Sarah Lang teaches children how to make and appreciate new foods by introducing them to ingredients and showing them how to safely use real tools. Photos: Jennifer Burks
Around the world in a few bites.
Sarah Lang never planned on becoming a professional chef. The Lakeville resident didn’t attend culinary school, nor did she grow up envisioning herself in a restaurant kitchen. Yet her love for food inspired a career that connects people with new flavors and ingredients.
“I started my own business as a personal chef back in 2013,” Lang says. “I was passionate about cooking and entertaining and everything that comes with food. And I saw a big need in the community—people wanted to eat well, eat with their family, eat around their own table. But nobody had time to plan, shop, cook, clean, especially when they were working and had kids.”
So, Lang filled that need. Her personal chef service, A Simple Kitchen, was twofold: Primarily, she would visit clients’ homes, cooking a week’s worth of meals in one session, tailored to their dietary needs and personal tastes. She also catered dinner parties, allowing families to entertain without the stress of preparation.
Then, Lang’s own life shifted. She had children (Josie, 10; Chester, 7; and Willow, who was born in April), began homeschooling, and, during COVID-19, discovered Our Village School, a homeschool cooperative in Lakeville. After Lang’s children had started attending, Maria Stalsberg, the cooperative’s founder, reached out. “She’d actually hired me to do a dinner party before, and she asked if I’d be interested in teaching cooking classes,” Lang says. “That was something I had actually never done before, but I was so excited to do it.” That was two years ago, and Lang has expanded—and continues to expand—her food-focused curriculum for both Our Village School and beyond.
As a “guide” at the cooperative, she recognized another need that she could help fill. “I saw a need, after having kids of my own, to get them eating foods that are different and interesting and not catering to picky tastes,” Lang says. “The best way to do that is as a group—everyone’s doing it together. They’re bought in, they’re invested, they’re having fun and it’s the best kind of peer pressure.”
What would her hook be for encouraging adventurous eating? “If I can teach these kids anything, I want to [teach] about cooking. It’s going to be about food from around the world,” Lang says.
Lakeville chef Sarah Lang teaches children how to make food from cultures around the world, which inspired her to write The Passport to Cooking Cookbook.
Global cultures and cuisines would be her entry points for the lessons. Each week, Lang selects a country, finds a children’s book about that culture’s food and builds a lesson around it. “We start by having a geography lesson, a culture lesson, some language—we say basic words in that language and listen to music,” she says. “Then we make a meal from that country.”
Lang’s passion for international cuisine stems from her own experiences. “When I was a kid, I was as picky as any other kid,” she says with a laugh. “But after studying abroad in Italy and living in New Orleans in my 20s—two really great food places—I realized, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is how food is supposed to taste.’ And I knew I had to learn how to make it myself.”
She immersed herself in cookbooks, religiously watched the Food Network and simply cooked—again and again until she mastered new flavors. “I just started,” Lang says. “I taught myself. And I made a commitment to myself and to my kids that we’re going to eat really interesting food. If you don’t like it, that’s OK, but you’re going to try it.”
To other parents who are facing picky-eating challenges, Lang says exposure is the key. “We try it, and we learn how to politely decline if it’s not for you,” she says. “I try not to make my kids a separate meal—whatever we’re eating is what they’re eating. Our babies were eating sushi and curry—who knows if they actually liked it, but they were exposed.”
That hard-earned wisdom, plus her work at Our Village School, naturally evolved into another endeavor: a cookbook. “I have about 100 kids a week in five different classes, ages 6 to 14,” Lang says. “I needed to narrow it down.”
She has turned her remarkable global-foods school curriculum into a book that’s part recipe collection and part practical guide for parents and teachers. The Passport to Cooking Cookbook, which was independently published last summer, serves as both a cultural primer and a hands-on manual.
“It’s about more than just food,” Lang says. “It’s about opening up kids’ palates and their minds to the world.
“Food connects us,” she says. “And if I can help families share a homemade meal or help kids experience a new cuisine, that’s what it’s all about.”
The Passport to Cooking Cookbook is available at amazon.com.
Facebook: A Simple Kitchen
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