Our Story

Who is sarah brown?

Sarah Brown is a master cook steeped in the southern tradition. She is the daughter of sharecroppers, an African-American father and a Cherokee Indian mother. Sarah, the eldest of nine children was born in North Augusta, South Carolina. Sarah learned  her culinary prowess from her father. She had extensive practice preparing meals for her brothers and sisters throughout her adolescence. Sarah developed a love for cooking when she noticed her food brought her family together. The smiles on her sibling’s faces and the enjoyment they displayed during meals filled Sarah with jubilance.

Sarah began taking cooking seriously when she landed a job working in a whites-only restaurant in South Carolina. She had mastered her craft and found out that cooking was not only a passion but also a means to help her parents support the family. During the civil rights era Sarah, as did many people in the south, immigrated to the north; Long Island, New York, to be exact. She was employed as a domestic worker for a wealthy family in Kings Point. She worked as cook, baby sitter, cleaning women, and home attendant all at once. After she received rave reviews for the taste of her food, cooking became her only responsibility.

Throughout her years as a domestic worker, Sarah also worked for the famous Blanch Johnson Caterers. The experience of working for several prominent restaurants in the south and a famous caterer in the north, gave Sarah the confidence to start her own business. With a young family in tow, Sarah quit her job and started her own catering business. With the full support of her life-long partner and now husband of 47 years, they started the business in the kitchen of their home in 1970. In 1976 the Browns turned their entire basement into a commercial kitchen. In 1990 they purchased their first commercial building. In 1995 they opened their first retail operation “Sarah Brown Express” take-out restaurant in Uniondale, Long Island. In 2019 they opened “The Sarah at the Temple Tikvah Ballroom.” Now with your support, a leap of faith, and God’s Blessings, the Brown family will open “Sarah Brown” a retail restaurant on Martha’s Vineyard in Oak Bluffs, MA.