Sara Mair - Contributed Yahneake Sterling, Staff Reporter
She started out making French toast and muffins for her family as a four-year-old, but her love for cheese took precedence and Sara Mair blossomed into a cheesemaker.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Ms. Mair, who now resides in Miami, Florida, says her early influences in the kitchen came from her grandmothers.
"Both my grandmothers were excellent cooks. One was a very rustic cook. She was from the Turks and Caicos Islands, so she cooked macaroni and cheese and fricassee chicken and all that good stuff."
"The other one, who is my father's mother, was more of a gourmet cook so I grew up with both influences," Sara told Flair.
'Gone abroad'
With her mother's antique necklace and the talent she inherited from her grandmothers, Ms. Mair 'gone abroad' to test her skills, and is now in the running to become the top chef in the Bravo hit television series Top Chef 3 Miami.
She is the first Jamaican to appear on the show and she hopes to do the island proud.
How does she feel about it? "It feels great, you know. It put a little pressure on me, you know, because I had to represent the 'yardies' properly," she admitted, laughing.
Being a professional cheesemaker makes it clear that cheese is her favourite food, especially stinky, ripe or soft cheeses. Her dream is to have her own cheese farm in Jamaica.
Almost all the cheeses available locally are imported, especially gourmet cheese. Based on this knowledge, Ms. Mair wants to stem the import of cheese by producing gourmet cheeses and other great-quality varieties locally.
"I would love to make it (gourmet cheese) here, as well as improve on the cheese we do make here, like the cheddar. I would like to make the real farmhouse cheddar and its real high-quality, 100 per cent grass thread raw cheese," Sara says.
The competition, which features 15 chefs from various backgrounds, premieres on Bravo TV on June 15.
Challenging
And while going up against other chefs proved to be challenging, the easy-going nature of us Jamaicans kept her, and she was respectful of all the other talents there.
"They are all really talented people and it was great competition, and if I do lose, I wouldn't feel bad doing it because at least I know that they are just as capable as I am."
One thing that left an impression on her from the show is the versatility that a chef needs to possess.
"The versatility and thinking on your toes and being able to solve problems at the drop of a hat (proved to be the most challenging thing)," Sara pointed out.
However, this did not stop the Jamaican queen of the kitchen from giving the challenges her best efforts.
New York is the next stop for Sara, and she hopes the show will open opportunities for her there.
"I want to be in the Mecca of all food, " she says, before returning to Jamaica to open her cheese factory.
