ICE Alumni Focus: Sarah Copeland
Every issue of The Main Course, ICE’s school newsletter, includes a look at the career of one of our alumni finding success in the industry. In the most recent issue, Editor Kiri Tannenbaum looked at the career of food media star Sarah Copeland who graduated from ICE’s Culinary Arts program in 2002. We’re sharing the profile here on DICED.
It wasn’t until this Rockford, Illinois native discovered the amazing restaurants in New York City, that she realized food could also be an art form. Though dining was a hobby, Sarah Copeland didn’t necessarily believe it would later become her career. As a journalist, she landed a job first at Glamour and later at O the Oprah Magazine and soon after she began taking a few recreational classes in the evenings at ICE.
Eventually, her passion for food got the best of her and she left her job in publishing and entered ICE’s professional program in 2001. It was on to France in 2002 where she staged at several three and four-star Michelin restaurants. She returned to New York and back to the world of magazine publishing and media — only this time as a freelance food stylist and recipe tester for Food & Wine, Martha Stewart Omnimedia, and Food Network where she eventually joined the culinary department full-time developing recipes for the network’s magazine.
From her years in publishing and food she had the know-how and gumption to take on her own cookbook project. Her first book, The Newlywed Cookbook: Fresh Ideas and Modern Recipes for Cooking With and for Each Other, was inspired by her editor, Bill LeBlond, who Copeland fortuitously met at the annual Greenbrier Symposium for Professional Food Writers. She signed on with Chronicle Books in May of 2010 and the manuscript was due on October 22, 2011, the very same day as her baby daughter’s due date (luckily she arrived 11 days later.) The book was released in January 2012. Copeland credits ICE for much of her success, calling the school her “touchstone.” Her second book, tentatively titled, Mostly Vegetarian, is due out next year.
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