About The Founder
Dr. Sarah Jameel is a Dentist from University College Cork in Ireland. She graduated with a Post Graduate Diploma in Primary Care Dentistry from the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (RCSI), and then went on to obtain her Membership of Faculty of Dentistry (MFD) from RCSI. She has lived across 4 continents - Asia, North America, Europe and Australia and has practiced Dentistry across 3 continents. She is currently a Dental Surgeon in the Public Health System in Australia.
An alumna of McGill University in Canada where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Sciences and International Relations, she was in addition, a Hugh Brock Entrance Scholar and graduated from the Dean’s Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Research List in 2014. She also worked as an Intern at the World Health Organization (WHO) Headquarters in Geneva to the Department for the Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases (PNCDs) at the WHO where she worked on mHealth (mobile health). Additionally, she was on the Global Health Panel at the Harvard Program for Asian and International Relations (HPAIR) in 2012.
She is a scientist, writer, activist, humanitarian, speaker, artist, and culinary creator/ coach. Sarah was a Quercus Active Citizenship Scholar at University College Cork as part of the Ford Quercus Talented Students Program and is a recipient of one of the only Active Citizenship scholarships in the world at the university level. She is also an alumna of the Harvard Program for Asian and International Relations and the Presidential Classroom Program in DC. As a scientist and researcher, she has been commended by the International Association of Dental Research (IADR) where she won first place at the scientific poster competition of the IADR Irish World Dental Federation (FDI), Commonwealth Dental Association (CDA) and Sri Lanka Dental Association (SLDA) where she won a Prize for Commendable Research Paper and Oral Presentation Award at the FDI Conference in 2013.
During one of her Easter breaks in Dental School, she travelled to Calais in France and served as a Volunteer at the Refugee Community Kitchen in 2017, assisted with the preparation of meals for refugees, and donated oral health supplies to refugees. She loves experimenting in the kitchen from casual 12-course fine-dining supper clubs for her close friends and family during her holidays to baking for friends’ birthdays on work days. As a second-generation Dentist, outside the Dental clinic, she and her dad (who she has nicknamed a brown/ Lankan version of Gordon Ramsey) often experiment on complex culinary creations together, as both in Dentistry and in making a dish it is always about following steps and being methodical. She is forever inspired by the culinary goddess in her life - her mum, who can whip up a Biriyani and 5 side dishes between talking to you and reading her legal briefs.
She recently wrapped up the Culinary Health Education Fundamentals (CHEF) Coaching – Basics — a Culinary Medicine course by Harvard Medical School. Designed for Medical, Dental, and Allied Health professionals, it trains clinicians to bring evidence-based nutrition into patient care by getting patients into the kitchen and into home cooking in order to improve their lifestyle, and ultimately their diagnostic outcomes. She has also completed a course on the ‘Introduction to Food and Health’ by Stanford Medicine designed for Primary Care Clinicians.
She is the Founder of EATEN ESSJAY - a Fine Dining Supper Club of authentic + modern Lankan gastronomy that she does routinely for her dear friends and family when she is back in Sri Lanka on holiday.
At 16, she founded KICK THE BUTT, the world’s first fashion and social media-led anti-teen smoking campaign, and has been chosen and recognized as a Global Teen Leader by the We Are Family Foundation in NYC and as a Global Changemaker by the British Council in UK. At 18, she was chosen as one of the 6 British Council Global Changemakers to represent the voice of youth at the World Economic Forum 2010 in Davos, Switzerland. She was also a Panelist at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2010 at Closing Plenary on ‘Being Responsible for the Future’. Sarah has been recognized as a Jamie Oliver Food Revolution Ambassador in 2015, and has been a Speaker at numerous international forums including, Virtual Speaker at the UN World Conference on Youth in Sri Lanka 2014, European Youth Parliament in Ireland in 2014, and the We Are Family Foundation’s Three Dot Dash Just Peace Summit. She has also been a Writer and Blogger for The Huffington Post a piece of her writing “A love letter to Beirut, Paris and beyond from Sri Lanka” went viral in 2015.
Outside the clinic and the kitchen, she loves to play tennis, and recently trained at the Rafa Nadal Academy. She believes being a balanced clinician is the best thing you can do for your patients and your well-being.
Sarah is a trilingual, has a World Prize in Science Fiction Writing, is an Associate of Trinity College London in Speech and Drama, a Graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA), and a former National Level debater, chess player and diver in Sri Lanka. She’s a full-time nerd and homecook, Harry Potter fanatic, an embodiment of her parents, and can be found chilling by the ocean - preferably the Indian Ocean, at any given occasion.
