Sarah Stegner is an American chef, who co-owns and runs the Prairie Grass Cafe. She has won two James Beard Foundation Awards, for Rising Star Chef in 1994 and Best Chef Midwest in 1998.

Career

Born and raised in

Evanston, Illinois Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore (Chicago), North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Chicago Loop, Downtown Chicago, ...

, Sarah Stegner's grandmother worked as a caterer. Stegner studied classical guitar at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Chart ...

, before deciding to become a chef. She went to the Dumas Pere Cooking School, and after graduating, she landed a position at the Ritz-Calton Hotel,

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. She worked her way up, eventually becoming sous chef to

George Bumbaris George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd President ...

. While there, she won two James Beard Foundation Awards, first for Rising Star Chef in 1994 and then four years later for Best Chef Midwest. Stegner appeared twice on the television series '' Great Chefs'', first in 1994, and then again in 1998 for a

barbecue Barbecue or barbeque (informally BBQ in the UK, US, and Canada, barbie in Australia and braai in South Africa) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that use live fire and smoke ...

special in collaboration with Weber-Stephen Products. In 2004, Stegner and Bumbaris opened their own restaurant together, named the Prairie Grass Cafe in Northbrook, Illinois. Stegner launched a second restaurant, Prairie Fire, in 2010. This saw a return to downtown Chicago, for Stegner, who ran it as a casual dining establishment. Outside of the professional kitchen, she also shows students at Northbrook Junior High School how to prepare healthy food, and praised

Michelle Obama Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She was the first African-American woman to serve in this position. She is married t ...

's work when she launched a similar nationwide campaign in 2011.

Personal life

Stegner is married to Rohit Nambiar, and they have a daughter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stegner, Sarah Living people People from Evanston, Illinois American women chefs American television chefs Year of birth missing (living people) James Beard Foundation Award winners 21st-century American women