Spokespeople

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Sara Moulton

One of the hardest-working women in the food biz, Sara Moulton has been juggling three jobs for the last several years. She is the host of “Sara’s Secrets,” which runs on the Food Network seven days a week. She is the chef of the executive dining room at Gourmet magazine. And she is the Food Editor for ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America.” In 2002, she added a fourth gig to the list: promoting Sara Moulton Cooks at Home her first cookbook. And October 2005 welcomed the arrival of her second, Sara’s Secrets for Weeknight Meals.

Ask Sara how it all began and she will tell you, “I’ve always liked to eat.” The idea of channeling this deep affection into a career, however, didn’t occur to her until after she graduated from the University of Michigan with a major in the History of Ideas in 1974. And, indeed, it was at the Culinary Institute of America that Sara found herself. She graduated with highest honors in 1977 and commenced working in restaurants immediately, first in Boston and then in New York, taking off time only to apply herself to a postgraduate apprenticeship with a master chef in Chartres, France in 1979. Sara’s restaurant experience peaked with a stint as chef tournant at La Tulipe in New York in the early Eighties. It was also during this period that Sara co-founded the New York Women’s Culinary Alliance, an “old girl’s network” designed to help women working in the culinary field. The Alliance celebrated its 20 th anniversary in 2002.

In the interest of starting a family, Sara left restaurant work to pursue recipe testing and development. She worked for two years as an instructor at Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School (renamed the Institute of Culinary Education), where she discovered her love of teaching, a passion that would give focus to her subsequent work in television. In 1984 Sara took a job in the test kitchen at Gourmet. Four years later she became chef of the magazine’s executive dining room.

Her TV career began in 1979, when she was hired to work behind the scenes on public television’s “Julia Child & More Company.” Her friendship with Julia led eventually to Sara’s gig at “GMA,” where what started as another behind-the-scenes position ripened by 1997 into on-camera work. By then Sara had begun hosting the Food Network’s “Cooking Live.” Six years and over 1200 hour-long shows later, “Cooking Live” ended its run on March 31, 2002. “Sara’s Secrets” began the next day. “Other TV chefs may own famous restaurants and perform with theatrical flair,” noted TV Guide’s Herma Rosenthal, “But Moulton’s the one you can actually picture popping over to help you fix the lumpy gravy or the fallen soufflé.”

Sara Moulton Cooks at Home , published by Broadway Books in October 2002, embodies Sara’s mission as both author and television host: 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.

In her newest book, Sara’s Secrets for Weeknight Meals, published by Broadway Books in October 2005, Sara delivers a collection of 200 easy-to-prepare, delicious dinner recipes that are ideal for our time-crunched lives and that satisfy the taste buds. The book is filled with her own versions of American classics; easy and popular ethnic dishes to spice up the repertoire; dishes to whip up from pantry staples as well as supermarket salad bar and deli items; and slow-cooking recipes for leisurely weekends.

Sara lives in New York City with her husband and two children.

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Michel Nischan

Renowned chef, best-selling cookbook author and avid proponent of sustainable farming, Michel Nischan is credited with creating a cuisine of well-being. His cuisine is focused on a respect for pure, local, organic ingredients and their intense flavors – without the use of highly processed, overly indulgent ingredients. The inspiration to explore cooking for well-being came in 1994 from his son Chris who, at age five, was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. “Chris’s illness made me realize that floating on foie gras and bathing in butter might not be in the best interest of my customers”, says Michel.

With the opening of his restaurant The Dressing Room–Newman’s Own®, A Homegrown Restaurant, adjacent to the Westport Country Playhouse, Michel Nischan starts a new chapter in his ongoing story about the love of food and the people who produce it. In addition, Michel’s work was the impetus for the Westport Farmers Market at Westport Country Playhouse, which will be open on Thursdays (June through October).

It was through his advocacy for a more healthful, organic and sustainable food future that Michel came to know Paul Newman’s daughter, Nell Newman, the driving force behind the creation of the organic division of Newman’s Own® products. Nell introduced Michel to Mr. Newman when she learned of her father’s plans to become involved in a restaurant. Paul and Michel found their beliefs on food, family and community to be remarkably aligned, and The Dressing Room– A Homegrown Restaurant, evolved as the place where their shared values could have a common home and expression. In keeping with the altruistic nature of Newman’s Own, a portion of The Dressing Room’s proceeds will be used to support the adjacent Westport Country Playhouse, the establishment of culinary scholarships and apprentice programs for inner-city children, as well as a community-based edible schoolyard program.

In addition, Michel has recently spearheaded a groundbreaking restaurant concept and brought it to fruition in India. Working in conjunction with Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, PURE, a restaurant dedicated to the promise of serving food that satisfies the palate while restoring the body and soul, will open in the Taj Land End in Bandra, Mumbai in May 2006. PURE is based on Michel’s “wellness” recipes and menus that he first developed at Heartbeat in New York City, along with Executive Chef, John Mooney. Mooney was Chef de Cuisine for Nischan at Heartbeat. PURE will be the first Western well-being restaurant ever opened in India as well as the first high-end dining establishment opened there in collaboration with a well-known Western chef.

Michel introduced his revolutionary cuisine at Heartbeat restaurant at the W Hotel, midtown Manhattan in 1997, and was immediately propelled to the forefront of New York’s culinary scene. Since then, he has continued to raise the bar for delicious and healthful cooking and is continually lauded for his dedication to well-being, organics, sustainability and cultural food preservation.

The son of southern farmers, Michel began his career in the Midwest, where he worked in several top Chicago restaurants. His work eventually led him to Connecticut, where in 1990, he opened the acclaimed Miche Mache restaurant. In 1995, he joined Myriad Restaurant Group’s Tribeca Grill, and later opened four hotel projects for this organization, including Heartbeat, as Corporate Chef for Myriad.

After years of focusing on healthy, sustainable and culturally significant cooking causes, Michel decided to put his methods down on paper, writing two well-received cookbooks, Homegrown Pure and Simple: Great Healthy Food from Garden to Table (Chronicle Books, 2005) and Taste Pure and Simple: Irresistible Recipes for Good Food and Good Health (Chronicle Books, 2003). Taste was listed as a bestseller in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and won a 2004 James Beard Foundation Cookbook Award (award winners are selected by industry peers, and more than 600 culinary professionals are involved in the voting process). Homegrown was nominated for the coveted IACP Cookbook Award in 2006. Nischan is also the recent recipient of Food Arts Magazine’s “Silver Spoon Award” for his pioneering work on cooking for well-being.

Michel has joined Lime: healthy living with a twist, the brand new multimedia enterprise founded and controlled by Steve Case, formerly of AOL and one of its founders. Michel is LIME’s authority on cooking for well-being. Lime’s cable television programming will launch in Summer 2006, and will see Michel deeply involved and prominently featured as “The Natural Chef” in Lime’s culinary programming for the next five years. His new series will be available on national cable, Sirius Satellite Radio, broadband, DVD, VOD, POD and wireless platforms. He has filmed twenty 10-minute broadband cooking segments for Healthscout I-TV and was invited by TIME Magazine to host, prepare and present “The School Lunch of the Future” at the TIME/ABC News Obesity Summit.

Print coverage for Michel has been widespread. Feature articles have appeared in House Beautiful, Health Magazine, O Magazine, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Bon Appétit, Food Arts, People, Wine Spectator, Crain’s New York Business, Cooking Light, Leite’s Culinaria, Nation’s Restaurant News, The New York Times, New York Daily News, Forbes, Marie Claire, The Associated Press and numerous international publications. He is a contributor to Oprah Winfrey’s O Magazine, food editor for Health Update Magazine, and contributing authority for Food Arts.

Television appearances include: The Food Network’s “Cooking Live with Sara Moulton”, “Sweet Dreams with Gale Gand”, “The Curtis Aikens Show,” “Corner Table” with Bill Boggs, and David Rosengarten’s “In Food Today”. Michel has also been featured on “Secrets of the Great Chefs” on PBS, the Emmy Award-winning “A Day in the Life, The Oprah Winfrey Show”, MSNBC, B. Smith’s “B. Smith with Style”, Colin Cowie’s “Everyday Elegance”, CBS “The Early Show”, and Good Day New York. He was featured with Ming Tsai, Mark Miller and Charlie Trotter in a 90-minute documentary by NHK on the cultural preservation of Japanese rice, which aired to an audience of 10 million households throughout Japan. Radio coverage includes: National Public Radio on KCRW’s “Good Food”, WOR’s “Food Talk with Arthur Schwartz”, WNYC’s “New York & Company” and Radio America.

Michel was host chef for a Dinner with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, and has generously participated in dozens of charitable events. He has served as a Board Member of Chefs Collaborative, a nonprofit organization that promotes sustainable cuisine by celebrating local, seasonal and artisanal cooking and food production; and is Advisory Board Member of The Center for Health and the Global Environment – Harvard Medical School. Along with Gus Schumacher, former Under Secretary of Agriculture, and Michael Batterberry, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Food Arts, he is a key organizer of the New American Farmers Initiative (NAFI), Michel is the Chairman of the Founders Committee for the Amazon Conservation Team and has worked on the planning committee for the WK Kellogg Foundation’s annual Food and Society Conference on sustainable food systems.

He resides in Fairfield, Connecticut with his wife, Lori, and their five children.

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Dr. James M. Sears, MD

“Dr. Jim,” as he is known in the office, is a board-certified Pediatrician in private practice with his father and brother in San Clemente, California. Dr. Jim has two children, daughter Lea, and son Jonathan. He and his wife, Diane, reside in Aliso Viejo. Dr. Jim earned his medical degree at St. Louis University School of Medicine in 1996, and completed his pediatric residency at Northeastern Ohio University College of Medicine, Tod Children’s Hospital in Youngstown, Ohio in 1999. During his residency, he received the honor of “emergency medicine resident of the year.” Dr Sears is a member of the teaching faculty at the University of California at Davis School of Medicine. Dr Jim is an active contributor to the content of AskDrSears.com, and is co-author of “The Premature Baby Book”, and the best selling “The Baby Book – revised edition.” He has been featured on Parenting.com’s “Ask the Experts”, and he has written for Parenting Magazine. Dr Sears’ medical advice has been featured in People Magazine, and he has been a featured expert on the PBS parenting series, “Help Me Grow”. Dr. Jim frequently travels the country giving lectures about family nutrition or infant sleep. He is most passionate about the vital role that nutrition plays in a variety of medical and behavioral problems. Dr Jim is also an avid educator on the subject of Attachment Parenting. He spends much of his energy helping parents with an attachment alternative to the “hands-off” approach to parenting that is so prevalent in America. Personal passions include sailboat racing and musical theater. Recent productions have been Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat (the French brother), The Wizard of Oz (cowardly lion), Annie (rooster), Fiddler on the Roof (Lazar Wolf) and Big River (The King). Personal interests include snow skiing, hiking, and mountain biking (especially during a beautiful sunrise!).