Cooking up an authentic life

Sarah Johnson’s Baxter kitchen may be filled with the best tools and gadgets that make cooking more manageable, but she’s the first to admit she doesn’t enjoy being in there as much as you might think.

She jokes she’s the last person she would have thought would find her passion in selling Pampered Chef kitchen products. A 2000 Brainerd High School graduate, Johnson majored in musical theater at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, and went on to get her teaching license from Southwest State University. After college, she taught in Brainerd Public Schools for five years before she was asked if she would host her first Pampered Chef party in 2009.

She owned Pampered Chef products she received from her bridal shower years earlier, but admittedly, she rarely used them. After her first party, she was stunned to discover she made $450.

“I was blown away,” Johnson recalled. “I thought they’d send me a free spatula or something.”

That Pampered Chef party led her to a succession of hosting Pampered Chef parties, and she began to build a team of other consultants. Her goal was not to push products on other people but to help them find ways to make meal preparation less overwhelming.

Sales have never been her biggest motivation. Johnson uses her humor and honesty to connect with other people who, like her, don’t particularly enjoy cooking but still want to provide healthy meals for their families. By being open about her lack of natural cooking abilities, she has created a judgmentfree space where everyone can feel comfortable. After all, we’re all in the same boat, Johnson explained.

“We’re all busy, and it costs a lot to eat out. I want to help you get in and out of the kitchen,” Johnson explained. “Many are overwhelmed by cooking.”

Johnson also has clients who are experts in the kitchen, and she has learned a lot about cooking from her customers and hosts at her parties.

As her sales grew, Johnson discovered she could run a successful business while creating the life she wanted.

About one-and-a-half years later, after that first party, she quit teaching to manage her Pampered Chef business full-time. Her sons, Nick and Adam, now 18 and 16, respectively, were toddler and preschool age. She began homeschooling them in second and fourth grades while continuing to run her Pampered Chef business. She has sold nearly $1.4 million in products by hosting parties in person and online. There were many weeks where Johnson would host seven or eight parties a week. On average, she has about 60 consultants on her team and has had as many as 100 team members at once. Johnson also has a popular Facebook group, VIP Pampered Chef With Sarah J, where she often posts live cooking videos to her 1,000-plus members.

“I tell people if I can do this, anyone can do it,” Johnson says of making quick and easy meals for her family. She demonstrates new products by making meals and often shares cooking tips she’s learned along the way.

Since joining Pampered Chef, Johnson has met her annual sales goals and earned a free trip every year. These are “bucket list” trips that she and her husband, Jason, wouldn’t have been able to afford to take. They’ve been to Hawaii, the Bahamas, Mexico, DisneyWorld, and Disneyland, and she has been able to take her best friend and her mom on trips.

During the Covid pandemic, her Pampered Chef business turned online, opening many more opportunities. She now has regular clients nationwide and hosts many online parties. The flexibility of homeschooling and Pampered Chef were so crucial to the family when their eldest son, Nick, had several health challenges, requiring many trips to Twin Cities hospitals and surgeries. Johnson has battled autoimmune disorders, so being able to set her hours and being home with her sons has been vital to her maintaining good health. She enjoys gardening and grows flowers from seeds she harvests each year. Johnson can be found floating on an inflatable raft in her above-ground pool when she’s not busy in her garden, working or homeschooling. She and her husband have created a backyard sanctuary where she spends much time in the warmer months. She has also become interested in natural healing, using crystal bowls and essential oils.

Her advice for other women who want to find a better life-work balance is to be authentic.

“Don’t overthink it,” she says. “Be true to who you are, and if it’s working for you, just do it for you and be authentic. Don’t try to be ‘that’ person. You are most successful if you are just yourself. I feel like all my passions came together, and I can make cooking more fun.”

Johnson’s favorite dish is anything that looks impressive but is easy to make. One of her biggest meal hacks, which she does most weeks, is to cook her proteins and prep her side dishes on Sundays and use those to assemble meals throughout the week. For example, she may cook chicken, shred it, and use the meat as the base to make wraps for lunch or tacos for dinner during the week. She also freezes many food items to ensure she uses them

Sarah Johnson

up and they don’t go to waste. She also suggests if you’re already cooking a meal, why not help out your future self by making a second meal for later and freezing it?

Johnson still finds it amusing that she’s doling out cooking advice for a living, but she finds teaching others so rewarding.

“If you would have told me years ago I would be a Pampered Chef lady, I’d think you were crazy. I didn’t even cook,”

Johnson said with a laugh. “I still don’t like cooking. I like to bake, and I think baking is a science; cooking is an art. I feel that with cooking, so much can go wrong.”

Sometimes, opportunities are found in unexpected places, like at a Pampered Chef party. Through her honesty, hard work and determination, Johnson has shown that with the right mindset, you can build the life you want, no matter where you start.

Jodie Norquist, a former longtime Brainerd Dispatch reporter, lives in Pequot Lakes. She attempts to stay youthful by attending concerts with her teen daughters and cherishing time with her one-year-old granddaughter, Ivy, who has completely stolen her heart.