Finding A Voice Through Filling People’s Stomachs
A chef discovers a passion for business and food in the Caribbean and brings it to reality in Bellingham
By Laurel Messenger
Sarah spent her childhood helping her father sell cocoa, citrus and coffee from her grandfather’s fruit estate to the local wholesale market in Port of Spain, Trinidad. This business is the first of 11 she would end up pursuing. She hated it — but only at first.
As a social entrepreneur from the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago, Sarah Chan combines cooking skills and her hunger for change to address social issues such as food insecurity, domestic violence, human trafficking and basic human rights.
Sarah’s passion for food and flavor has been ingrained in her since she was a child and has led her to develop a particularly strong pallet.
“I will definitely pick up on flavors and textures that a lot of people don’t pick up on and I quite often find myself in a situation where I don’t like a lot of what I put into my mouth,” she said.
Because of this, some have labeled Sarah as a food critic.
But her lack of interest in certain foods has nothing to do with wanting high-end gourmet meals. For Sarah it’s about the full experience, appreciating the origin all the way up until the food landed on her plate.
“Every single time I put food into my mouth it’s really a full-blown experience to me,” she said.
Sarah cooks up this experience for others by sharing her food through catering, classes and pop-ups.
Ezra Moore is a frequent attendee of her pop-ups. What keeps him coming back is not only the food, but Sarah’s personality.
“She is so friendly and has an interesting story to tell both culinarily and her own life. And the food is amazing,” Moore said. “Sarah’s personal story is half of why I am interested in this and why I am here, she has a real legitimate lifestyle connection to her food and her story growing up and how she got here.”
Ezra Moore’s mom, Gayle Moore, recently attended one of Sarah’s pop-ups for the first time. After meeting Sarah, Gayle said she felt like she had known Sarah forever.
Sarah grew up watching her father planting and working not just for himself but for his family and community. “It was never just about him,” Sarah said.
Sarah has followed in her father’s steps, leaving her mark on many in the community, including local organization Growing Alliances.
Growing Alliances is a non-profit that focuses on issues that can affect youth as they transition out of foster care, like incarceration, homelessness and poverty. The program creates a space, with the help of gardeners and educators, to teach them the basics of gardening while facilitating life lessons.
When Sarah was a board member she taught the kids basic cooking skills and how to prepare fun and simple meals they could recreate at home.
“I appreciated how she talked to the youth,” Kali Crow-Liester said, a past director of Growing Alliances. “She wasn’t uncomfortable talking with them which is something I noticed with people coming into the garden. They always really enjoyed her coming.”
Sarah has held beneficiary dinners in support of Growing Alliances, donated food to fundraisers and donated a portion of the profits made from her stand at the Bellingham Farmers Market.
“Food security is a big deal. Hungry bellies [are] a big problem. If people have hungry bellies, if people are not nourished well, they are not going to be able to function in society,” Sarah said.
“I think it’s a basic human right for people to be able to feed themselves well and it should be everyone’s concern.”
Sarah wants to eliminate the fear of unfamiliar ingredients, particularly fresh produce, and help kids develop a natural relationship with food. By showing them how to incorporate fresh, local and affordable foods in a creative way she hopes to inspire those at a young age to feel less hopeless in their food insecurity.
One of the most common foods available to them are beans, because they are inexpensive and can last for a long period of time. While dried beans can be easily prepared as a means of sustenance, not necessarily enjoyment, Sarah believes there are lots of ways someone can take that one ingredient and make a nutritious dish. Many simply don’t know how to approach certain types of ingredients.
“If I can start with the little ones, teach them when they are young,” Sarah said. “For me it just comes naturally, I can look at an ingredient and know I can make 10 things out of it. I want people to feel like that. I want little kids to feel like that.”
Before Bellingham
Sarah is a successful businesswoman — “pounding pavements,” as Sarah describes it, to get where she wants to go.
In order to avoid an abusive relationship, Sarah found asylum in New York in March of 2006. Two years later, she moved to Blaine, Washington. After five years of living in the Pacific Northwest, Sarah started Calypso Kitchen.
As a teenager, she participated in the Junior Achievement program, which aims to develop and encourage young entrepreneurs around the world. Through this program, she realized being an entrepreneur was her dream.
Since then, Sarah’s entrepreneurial spirit has known no limits.
“I start on one project and there’s just so many offshoots of that project and I think this is how I approached business at a very young age,” Sarah said.
During her 20s, Sarah grew nine businesses in Trinidad. A car rental service turned into a vehicle car importation business and when cars wrecked she began importing parts to fix the cars. Her fourth business sold the imported parts to the general public. After that Sarah opened a car dealership and car repair shop.
Changing directions, she then pursued real-estate, buying and selling properties and eventually building houses to sell and rent.
Later on, the market got tight so Sarah decided to open a hardware business to get materials at a better price for her real-estate venture.
The last business Sarah had before leaving Trinidad, the one she was most passionate about, was called Kitchen Delights, a business centered condiments and spices. Condiments are a key component of the Trinidad and Tobago culture. While America usually sticks to ketchup, mustard and hot sauce, Trinidad and Tobago go above and beyond to produce unlimited amounts of condiments, from pepper sauces to chutneys.
“Everybody’s mom, auntie, granny seems to be producing something in their home and everybody wants to bring it to market, but that’s great because we have a thriving market of it,” Sarah said. “Kitchen delights was born out of me having seen what my Grammy was doing in her kitchen.”
The business lasted for two years before she had to flee to New York with her three daughters.
Looking to the Future
Many of the family members Sarah grew up with were teachers, a career path she never wanted to pursue. Now Sarah realizes that she is teaching and educating in her own way, through her cooking and involvement with her local community.
“My social consciousness has grown out of my own experiences. I come from a background that was, sadly, touched by domestic violence, human trafficking, social and political differences and food insecurity,” she said. “I want to be able to take my experiences, to use my voice and to advocate for people who are being affected by those issues.”
Sarah has a voice, and now a platform to project it.
“The darkest moments I went through, now I can recognize the value in it and can be a voice,” Sarah said. “All experiences in life accumulate for a purpose.”
Sarah is just getting started, she has more plans past Calypso Kitchen. She is 70 credits away from her bachelor’s degree and hopes to someday pursue her doctorate and facilitate her own non-profit.
She doesn’t believe that people should have to choose between paying for rent, utilities and food. She wants to help eliminate the “choice” and provide people with the resources and dignity to lead a balanced life.
“When I succeed it’s not just me succeeding, but also the people I help,” Sarah said.
Podcast Alert! Click HERE to listen to Sarah Chan, owner of Calypso Kitchen, talk about how she got started selling her Caribbean-inspired cuisine.