cook well, eat well, be well.

chef sara bradley is a nationally renowned, award-winning chef and proprietor of freight house, the restaurant she opened in her native paducah, ky. she’s a 2025 james beard award semi-finalist, a two-time runner-up on bravo’s top chef competition, and the first ever chopped legend on the food network, as well as a chopped champion.

chef sara attributes her success to years of education and career development in some of the country’s top kitchens, including those of michelin-starred chefs in new york and chicago, combined with knowledge she gained from kitchens that highlighted her family’s jewish and appalachian heritage.

inspired by everything she’d learned, chef sara sought to open a restaurant of her own and saw the opportunity to do so in a market beyond the urban landscape, finding the perfect place in her hometown of paducah.

in 2015 she opened freight house to pay homage to the vast farmland that stretches throughout the ohio valley region. the opportunity presented itself in the old vegetable depot in her hometown, which is located at the confluence of the ohio and tennessee rivers.

at freight house, she has been able to fulfill her mission of providing fresh, seasonal ingredients to create elevated dishes inspired by southern and midwestern cuisine. this approach applies not only the dinner menu but also to the cocktail menu at freight house, which features innovative creations from a beverage program that has been named one of america’s great bourbon bars by the bourbon review and whiskey advocate.

chef sara works to build an equitable and compassionate work environment that promotes work/life balance. as a working mom of two, she knows how important it is to maintain that balance and believes parents in the industry shouldn’t have to choose between career and family. she is especially passionate about supporting breastfeeding and pumping parents in the workforce because those unique challenges often force them to leave the career they love.

outside of the restaurant, chef sara helps raise cattle with her husband and supports nonprofits like world central kitchen, the convention & visitors bureau board, and trains local high school students with autism spectrum disorders. chef sara is an alumna of the james beard foundation’s bootcamp for policy and change.