Good Cooking
Food, Sarah insists, can bring people together ... and she loves doing just that Story by Jacquelyn Hall Photos by David Moore
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oxie isn’t a word one hears very often nowadays, but it perfectly describes Sarah Morrow, creator of Hele Bowls to-go restaurant in Cullman. Her tenacity and perseverance – and perhaps even her Hawaiian heritage – have served her well, allowing her dreams to come into fruition. Her recipes also helped. Through a tumultuous childhood, she and her family moved to Cullman County from Michigan 17 years ago, where her step-dad began his HVAC career. Sarah attended West Point for eighth grade and Vinemont for high school. She met her husband Steven in her first year at Vinemont. During her last two years of high school, she started taking classes at the career center. Her hard work paid off; she graduated Vinemont with both a high school diploma and a career technical diploma in culinary arts. “I was a gothy little kid at Vinemont and didn’t really fit in, but at the career center … it was a place for ‘misfits.’ We all still keep in touch with each other.” Sarah is truly one of those people who has worked their way from the bottom rung up to accomplish her dreams and goals. Back when she was 16, she started working at Waffle House, then she moved on to a job at Best Western, and worked those two jobs through high school, all while also attending classes at the career center. Due to family needs, she was not able to attend either of the two culinary schools to which she was accepted after high school. But true to form, she didn’t
Sarah Morrow has a certain charisma – not to mention her Hawaiian heritage – that is apparent at Hele Bowls and in her healthy recipes, as well. let the set-back dampen her long term goals.
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s with many women, at this point in her life Sarah paused her professional goals to have children. “I was a stay-at-home mom for the first three and a half years of my son’s life,” Sarah says. “Then I started at 412 the day after I was medically cleared when my daughter was born.” She had seen a listing for a job opening at 412 Public House for a
dishwasher and worried they would not hire her and she wouldn’t be able to get the kitchen experience she wanted. It was definitely one of those moments in life where one is glad to be wrong. Not only did she get the dishwasher job, but through more hard work and determination, she was able to train under chef Ricardo “Rico” Nishimura and sous chef Kyle Kirkpatrick. “If it weren’t for them pushing me to work harder, and teaching me, I wouldn’t be where I am now,” Sarah NOV. | DEC. | JAN.
2022-23
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