Meet Sara Forte | Author and Recipe Developer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sara Forte and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sara, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
This one feels big, because it is the one piece that changed the trajectory of my career. I was part of the food blogging boom, that turned towards social media, and then I had kids amidst the season when the pace there was becoming more demanding and “feeding the beast” became necessary. Before kids, I spent so much time on the blog and online. I did lose a lot of my work momentum by choosing to spend more time raising my young kids, and made the decision that I just didn’t want to be recording everything I ate or cooked and have the pressure of my day to day life being “beautiful”. A couple years into trying to keep up with both, I realized I could change my business as opposed to meeting the demands of ever-evolving social media. We made Sprouted Kitchen Cooking Club (www.sproutedkitchen.cc) to help people make weeknight dinners, and aid in the steps that propel home cooks towards making that happen, and it feels like it fits into my life. I hired two wonderful gals that contract hours for editing or development for/with me there, because I just cannot do everything. That was a decade too late, but hey, now we know, and I enjoy having the support now! I think about the balance as a living thing, because the secret is…a perfect balance does.not.exist. Most of the time the scale tips towards my family, sometimes my work or friendships or maybe I’m working out regularly or perhaps I’m volunteering at school more often and the less I try to get it *right* and just move with the truth that it will always be changing, everyone is happier.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I started the blog as a hobby, because I wanted to experiment more in the kitchen. I’m a verbal processor and very relational, and I liked the idea of having feedback and sharing, not just tinkering on my own. Putting recipes online allowed for that. My husband Hugh is/was a photographer (has professionally moved to web design and development since) so he took beautiful photos of the process. I loved the sharing and the feeding of people, in real life or if it was such a way to inspire others to. I will say that we were in the right place at the right time with blogging, because imagery was huge and I had Hugh to thank for that. Where we lacked was business sense, and we never figured out all the SEO and ads and search stuff so we were doing this for free for many many years. We didn’t have ads up for maybe 7 years? And even then, wasn’t enough to really “monetize” things. Money came from free lance jobs and eventually a book deal. I think the lesson I took from that, that I now have mentioned a few times, is that I waited too long to invest money back into myself and the business. Now, most of our time is put towards a subsciption model, that makes the work more sustainable, without having to depend on ads as a main source of income. The past few years, I’ve finished my third cookbook, Around Our Table (https://amzn.to/3IN402O), out April 30th! 

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We live in San Juan Capistrano, a little mission town in Orange County, CA. One of our favorite spots in town is Mayfield – they have delicious and beautiful mediterranean food. We also love Ahba in Laguna Beach – it’s a small, quirky little spot but it’s casual and beachy and feels easy. We love fish tacos from Bear Flag up in Newport Coast. Our favorite bar is Jane in San Clemente and they have the Cellar net door if your more of a wine person (we like their food too!). Our family always hangs out at Salt Creek beach on the weekends with friends so the kids can play in the ocean, and we find hikes and bike rides in the hills in both San Juan and San Clemente. We have a few abundant farmers markets, the largest one being in Irvine on Saturday mornings and I like the Laguna Beach one as well, albeit smaller. Lots of new spots are coming up in Costa Mesa, so I look forward to exploring more that way soon.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Jenny Wapner, my book editor at Hardie Grant. I’ve known her for a decade now, she also edited my second book Bowl and Spoon with another publisher, and she’s always been this very intelligent, sturdy source of reason and encouragement. Jenny has wonderful taste and is exceptional at her job. She gave me an opportunity to create a cookbook that felt personal and meaningful to me, outside of trends, and I’ll always be grateful for that.

Website: www.sproutedkitchen.cc

Instagram: @sproutedkitchen @sk_cookingclub

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sproutedkitchen

Image Credits
credit to Hugh Forte