On The Table With Chef Sabine St. Pierre

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Growing up, Sabine St. Pierre spent lots of time baking at home, and worked countless hours in her dad’s Pizza Villa in downtown Hopkinton. As much as she enjoyed cooking, she never really thought about making it a career. In college, she’d cook a lot for herself because there wasn’t much in the ways of healthy selections in the school’s cafeteria.

St. Pierre went on to earn her Master’s degree in elementary education, and taught fourth grade for nearly ten years.

“When I was teaching I looked forward to coming home and cooking up some nutritious concoction for dinner,” she said. “Chopping and tossing ingredients in a pot was therapeutic for me after a long day of teaching. My desire for cooking lingered to a point I couldn’t ignore.”

After a suggestion from one of her aunts, who was in the restaurant business, in 2007, St. Pierre launched Sabine’s Cuisine Personal Chef Services. Based in Hopkinton (though she will travel all over), it started with a small clientele base, with St. Pierre bringing meals to close neighbors and teaching friends. Built the clientele built up, and now St. Pierre runs the thriving service that provides nutritious, homemade meals to homes. She offers full weekly meal services as well as interactive parties for adults and kids.

Most important chef’s tool: Garlic press. I have two, one for home and one that travels with me. I love garlic. However, I always smell like food so there is no need for my hands to constantly smell like garlic. Plus I love the texture of the garlic from my garlic press (Pampered Chef is the best one out there). It’s hard to get that texture from a knife.

In your fridge at home: A lot of hummus and pickles! My kids love hummus and pickles. A few dozen farm fresh eggs, seasonal fruits and vegetables. I also store all of my special flours in the fridge to keep them from spoiling (almond meal, cashew flour, whole wheat flour, flax seeds, shredded coconut).

Have you ever cooked for anyone famous? If so, whom? Not yet!

If you could cook for anyone, dead or alive, who would you pick? Ina Garten-mostly because I would love to hang out with her at her home in the Hamptons and pick her brain over a glass of wine. We have very similar tastes in decorating and food and I could learn a lot from her.

Best music to cook by: ‘80s or today’s greatest pop hits. I like “shake it, shake it” while I cook!

Favorite dish to make: This changes seasonally and I cook so many different things, but right now it would be a summer vegetable gratin using zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes and fresh basil from my garden and homemade pesto.

Favorite dish on the menu: All of my clients have different menus so this is a tough one. My turkey spinach meatballs tend to be a big hit along with my stuffed flank steak with prosciutto and provolone.

Most inspirational to you as a chef: My twin sister. She is a phenomenal athlete and has always been conscious of what she puts in her body. Post college, during her training for the Olympics she developed colitis. In order for her to be diagnosed she had to strip her diet down to a handful of acceptable foods and after a few months she could slowly add one food back in at a time. Seeing her go through this extremely difficult process and lose her love of food gave me a new appreciation for restricted diets. Food is a joyous and social activity which should not have to be given up because you can’t have certain foods. It gave me a greater purpose of bringing joy back to people who lost their love of food due to dietary restrictions.

Cooking shows you watch? I don’t have much time these days for TV but if I do have time I like to watch Master Chef, Junior Master Chef, Top Chef, Chopped.