Sara Deseran

Sara Deseran first became interested in a career in food while working in publishing at Weldon Owen, a company that packages books for Williams-Sonoma. In 1997, she decided to attend culinary school at ICE (then Peter Kump’s), as she was looking to launch her food career in New York City. For her ICE externship, Deseran worked at Saveur magazine in their test kitchen, an experience she describes as “a complete thrill.” Following her time at Saveur, Deseran took a fulltime food editor position at 7x7 magazine, later becoming an editor for William-Sonoma Taste. Deseran then became the food editor at San Francisco Magazine, where she wrote a column called “Famished.” She now co-owns Tacolicious, a restaurant she started with husband Joe Hargrave. Today they have five locations, and recently published a cookbook celebrating the restaurant's signature recipes. When asked how she feels about this accomplishment, Deseran says: “Proud is an understatement actually. I pinch myself every day in regards to our success and the wonderful people we get to work with.”