Sara Ryckebosch with the tools of one of her trades.
Leading a "Double Life"
“I wouldn’t be surprised if 75% of library employees are secretly or publically writers!” Sara Ryckebosch says, laughing. She should know: to Gregory Heights Library patrons, she’s a Page and Library Assistant; but to readers of The Oregonian, she’s Sara Bir, a regular contributor to the FOODday section, offering recipes for pork sausages or whole wheat molasses bread. It’s not quite a secret alter ego — Bir is her maiden name — but it’s a double life she has been successfully maintaining for over 10 years.
Culinary Career
After dropping out of college in her home state of Ohio, Ryckebosch’s culinary career began with a tough, but necessary, stint at New York’s Culinary Institute of America. But Ryckebosch was dreaming of book launches and Saveur magazine instead of restaurant openings and Michelin stars. “I always knew I wanted to write in some capacity,” says Ryckebosch. “The two things just kind of converged.”
While penning recipes is probably not the kind of literature to which most budding writers aspire, Ryckebosch believes they’re far more than just the sum of their carefully measured parts. “It represents, in a small way, a better life,” she says. “Even if you don’t have the skills to make what’s in [a cookbook], you imagine living this life where you would have a beautiful garden party, your friends would come over, they’d be beautiful, you’d all be drinking wine, and they’d love all the food that you’d made, but you don’t have to clean up any dishes! It’s this great fantasy world.”
Ryckebosch’s career has seen her travel across the country, writing food articles and testing recipes everywhere from an alt-weekly in Sonoma, CA to Martha Stewart Living magazine. But in an increasingly tough media environment, writing doesn’t always put food on the table (pardon the pun), and so Ryckebosch’s passion for words has led her to a second, very different, occupation.
A Love of Libraries
“I’ve always loved libraries, they’ve been so good to me—and not just as a way to check out books,” Ryckebosch says. “Even before I decided to go to cooking school, I worked at a library in Ohio. Libraries have always stepped up to give me gainful employment when writing didn’t come through.”
Since moving to Portland four years ago, Ryckebosch has been able to keep up her two vocations. Her writing career has taken more of a backseat since the birth of her daughter 16 months ago, so, for the time being, Ryckebosch is happy to be working with other people’s books, rather than her own.
“You’re always a writer, no matter what, but you’re not always going to make money as a writer,” she says. “I’m really proud to work in a library.”
