Sara Foster: Funky Foster's Market

Foster's Market was supposed to be a market where you could buy fresh produce and coffee and takeout. When Sara Foster converted an old lawn mower repair shop to her new market, there was one picnic table. But the customers came and came and seemed to want more, so we have the restaurant where people are welcome to sit and drink a cup of coffee or have a whole meal with friends. And they come because the food is full of flavor, freshly made, and the menu is ever changing. Foster's Market was named Small Business of the Year in 1995, and Sara is on the advisory boards of the North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission and the North Carolina Pork Council. The Southeastern Booksellers Association in 2001 gave the Cookbook of the year award to her Foster's Market Cookbook. 

If it weren't for the architect who found the old place on a road lined with pawn shops, if it weren't for the antique and salvage dealer who brought in the old pine for the flooring, if it weren't for the demographic research that targeted the Triangle as an area of potential growth, if it even weren't for Sara Foster's growing tired of the New York scene and wanting something more stable, we wouldn't have the beloved Foster's Market.

Sara made the journey from rural Tennessee in a small town not too far from Memphis to Durham and later Chapel Hill via time in Europe New York, and Connecticut. The journey had some fascinating stops along the way that each nurtured her creative spirit.

Right after high school, Sara entered the University of Mississippi, Ole Miss. But she didn't stay there long and instead toured Europe and when she came back she landed in New York and a job at Lake Placid during the winter Olympics.

There, working with a French caterer, she learned that cooking fascinated her. After she left Lake Placid, she entered the New York Restaurant Cooking School in 1981. Following completion of the cooking school course, her first job was with SoHo Charcuterie and then eventually with Martha Stewart and her catering company, another life-changing choice.

"That was a really great time to work with Martha. It was before she had her magazine and books and everything she does now. It was a tremendous opportunity. I learned about gardening and growing and using herbs," said Sara. "Our kitchen was right on her property in Connecticut co we had the resources to just walk out the door and get fresh herbs at any time."

Sara was with her when Martha was working on her first book, Entertaining, and that experience would influence her when she began working on her own books.

By 1984 Sara had met and married the cinematographer, Peter Sellers, and in 1985 she opened her own catering business in Connecticut. But the dream of opening a market persisted and she and Peter began their search for the right place for a business and their horses.

The demographics pointed to the Triangle where they visited numerous times. One summer they rented a house in Durham and discovered that the area "had a real food following, interesting stores and restaurants. People here had an interest in good food," Sara said. She began to see that "it started in Chapel Hill with Southern Season, Crook's Corner, and La Residence. In Durham there was Magnolia Grill,  Fowler's, and Well Spring (now Whole Foods)."

She points to Bill Neal of Chapel Hill as the one "who started things here. I love his cookbooks. I've been to Crook's Corner since day one, the first time in 1989 before we moved here," she said.

(See the entries on Bill Neal, La Residence, and Crook's Corner in this blog.)

She and Peter finally moved to Durham in 1990 and opened Foster's Market in an old lawn-mower shop that their architect, Jon Conderet, had found. "After about a hundred power washes," old pine floors from One Way Antiques with "bright colors in the wood--blues, yellows, pinks, turquoise"--were installed. They placed one picnic table outside and there was fresh produce ready for purchase inside. The Durham Foster's Market was ready to open.

And like an organic creature, the Market has grown and changed over the years reflecting Sara's creativity and love of the stray antique. "I like to mix old and new things. It has character."

In 1995, Sara added the room with the doors leaning against the back wall, provided by one Way Antiques, because she wanted the feeling of a banquet. Three years ago in 2005 the patio was enlarged with the roof and concrete extended to accommodate more tables. "People love to sit outside," she said.

The Chapel Hill Foster's Market opened in 1998.

Last year she and peter sold their farm in north Durham since they both travel a great deal and bought a home in Forest Hills, two minutes from the Market.

Sara said, "I enjoy coming to work everyday. I enjoy seeing my customers, my staff. I'm a hands-on person."

She has kitchen managers in both the Durham and Chapel Hill Markets.

After the Durham Market was open for eight or nine years. Sara felt she had enough time to begin her first cookbook, Foster's Market Cookbook. She has written two others, Fresh Everyday and Casual Cooking. Each of them received high praise.

Her influences on her cooking style include Martha Stewart, her grandmother, her mother, her father, the chef at SoHo Charcuterie, and Jonathan Waxman, whose cooking philosophy is similar to Sara's--bold flavors, simple ingredients. It's clear when you visit Foster's Market that there's a family influence because the Market has a homey fee and, along with Sara's creativity, funky.

"We constantly change with the seasons and times," Sara said of her menu that's based on fresh food from local farmers and the Durham Farmer's Market. "The Market's a place where generations of people come. Just sit and relax and enjoy it. Whether there are fifteen or two or one's self, you can come and eat as much as you like. have a cop of coffee if that's what you want. A cup of soup or a full meal. And enjoy it."

Stopping by Foster's Market is like going to visit an aunt's house where there's always good food and you always feel welcome.