Welcome to Sara Flavors

Bonjour! I’m Sara, a 23-year-old French student living in New York City. This is where I share the recipes that helped me find home in a place that initially felt anything but.

Lost in Translation

September 2022. I stepped off the plane at JFK with two overpacked suitcases, decent English skills, and admission to NYU’s Communications program. I was ready for the academic challenge, excited even. What I wasn’t ready for was how completely disorienting everything else would be.

The language barrier wasn’t what I expected. I could write essays and participate in class discussions just fine. But grocery shopping became this exhausting puzzle where I’d stand in the dairy aisle for twenty minutes trying to figure out what “heavy cream” meant. Was it crème fraîche? Crème liquide? Neither?

I missed the fromagerie near my apartment in Lyon where Monsieur Dubois knew exactly which cheese I wanted without me saying a word. I missed the boulangerie that smelled like butter and yeast every morning. I missed knowing how things worked.

New York has eight million people, but I felt completely alone. My classmates were friendly, but I was always half a beat behind their jokes, constantly translating in my head. My accent made me self-conscious. I’d rehearse simple interactions before speaking. Even ordering coffee felt like a performance I might mess up.

By October, the homesickness was crushing.

The Night That Changed Everything

One particularly rough Tuesday evening, I was in my dorm room feeling sorry for myself. I’d spent the day stumbling through conversations, exhausted from existing in a second language for eight hours straight. My roommate was out. The room felt too quiet.

I decided to make my mom’s gratin dauphinois. Not because I had a plan, but because I needed something—anything—that felt like home.

My dorm kitchen was barely functional. One working burner, a temperamental oven, a cutting board the size of a paperback book. But I didn’t care. I just needed to do something I knew how to do.

Something shifted while I cooked. The smell of garlic warming in butter. The meditative rhythm of slicing potatoes paper-thin the way Grand-mère had taught me. The muscle memory of layering cream and cheese exactly right. For those two hours, I wasn’t a struggling international student. I was just me, doing something I was actually good at.

That became my survival strategy. Stressed about exams? Make quiche Lorraine. Missing Sunday family dinners? Beef bourguignon simmering on the stove, filling my tiny space with the smell of home.

The Unexpected Experiment

Then something interesting happened. My roommate mentioned mac and cheese one day, this staple American comfort food I’d heard about but never actually tried. So I looked up a recipe and made it.

And I got it. I understood why Americans loved this stuff. It was comfort in a bowl, just like my mom’s gratin was for me. Different techniques, different ingredients, but the same emotional purpose.

That realization opened something up. What if I stopped treating French and American food as separate worlds? What if I made mac and cheese with Comté and Gruyère? What if I used béchamel technique on American classics? What if I just cooked what I actually wanted to eat?

I started experimenting. French technique meets American ingredients. Traditional recipes adapted for a closet-sized kitchen. Comfort food that bridged the gap between where I’m from and where I am.

Building Sara Flavors

I’m not great at walking up to strangers at campus events. The thought of introducing myself in group settings still makes my stomach hurt. But taking photos of my food and writing about recipes? That I could do.

I launched Sara Flavors in September 2023, exactly one year after arriving in New York. It started as a low-stakes way to connect without the pressure of real-time conversation. No worrying about my accent or whether I’d understand someone’s response. Just food, photos, and words I could carefully choose.

The first time someone commented that they’d made my roasted chicken with lemon and thyme, I nearly cried. It was this tiny moment of connection that I desperately needed.

Two years later, this blog has become so much more than I expected. It’s how I process this strange in-between space I occupy. It’s how I stay connected to Lyon while building a life in New York. It’s how I turned loneliness into something creative.

My Life Right Now

My days are controlled chaos. I’m finishing my Communications degree at NYU (graduating in May 2025). To pay rent and fund my cooking experiments, I teach French three evenings a week to small groups of New Yorkers. There’s beautiful irony in helping Americans understand my native language while still navigating their culture myself.

Then there’s Sara Flavors. Late nights are for recipe testing. Early mornings for editing photos before class. Weekends for writing posts and answering comments.

It’s exhausting. It’s also the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever done.

What You’ll Find Here

Sara Flavors exists in the space between two cultures, which is exactly where I live.

French recipes that taste like home – Tarte tatin, coq au vin, the crêpes my mom makes every Sunday. When I’m homesick, these are what I make.

American comfort food with French technique – Mac and cheese with proper béchamel. Apple pie meets tarte aux pommes. Chocolate chip cookies enhanced with fleur de sel and French butter.

Small-kitchen tested recipes – Everything here works in my 80-square-foot New York apartment kitchen. One cutting board, two burners, temperamental oven. If it works for me, it’ll work for you.

Honest adaptations – I tell you when I’ve changed something because American ingredients are different, or when I’ve simplified a recipe because I don’t have the right equipment.

My Cooking Background

I grew up in Lyon, France’s gastronomic capital. My grandmother ran a small café for thirty years. My mother taught me to make béchamel before I was ten. I learned cooking the French way: proper technique, quality ingredients, patience.

But I also learned that food is about nourishment and joy, not perfection. Some of my best recipes came from mistakes. My first attempt at American biscuits was a disaster until I realized they needed a lighter hand than French pastry. That’s just part of the process.

Every recipe here has been tested multiple times in my actual kitchen. I write clearly because I know what it’s like to follow recipes in your second language, trying to parse unfamiliar terms and techniques.

What I Believe

Food is how I make sense of the world. It’s how I stay connected to where I’m from while embracing where I am. It’s how I turned isolation into community.

Cooking doesn’t need to be intimidating. Even with limited space, limited equipment, and limited time, you can make something genuinely delicious.

The best recipes are ones that feed more than just your body. They feed your memories, your sense of belonging, your need for comfort.

Merci for Being Here

Sara Flavors is still evolving. Some posts are more polished, others rougher around the edges. I’m learning as I go, both in cooking and in life.

What I know is this: cooking saved me when I was drowning in homesickness. Creating this blog gave me purpose and connection when I couldn’t find it anywhere else.

I’m genuinely grateful you’re here. Whether you found Sara Flavors through a search, or someone sent you here, or you’ve been following along—thank you for giving this space your time.

I hope you find recipes here that become your favorites. I hope cooking brings you the same comfort it’s brought me.

Join the Sara Flavors Community:
Sign up for my newsletter to get new recipes every week—French classics, American favorites, and everything in between.

Let’s Connect:
Made one of my recipes? Have questions? Just want to say hello? Email me at [email protected]. I read every message, usually late at night with tea.

À bientôt,
Sara