By Chris Bavender
She’s a cute redhead with a smile that lights up the room. She loves to go tubing with her friends in the summer, ride her bike and watch movies with her sisters. Her favorite color is pink. Oh, and she just happens to be the star of an online cooking show.
Meet Sarah Strohl – a 14-year-old Zionsville West Middle School student who can whip up a mean spaghetti sauce.
“Sarah’s Kitchen Creations” debuted May 21 on www.unitedmedianow.com and received thousands of hits in its first week. But, what makes the show unique is the fact that Sarah has Down Syndrome.
“I had started a blog in 2010 but started to see too much of the same voice and was thinking how I could do this differently and how can I make an impact in the disability community,” Valerie Strohl, Sarah’s mom and co-star of the cooking show said. “And, literally one day I was sitting there and thought, “How about a cooking show?” I love to cook – we love to cook together – and I think cooking can teach kids a lot. You do fractions and math and sequencing – so many parts of cooking that relate to almost like therapy at home.”
Valerie initially rejected the idea as “one of the craziest things I’d ever heard of,” but the idea wouldn’t go away. So, she made a call to a friend from church, Ted Coats of Moving Pictures, Inc. The two hashed out the idea during coffee and got to work. The next step – find the ideal kitchen for the shoot. How else to do that but through the power of social media.
“I put a post on Facebook and asked if anyone had a kitchen with an island – that I needed to tape a cooking show,” she explained. “That’s when Ellie Brown came along and offered hers. It has these really beautiful clean sharp lines – it’s gorgeous – and just perfect for what we needed.
Initially the idea was to put a video camera in the kitchen but Coats went all out and brought in four cameras, a boom and shot in high-def quality – “it was just this beautiful, clean production,” Valerie said.
The show taped March 6 and was broken down into eight 5-minute segments that air every Tuesday on the website.
“The response has really been overwhelming – people love it and they get it,” Valerie said. “I am somewhat amazed by it all – really – because it’s a cooking show. But I think it achieves one of my goals and that is to show the world this beautiful love story between a mom and her daughter, and we are happy and healthy and living an incredibly meaningful life.”
Valerie believes the timing was perfect. While there are numerous cooking shows out there, this is the first featuring someone with a disability.
“It has taken a lot of the stigma away from disabilities. I think we will have more fun as we get more comfortable in front of the camera,” she said. “Sarah has a phenomenal personality, and I want that to come out more in subsequent filming – less of me and more Sarah.”
A comment Sarah is quick to nod her head at, shooting her mom a radiant smile.
“I like the show and my mom is a great cook,” Sarah said. “My favorite is eating the food.”
Valerie also believes “Sarah’s Kitchen Creations” shows parents of children with disabilities how to implement therapy into their home life in a very natural way.
“I think that is what people like – they will comment, ‘Oh my gosh I never thought of that.’ There is a word that gets used a lot in the disability world and that is empower and it annoys parents a lot but that is truly my goal – to empower families and those with disabilities to say, ‘Hey, I can do this at home, and I am going to be OK and life is good – and that is empowerment.”
Valerie would love to see a second season for “Sarah’s Kitchen Creations.” The Strohl’s are getting a new kitchen so they can tape at their own home. The show is in the hands of a national producer and production company. But Valerie knows another season means more capital and national sponsors will be needed.
“We do have some local sponsors, and we are incredibly grateful to them but it is incredibly expensive to tape the shows so that is our next really big obstacle to get over,” she said.
A cookbook also is in the works, among other projects. But, if it all ends tomorrow, Valerie said she wouldn’t have any regrets.
“I told my husband I am going to do everything in my power to make this work and if it doesn’t, then at least I know I tried.”
You can watch “Sarah’s Kitchen Creations” at www.unitedmedianow.com.
