Meet Amanda and Sarah

Amanda Varnell is known by many as a “Dinner Table Specialist.” Founding CookingLIVE in 2006, she has been teaching cooking classes in the Greater Chattanooga area and speaking on the topic of the dinner table professionally for over 6 years.  As wife to Phil for 20 years and mom to Jack, Luke, Sophia and Sam for 18, 15, 12 and 10 years respectively, she has also logged thousands of hours in her own kitchen. She considers herself a modern day superhero with superpowers that include folding laundry faster than it’s dirtied and a 10 minute tidy that restores hours of demolition. Amanda’s biggest secret weapon is her ability to share the good things she stumbles upon with anyone who will stop long enough listen. Her favorite pastime is investing herself in the lives of others and empowering them to live up to their own superhero potential. She is humbled by the fact that a great, big God entrusted her to tend to the task of teaching others the practice of hospitality.  And she knows that apart from Him she could do nothing. 

Sarah Hooper is a native Chattanoogan now living with her family in Ringgold, GA.  She has been married to her college sweetheart, Jason, since 1995, has two rambunctious boys, Jackson and John and a slobbering basset hound, Sandy.  She does not consider herself a real “foodie” , but rather more of an “eater” and is more interested in the stories we tell over coffee than the type of beans we used.  Her culinary training came from growing up in the kitchen of an excellent “basics” cook and grew into a passion after realizing the powerful force food plays in relationships.  She loves the look on faces after the first bite of something delicious or something they have never tried. She reads cookbooks in bed and has a collection of mixing bowls that would shame Imelda Marcos.  She's been “practicing hospitality” her whole life and thinks family dinner conversations can change the world.