticing recipes."[27]
In August 2012 Moulton began writing a weekly column entitled "The Healthy Plate" for theAssociated Press.[28] In January 2015, she replaced it with a new column called "KitchenWise," which ran through October 2018. Between November 2016 and September 2018, Moulton contributed a monthly column called "Sunday Supper" toThe Washington Post Magazine.[29] From January 2018 through June 2021, Moulton contributed a quarterly column entitled "Maize Graze" to the University of Michigan's Alumnus Magazine.[30]
Moulton's husband isBill Adler, an American music journalist and critic. They have two children. Moulton and her family live in New York City, New York.[1]
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