Posted:09-October-2025
Award-winning franchisee talks about her journey with the UK’s largest cooking school for kids
- Name: Sara Butler
- Location: South East Wales (Newport to Ebbw Vale and Monmouthshire)
- Franchise: Cook Stars
- Date launched the franchise: June 2019
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and what you were doing prior to buying your Cook Stars franchise business?
I worked as a Learning and Development Manager for airport retail Managers all over Northern Europe. I travelled to a lot of very beautiful places and saw the inside of a hotel room and the airport! I had worked in the company for almost 20 years
Can you also tell us about Cook Stars?
Cook Stars is the UK’s largest cooking school for kids! Cathy Harding the franchisor started the company 11 years ago cooking with her own children and it has grown to over 50+ franchise owners across the country. We LOVE cooking with children of all ages, working with community groups, charities and schools.
Why did you go down the franchise route? What made you choose your industry? And why Cook Stars?
I turned 50, my Mum sadly died and I got married all in 2018, I wanted to come out of the business I was in and lean more towards teaching a skill that I had loved since I was 2 years old. When researching starting your own business I came across Cook Stars and it piqued my interest-everything I wanted to do but I didn’t need to start from scratch! I went to a discovery day and was hooked and bought into the franchise very soon afterwards
How did you raise the finance?
I had savings so it was a simple raid of the savings pot!
What training and support did you receive initially and ongoing?
We had 2 days of training with Cathy at the then head office, in those days we had 3 enormous training manuals which had all the information, nowadays we have it easy as everything is at our fingertips on our electronic learning system! The Head Office team have grown with the business and now there are experts in every part of business ownership- from payroll to marketing if you have a question they have the answer! Other franchise owners are also eager to share their experiences through our Facebook group so no one feels alone!
How would you describe your day-to-day role as a Cook Stars franchisee
Varied! No two days are the same, today for example, I have walked my dog, taken a full school class through a pizza workshop, and tasting from their own allotment. Come home, caught up with my admin, including booking more sessions, checking my Leaders have everything they need, catching up with a new Class Leader, then I have an after school class with years 7&8 making pancakes!
From setting up sessions, buying ingredients, marketing the sessions, applying for funding, training and developing my team, recruiting new team members, payroll, teaching and evaluating sessions my life is certainly busy!
Provide information on challenges overcome as well as your key successes to date.
My successes are all around building up this business from the ground up, being brand new at business ownership at 50 certainly came with challenges but I have worked through them all and now proudly can say my business is a success!
Has becoming a franchisee changed your life, if so how?
Most definitely, I always wanted a dog, working across Europe I couldn’t even consider a fish let alone a dog, now I have him sleeping next to me as I type this, knowing I can take him for a walk prior to going to my next session!
How do you achieve a work-life balance?
This is the hardest part and one I possibly haven’t quite mastered yet! Let me get back to you when I am cruising around the Seychelles typing up my yearly budget!
If you are a multi-unit franchisee, can you tell us why your franchise is ideal for those looking for a scalable opportunity?
I have 2 Cook Stars franchises, a Fedline Franchise and also run a Schools programme all under the Cook Stars umbrella, The benefits are that I can run any session at any time, Cook Stars is great for this you can scale up as much as you want, buying additional full neighbourhood franchises or additional postcodes .
If you have staff, how do you retain your best staff and keep morale high and productive; how do you incentivise your staff and recognise success?
I have a small team of 6 part time staff who all get involved in what sessions they want to run, I actively seek to watch sessions they are running and feedback on how they did, we currently are deciding where to all go to celebrate Christmas together
Can you tell us about any community involvement, including any local partnerships, incentives or charity work you are involved in?
I work a lot with communities and charities particularly with my Fedline Project franchise, working with councils, funders and schools to provide healthy, on a budget cooking programmes, I work in partnership with 3 food festival groups to run their children’s cooking schools and also am the preferred partner for Barnadoes working with their young carers and family groups.
What is the most invaluable piece of advice you could give someone looking to buy their first franchise?
Research everything, ask to go and see the franchise in action and talk to franchise owners, really think if you can commit to all parts of running a business and don’t think you will make your fortune in year one!
In your opinion, what makes a successful franchisee?
Someone who gets really involved with everything and doesn’t shy away from getting their hands dirty. A great communicator and someone with a real sense of adventure. Someone who says yes then works out how to do it afterwards!
What are your plans for the future?
To keep growing the business but taking more of a Leadership role rather than physically teaching as much as I do.
If you had to do it all again, what would you do differently?
Start 20 years ago!!
Interested and want to know more about Cook Stars?
The Cook Stars basic profile outlines aspects of their franchise opportunity
