If heaven had a restaurant, it would be The Yellow Carrot.
When this review popped up on Google, Sari Seedorf, owner and executive chef of The Yellow Carrot, put her hand on her heart. It was less the praise of a stranger that moved her and more the confirmation from the universe that she was on the right path.
“I think if you ask most women business owners, they’ll tell you at least once a month they want to throw in the towel,” Seedorf says while perched in a booth at her restaurant. With a glistening beadboard ceiling, Mediterranean floor tiles, and walls tinted in the warmest saffron tones, the space feels less like an eatery and more like a shrine.
Cultivating that sense is no accident because, as far as Seedorf is concerned, food is creativity; creativity stems from higher, divine powers, and therefore, the enjoyment of food is (or should be) a transcendental experience, which is why the online review struck her as so apropos.
Seedorf’s path to entrepreneurship was anything but direct. She grew up in Iowa, helping her grandparents sell farm-grown vegetables out of the back of their pickup truck. After studying languages in college, she worked as a server in South Carolina. She later ran a restaurant in Mississippi and finally settled in Durango, where she co-owned a small café before launching a successful catering business.
“It wasn’t like a dream. I wasn’t like: Oh, I can’t wait to own my own business,” Seedorf explains.
Instead, Seedorf’s unwavering passion for expressing her creativity through food always led her to business ownership. She solved problems as they arose. She taught herself through trial and error. What her path lacked in logic, it made up for in accolades. Seedorf has established a successful snack company, a nonprofit, a talk show, and more! Each new venture has resulted in more cosmic confirmations, such as filming a pilot episode for a syndicated cooking show. And the online streaming show America’s Best Restaurants will feature The Yellow Carrot in its June episode!
At the moment, Seedorf is attempting to solve the ultimate business riddle: how to stop working in her business so that she can start working on it. It’s all part of bringing to life her dream to run a global enterprise that delivers joy through food.
Amidst a soaring wave of success, Seedorf remains down to earth. After over two decades in the industry, she knows the root of success drinks from deeper wells. The bank balance will not always make one feel like a successful business owner. Having to work due to a staffing shortage does not make one feel like a successful entrepreneur. For Sari, real success is felt when a diner cheers with glee upon seeing a gorgeous plate of food arrive at the table.
The writer Ray Bradbury advised people contemplating any venture to simply “jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down.” He believed that human intellect and cynicism were the enemies of discovery and experimentation. Seedorf resonates with this sentiment: "The real ultimatum is getting out of your own way and allowing everything to unfold. It’s belief and trust and filling my bucket with faith every day.”
Building wings on the way down definitely encapsulates what being an entrepreneur has felt like to Seedorf. There is so much she never learned formally, so much she was never taught, and so much she wished she’d known. She points out, “If I were to be asked if I would do it all over again, I don’t know if I would. But I love creating, and food is my medium through which I share my message with the world.”
And perhaps this process of building wings en route is the best and only way an angel can help others enjoy the taste of heaven on earth.
For Sari, real success is felt when a diner cheers with glee upon seeing a gorgeous plate of food arrive at the table.