The first season of Food Hero has made the name Sarah Benjamin popular whole over the world. She was known not only for her fond of cooking and passion for culinary world but also for her gregarious and down-to-earth personality. Born in food-crazy and industrious country, Sarah Benjamin has an undeniable passion for food and travel. Her straight-thinking personality is developed in a helping family. Yes, she was grown up in a warm family of a British father and a Chinese mother.
Development of Cooking Passion in Sarah Benjamin’s Life
Singapore is known for its craziness about foods and culinary-related things. This is certainly a good environment for the development of her cooking and travelling passion. Her obsession with food was also supported by her family since young age. Little Sarah was used to help her grandmother cooking Chinese specific cakes and foods, such as Yam Abacus, particularly when they were to welcome important celebrations, such as Chinese New Year.
Therefore, she admitted that her grandmother and grandaunt were culinary role models for her. Uniquely, her grandaunt was blind; therefore, she helped Sarah cooking by using hearing, smell, and touches, despite the fact the she could chop the ingredients! A unique tradition in her family was preparing foods, which were enough for twice the number of people who wanted to eat them. Therefore, there were always many foods on their dining table. How could she not fall in love with culinary things?
Sarah Benjamin used to prepare foods for her family and friends. Yes, she always smiles after finishing preparing delicious and healthy foods for her loved ones. She loves home cooked meal and stays away from junk foods. She brought this tradition until the time for university. When she moved to Scotland for political and sociological study at the University of Edinburg, she began to develop her passion in cooking Asian specific foods. She started her own cooking blog and shared great cooking experience and food styling.
Sarah Benjamin’s Professional History in Cooking
After graduating from Edinburg University, Sarah did not immediately return to Singapore. In Singapore, she then worked as a marketing executive for a restaurant chain. She still frequently appeared as a corporate host. Aside for her professional job, Sarah Benjamin actually prefers to try out need foods and new cooking recipes at home. Therefore, her mission to feed people and make them happy really makes sense.
Sarah Benjamin’s popularity began when she won the first season of Food Hero. It is an online and on-air program held by Asian Food Channel and Food Network. The program received mostly positive responses from the spectators in many countries of Asia. Sarah Benjamin is one of the two winners for the program. Sarah Benjamin from Malaysia and Michele Lean from Malaysia were announced by Scripps Network Interactive – a provider of home design, food, and travel contents – as the winners.
As Michele Lean does, Sarah Benjamin excelled more than 300 participants of the program and she won it because of her spirit and unique character when it comes to culinary and traveling passion. As the reward, Sarah would become a host for Must Try: Asia – program owned by Scripps Network. The program is suitable with her passion since she and the team would visit many areas in Asia, try out the foods, and find out unique things about the culture and culinary traditions of the country.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nrc87HfBdf8
Amidst her busy schedules, Sarah Benjamin keeps writing in her food and culinary blog. She shares unique culinary creations with online community, where she can get great responses, supports, and ideas from the readers. Her capability to write in Mandarin, English, Malay, Korea, and Cantonese is an advantage since she can reach more readers, thanks to her multi-cultural family.
How Sarah Benjamin Develops Her Passion in Food and Culture
Her passion in food and culture is not questionable. Sarah Benjamin is creative in creating fresh recipes, which other people might never think of. She is always encouraged to create her own recipes, and always shares them in her food blog. Writing (whether in her blog or notebook) is her way to make the ideas for recipes real. She is really food of cooking Asian foods even though she cooked European cuisine for the first time. As an adventurous cook, she tries out any new things in the kitchen.
Despite her skills and passion, Sarah Benjamin still focuses on her wonderful adventures in hosting the cooking shows. In the near future, her focuses are writing her own cookbooks, sharing them in her blog, inspiring others to have fun in the kitchen, and hosting more shows to encourage others to love their country’s cuisine and culture. She realizes that every country has its own unique recipes and spices, which cannot be found in other countries; so are the cultures.
When trying out cuisines in different countries, she is always inspired to develop new ideas. For her, a discerning eater is able to distinguish between flavor and texture. This way, she can develop new styles and technique in cooking. The most important thing is having fun in cooking as well as eating.
Interesting Facts about Sarah Benjamin
Aside from her cooking and culinary passion, Sarah Benjamin has an interesting personality, since she was grown in a helping and sensible family. She has a unique way of seeing the world, thanks to her multi-cultural parents, experience in journalism, and multi-lingual competence. She also loves fashion, photography, and playing cello and piano. She also has special interests in travelling, as she loves to see new places, meet new people, and learn others’ cultures. Anytime she visits a country, she always learns something new.
When she was a child, Sarah Benjamin had many unusual bedtime stories, which spanned some centuries, thanks to anthropologist and sociologist parents. They even included myths, history of Singapore, Malay culture, and society. Her mother (who is a researcher) frequently told her the history from some Asian countries, including local folklore from Indonesia. Her parents also took her for fieldwork to interesting areas in Malaysia and Indonesia. It is not surprising that Sarah Benjamin socializes well with local people. She used to stay in kampong houses when they did field trips.
Must Try: Asia
Food Hero winner Sarah Benjamin and the ever-innovative Chef Malcolm Goh travel across Asia’s most popular capitals and tuck into the city’s signature dishes in Must Try: Asia. Whether it’s Singapore’s famous Chicken Rice or Bangkok’s tasty stir-fried rice noodle, this adventurous duo will show you how creative you can go in re-creating these iconic dishes in your kitchen! Only on the Asian Food Channel.
Visit www.asianfoodchannel.com for more information.
