A unique experience awaits all children 12 and under at the Syracuse University women’s basketball game Sunday, March 2. The All-Star Food Fest is an opportunity for children to experience international culture through food.
All children who have a ticket to the game are invited to arrive at the JMA Wireless Dome at 3 p.m. to taste test cuisine from eight countries and meet the student-athletes who handpicked the dishes. Each participant will receive a VIP pass and passport to learn about the student-athletes’ home countries and the food that is meaningful to them. The All-Star Food Fest is a collaboration between Kalamata’s Kitchen, Syracuse University’s Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, Syracuse University Campus Catering, and Syracuse University Athletics.
Kalamata’s Kitchen encouraged families to experience the whole world through adventures with food. The All-Star Food Fest will allow children to taste, smell, and learn about the foods that are special to the students, building a strong bond between the athletes and the young fans and fostering their curiosity for further food exploration. The featured dishes include sausage rolls from Australia, bangers and mash from Ireland, rasta pasta from Jamaica, Käsespätzle from Germany, egg empanadas from Uruguay, chicken empanadas from Puerto Rico, poutine from Canada, and jollof from Liberia.
The first 50 children to experience the All-Star Food Fest will meet the author of Kalamata’s Kitchen books, Sarah Thomas, and receive a signed copy of her book.
The All-Star Food Fest will conclude at 3:55 p.m., leading into the Orange women’s 4 p.m. basketball game against Boston College and the program’s Senior Day.
Tickets for the basketball game, which includes a free All-Star Food Fest passport for children 12 and under, are available at www.Cuse.com.
About Sarah Thomas
A veteran sommelier and fine-dining professional, Sarah Thomas is now the co-founder and Chief Brand Officer at Kalamata’s Kitchen, where she brings together her lifelong passions for both food and books. The daughter of two south Indian immigrants, Sarah grew up in the rural town of Somerset, Pennsylvania, and was surrounded by food from a young age. Her parents very much kept their Indian culture alive through the food they cooked, and Sarah would spend summers in Kerala visiting her grandparents, forming some of her earliest food memories.
Sarah’s love for food is what eventually led her to the hospitality industry. After launching the nationally-recognized Wine Room at Bar Marco, she spent nearly six years as a sommelier at 3-star Michelin Le Bernardin, where she obtained the prestigious Advanced Sommelier certification. Along with food, books played a special role in Sarah’s upbringing, eventually leading to a Masters in literature from the University of Cambridge.
Like many first generation children, Sarah grew up with what she felt were two conflicting identities, with her strong Indian heritage seeming to contrast against the mostly white rural town where she lived, and literature became a way for her to escape into another world. Through her storytelling work with Kalamata’s Kitchen, Sarah hopes to create a confident character that other children of color can see themselves in, while also encouraging all children to look at different foods and cultures with a sense of curiosity and compassion. Sarah has authored two books in the Kalamata’s Kitchen series, with an animated series in development.