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Top Chef Season 19 is all set to premiere in March on Bravo. A total of 15 talented chefs will compete for $250,000, and one of them is Detroit-based Sarah Welch.
She is a partner and executive chef at Marrow restaurant and co-founder of Mink, a seafood-centric restaurant in Corktown, Detroit. Both her ventures are successful, thanks to her culinary skills, for which she credits her partial Jamaican upbringing.
Welch grew up traveling between Jamaica and Michigan. Although her family is full of food lovers, her passion to become a chef was inspired by her time in Jamaica. In an interview with her culinary school, the Institute of Culinary Education, she said:
“We grew up with Jamaican children who, unlike the American children we were friends with, could cook for themselves as early as 8. I was fascinated with their ability to grill fish over open fires or make dumplings from just flour and water. Those are certainly foundational memories for me."
Sarah Welch was James Beard Foundation’s semi-finalist
The Marrow restaurant is run by four friends, Welch, Ping Ho (Founder), Amanda Franke, and Nick Ponte. The chef’s food led the restaurant to become the semi-finalist in the James Beard Foundation in 2019 in the Best New Restaurant in the country category. That same year, Marrow appeared in Eater’s list of top new restaurants.
In 2020, Welch was voted as the semi-finalist at the same foundation in the Great Lakes category for Best Chef. Welch previously worked at Republic and Parks & Rec Diner for two years as an executive chef. She graduated from Michigan State University pursuing a business degree while earning a culinary degree from the International Culinary Center (ICC) in New York City.
Apart from Marrow, she is currently a partner at Mink, where her fiancé Cameron Rolka is an executive chef. The couple got engaged in 2020 and have been dating each other for over nine years.
Welch’s next big step in her career is participating in Top Chef Season 19.
When will Top Chef Season 19 air?
The upcoming season of Top Chef is all set to premiere Thursday, March 3 on Bravo at 8.00 pm Eastern Time (ET).
The cooking show will introduce 15 contestants, including Sam Kang, Evelyn Garcia, Buddha Lo, Jackson Kalb, Nick Wallace, Sarah Welch, Jae Jung, Stephanie Miller, Jo Chan, Ashleigh Shanti, Leia Gaccione, Monique Feybesse, Luke Kolpin, Robert Hernandez, and Damarr Brown.
Tom Colicchio, Padma Lakshmi, and Gail Simmons will be on the judge's panel, alongside multiple celebrity chefs, who will appear throughout the season.
