PHIPPSBURG — Maine chef Cara Stadler, has done a lot — opened a Michelin-starred restaurant with Gordon Ramsay, owned multiple restaurants in Maine and won a national cooking show with a million-dollar prize: “America’s Culinary Cup.”
So now, she said, it’s time to focus on her family.
She said she was able to stay calm during the final cook-off, which required her to make three courses, because she was pregnant. She said she had to make sure she didn’t stress out for the health of her baby.
“America’s Culinary Cup” host Padma Lakshmi, left, and winning contestant Cara Stadler. (CBS/Jackie Brown)
And, her success in the opening rounds, where she had to make culinary decisions on the fly, came from the mindset that chefs have to be flexible. She referenced the micro-seasons in Maine, where some ingredients are only available for short periods of time.
“You should use what’s available to you all the time,” Stadler said. “That’s the best thing in front of you, because it creates the best food. Your food is inherently less delicious than what could be if you’re not using what is available to you in the moment.”
Stadler opened and operated several restaurants in Maine, including Tao Yuan and ZaoZe Cafe & Market in Brunswick, and Bao Bao Dumpling House, which started in Portland then moved to Brunswick. She closed Tao Yuan in 2024 and the others this year.
The reason she closed the restaurants, she said, was because it’s hard to maintain a work-life balance in the restaurant world. Working nights and weekends isn’t right for her right now.
“I can maintain a life balance because I have a wife who is the breadwinner in the family right now, and she takes care of us,” Stadler said. “I couldn’t find balance between running my restaurants, my own restaurants, and having a family. It’s tough.”
Cara Stadler, the champion of “America’s Culinary Cup,” chops dried shrimp while making XO sauce in her Phippsburg home on May 18. (Spectrum News/Jules Walkup)
Stadler was born in Massachusetts and spent most of her youth summering in Phippsburg, where she lives now. After going to culinary school in Paris and working in restaurants across the world, she moved back to Portland in 2011.
Now, Stadler, her wife and two children are going to use the million-dollar prize to buy a house in Bath, England.
She’s stepping back from the restaurant world for now, at least until her children are older and more independent. She’s considering continuing her social media work, but doesn’t know if she has the capacity and patience for it.
“I’m a chef. I’m a mom. I’m a wife. That’s it. That’s all that’s there,” Stadler said. “I love to cook, and now I’m focusing on family. That’s the part of my life that I’m in.”
Cara Stadler poses with her daughter, Lina, in her Phippsburg home on May 18. Stadler recently won a million dollars on America’s Culinary Cup, a cooking competition show. (Spectrum News/Jules Walkup)
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