Sarah Heller

The Path

Training at Johnson & Wales University gave Sarah Heller an entry point into professional kitchens, where standards are measured in timing, repetition, and control. A Sous Chef stint at Thomas Keller Restaurant Group (2005–2007) put those demands in place early, and a later role as Chef De Partie at Meadowood Napa Valley (2009) kept the work moving through a more exacting level of execution. The throughline is not flash; it is steady advancement, with technique clarified by repetition and by the pace of high-level service. Those roles now sit beside two current appointments that show the range of Sarah Heller’s practice. Since 2019, she has been chef/owner of Pasta Lovers Club Napa, where pasta is the central craft and the table is part of the format. In the same year, she became Estate Chef and director of gardens of Wheeler Farms Winery (since 2019), linking kitchen work to the garden and the conditions that produce it. The combination places her work at the intersection of handwork and source, with the kitchen in conversation with what grows.

The Work Today

The present tense of Sarah Heller’s work is family-scale and process-driven: fresh pasta, shared meals, and a routine built around making food that brings people together. With Jason Heller and their five-year-old daughter Madeline, the practice stays close to the domestic table while still carrying the structure of a working kitchen. “We’re Sarah and Jason Heller, and together with our five-year-old daughter Madeline, we make fresh pasta and create meals that bring people together.”

In Their Words “For the past sixteen years, cooking and entertaining have been central to our lives — not just as careers, but as a shared passion that grounds our family.” “We’re Sarah and Jason Heller, and together with our five-year-old daughter Madeline, we make fresh pasta and create meals that bring people together.”

Acclaim

The phrasing is direct: “food is how we connect with each other and with the world around us.” In Sarah Heller’s case, that idea is carried through the everyday work of cooking, entertaining, and building meals that are meant to pull people into the same room.