About Us
Renowned chef, pastry chef, talk show host, designer and founder of The Yellow Carrot, Sari Suzanne Seedorf is an exuberant lover of people, animals, food, art, language, theater, fashion, travel and culture. Known for her superhuman energy, joyful demeanor (and occasional foul mouth), Sari exudes a uniquely refreshing zest for life that will leave a lasting impression upon your soul.
As a self-taught chef with over 20 years of restaurant, catering and design experience, Sari’s adornment for food started at a very young age. Born in Cedar Rapids, IA, Sari helped her grandparents harvest and sell the family’s coveted sweet corn and tomatoes out of the back of her grandfather’s pickup truck. After attending college in Minnesota, Sari moved to Charleston, SC and quickly became one of the most sought out servers in the city. Sari has lived all over the US and Mexico, opening multiple restaurants, cafés and catering companies that would eventually lead her to Durango, where she opened The Yellow Carrot in 2008.
A multi-faceted being of her own classification, Sari is also a talented clarinetist, has won various awards for acting and singing, and fluently speaks and practices several languages including English, Spanish, French and Turkish. When she’s not in the kitchen, Sari can be found entertaining and inspiring guests or enjoying yet another amazing project thinking up something extraordinary with her Yellow Carrot Crew and colleagues.
Food. Fun. Philosophy. The Yellow Carrot Crew strives to intertwine these core values into our everyday lives and into the lives of our beloved guests. Our mission and purpose is to embrace each day with generosity from the heart, positively impacting and inspiring others to live a life filled with love, joy, peace, prosperity, grace, intentionality and miracles. Our team is soulfully devoted to providing you with exquisite cuisine, culinary artistry, design, production and the most loving service imaginable. It is our promise to provide unparalleled planning and artistry with skillful expedition and intelligent direction to make every one of your experiences at The Yellow Carrot delicious, extraordinary, unforgettable and treasured.
The name Sari is of Hebrew origin meaning princess, lady, or noble. All of us who work with Sari recognize her as just that; the noble princess, bold, brilliant, beautiful, funny and rather eccentric. The Yellow Carrot is more than a restaurant and bakery. It is a place of peace, and upliftment as each sandwich, salad, bowl, cupcake and dessert is a work of art tantalizing one’s senses, invoking infinite possibilities, love, laughter and joy.
Why Carrots? Carrots are a symbol of wellbeing, abundance and health believed to have originated in Afghanistan in the 900’s and secondarily Turkey. Interestingly, the word sari means yellow in Turkish. Hmmm, another synchronicity? Yellow carrots are notably sweeter than orange, red, or purple carrots. The high prana life force and vital energy of carrots activates and balances the solar plexus chakra, the seat of one’s personal power, warrior energy and the point of transformation. Long used in stews and broths, carrots are now identified as a top 10 superfood stocked full of antioxidants, enhancing vision, supporting bone health, helping initiate projects into action, unblocking creative flow while grounding and allowing artists to express themselves more freely, connecting us all to Mother Earth and teaching us that in order to be fulfilled, we may need to do a bit of digging remembering our roots for substance and support.
I never truly understood infinite love with life until falling in love with you. I am blessed knowing you grew just for me to nourish and satiate my body, soul and spirit with infinite love. Food, I don’t love and eat you to survive, I love and eat you to thrive. Everyday I gain profound understanding of the infinite possibilities of your love that guides my energy, heart and soul to pure peace, ultimate health, great pleasure, boundless happiness and fruitful ecstasy. You, my beloved food, are my greatest gift of all and every time I think about you or look at you I see the rest of my beautiful life right in front of my eyes. I fall in love with you everyday food, your vibrant color, your intricate design, your extraordinary scents and aromas and your exotic flavors and beauty. This is where unspeakable appreciation and gratitude lives in the depths of my soul for what the universe and creation is always offering us and in you I found one of the greatest loves of my life and closest truest friends. You have blessed me beyond my wildest dreams and the love affair I have with you, food, is one that will never be able to be fully explained.
Sari Suzanne Seedorf