Sandra Lee (cook)
| Sandra Lee | |
|---|---|
Lee at the 2012 Time 100 gala
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First Lady of New York de facto |
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Assumed office January 1, 2011 |
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| Governor | Andrew Cuomo |
| Preceded by | Michelle Paige Paterson |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Sandra Lee Christiansen July 3, 1966 Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| Domestic partner | Andrew Cuomo (2005–present) |
| Education | University of Wisconsin–La Crosse |
| Occupation | Television personality, author, celebrity chef |
| Website | sandralee |
Sandra Lee (born Sandra Lee Christiansen; July 3, 1966) is an American television chef and author. She is known for her "Semi-Homemade" cooking concept, which Lee describes as using 70 percent pre-packaged products and 30 percent fresh items.
Sandra Lee Christiansen was born in Santa Monica, California, the daughter of Vicky and Wayne Christiansen. When Sandra was 2, her mother had her and her younger sister Cindy live with their paternal grandmother, Lorraine. By 1972, the girls' parents had divorced; their mother remarried, moving them to Sumner, Washington. When Lee was 11, her mother divorced for a second time. Lee by this time had three additional siblings, Kimmy, Richie and Johnny. At 15, following a beating by her mother, Lee moved in with her boyfriend, Duane, and on June 30, 1982, left for Wisconsin to live with her father and his girlfriend. She graduated from Onalaska High School in Onalaska, Wisconsin, and later attended the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
In December of her junior year, she left college to live near family in Malibu, California. She later attended Le Cordon Bleu in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
In the early 1990s, Lee created a product called "Sandra Lee Kraft Kurtains", a home-decorating tool that used a wire rack and sheets or other fabric samples to create decorative drapery. The product was sold via infomercials and cable shopping networks. Home-shopping network QVC hired her as on-air talent; in her first 18 months on the network, Lee sold $20 million worth of products.
Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee premiered on the Food Network in 2003. Each episode contains an arts and crafts element, in which Lee decorates the table setting in accordance with the theme of the meal that she just prepared. She refers to these as "tablescapes". Lee's second Food Network series, Sandra's Money Saving Meals, began airing on May 10, 2009. She has released 25 books, including Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade: Cool Kids Cooking (October 2006) and a memoir, Made From Scratch, which was released in November 2007. A magazine based on her show, Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade, was released in 2009.
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