'Top Chef' star Sara Bradley pumped 15 gallons of breast milk while filming the latest season in London. She shipped it to Kentucky — here's how and why.
"I think we've normalized breastfeeding more; I think that it's gotten much better," she says. "And I think that pumping is the next step."
The first time Top Chef producers approached Sara Bradley about returning for an all-star version of the hit Bravo cooking competition, she was three months postpartum and still adjusting to the challenges of being a first-time mom. But when they sought her out again last year with an offer to compete, in London, against the show's most memorable international contestants for its milestone 20th season, Bradley didn't hesitate to sign on — provided she could still keep providing breast milk for the new baby she'd since welcomed to her family: then-9-month-old Hazel.
"I was like, 'Let's do it,'" the Season 16 runner-up tells Yahoo Life of taking the leap to return for Top Chef World All Stars, which premiered this month on Bravo and Peacock. She attributes the decision to not only the comparative ease of caring for a 9-month-old versus a 3-month-only baby, and her growing confidence in her parenting skills, but also the opportunity to set an example for Hazel and her big sister Lula, 3. "As my daughter has aged, I had realized the importance of showing her how powerful women are, and how powerful we can be," she adds. "And so I thought this was a great opportunity to show that Mommy can do all of these things and she can still feed a baby, she can do all of this stuff and she can live out her dreams too."
Bradley, chef and owner of the Freight House in her native Paducah, Ky., didn't want her participation in the show to disrupt her breastfeeding plans. Because Lula and Hazel would be staying home with her husband, Austin, while she filmed Top Chef in London from August to October, Bradley made plans to pump during her time abroad. The show's production covered the costs of shipping Bradley's milk from London to Kentucky via the breast milk shipping company Milk Stork.
"Number one, America was going through a formula shortage at the time, and I was able to produce milk," she says of her determination to staying committed to nursing. "And so I thought, I will continue to pump so that there's another child out there that has access to formula. And also, I didn't want doing Top Chef to end my breastfeeding journey. I knew that if I pumped and kept my milk up, hopefully when I returned — even if maybe my supply was less — I would still be able to breastfeed."
Between the frozen breast milk blocks she shipped home — only one of which got delayed in customs, though it still managed to be in good condition when it finally arrived in Kentucky — and the packed freezer carton she carried on her flight home, Bradley estimates she pumped about 15 gallons of breast milk during the nine weeks she was away. The nature of filming a TV show lent itself to a lot of downtime, which she would use to pump while, say, the crew set up the next shot. Bradley never found herself engorged or needing to pump during a fast-paced cooking challenge, though an outing to pick up ingredients did get a little ... leaky.
"One time we were at Whole Foods in London and there was this baby in there," she says with a laugh. "This baby was crying and my milk like, let down in Whole Foods. And I was like, oh my God. This is insanity."
Bradley, who was filmed pumping in the second episode of Top Chef World All Stars, didn't shy away from bringing her hand-me-down, rechargeable Spectra pump out on set.
"The first time that I got my pump out, I didn't really hide away," she says. "I just kind of sat in the middle of the group and most of the women didn't really say anything. You could see some of the men trying to not look or anything. But, you know, as I did it more and more, it was very rewarding for me to have some of the men and women who were not mothers on the show asking questions — Does it hurt? What do you do? How are you gonna get that home? How does the pump work? — and getting to educate and tell people about how this process works, because I felt like they now will leave and have a different idea of how this works. And they will ... have a more open heart towards women, especially, hopefully, if they have employees."
As a restaurant owner herself, Bradley tries to practice what she preaches. Last year, she was involved in an effort to provide free access to pumpspotting — an app listing places for moms to pump and breastfeed — for workers in the food service industry, pledging her own Freight House restaurant as a lactation-friendly workplace.
"For a long time, this was not an industry that was supportive or conducive to women wanting to have a family, especially a young family, and breastfeed or pump," she notes, "because it's not like you can just walk off the line at 7 o'clock and be like, 'Oh, I need to pump.' It's not like you can just stop your prep for 30 minutes and go do your thing."
But she's heartened by workplace initiatives that are more supportive of moms' needs, including her own. To help demystify nursing at Freight House, she's stopped hiding away in her office when she needs to pump — and in fact, has greeted tables while secretly having a hands-free pump on to go without anyone the wiser. It's all part of making the process of breastfeeding and pumping more visible.
Nearly half a year has passed since filming on Top Chef World All Stars wrapped, but Bradley is still breastfeeding a now 17-month-old Hazel, who wasn't deterred by her mom's nine-week absence.
"I creeped into her room and she, like, smelled me," she says of seeing her baby for the first time after filming. "She popped up out of her crib and she latched on immediately. She had not forgotten what was going on. That was really rewarding."
With Hazel down to two feeds a day now, Bradley is mindful that her breastfeeding journey will end relatively soon. "I've either been pregnant, breastfeeding or exclusively pumping for almost five years," she says. "I'm in this weird part in my life where like, I kind of want my body back." But she considers sticking with her pumping while in London a "proud moment" in her life, not only because of what it meant for her family but for what it shows those watching at home.
"I think we've normalized breastfeeding more; I think that it's gotten much better," she says. "And I think that pumping is the next step, because this is a way for you to continue to feed your child but still do what you need to do and continue to live your life."
Top Chef World All Stars airs on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.
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