Sandra Lee Christiansen (born Sandra Lee Waldroop) is an American television chef and author known for her “semi-homemade” cooking philosophy, which involves using 70% packaged foods and 30% fresh produce.
In 2012, she won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lifestyle/Cooking Program Host for her work on the show. She was also the partner of former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and served as the de facto First Lady of New York from 2011 to 2019, until their relationship ended.
contour
- Full name: Sandra Lee Waldroup (Christiansen)
- Date of Birth: July 3, 1966
- Age: 58
- Gender: Female
- Birthplace: Santa Monica, California, USA
- Country: United States
- Occupation: TV chef, author, entrepreneur
- Height: 5 feet 5 inches (165 cm)
- Parents: Wayne Waldroop (father), Vicky Svitak (mother)
- Siblings: Cindy Lee Christiansen (sister)
- Spouse: Andrew Cuomo (former partner, 2005-2019)
- Children: None
- Relationship status: Single
- Net worth: $20 million
Early life and education
Sandra Lee, 58, was born on July 3, 1966 in Santa Monica, California. She was raised by her father, Wayne Waldrup, her mother, Vicki Svitak, and her sister, Cindy Lee Christiansen. Lee’s childhood was very difficult, and she often helped her mother with housework and cooking.
Sandra and her sister Cindy divorced their father when they were two years old, and their mother sent them to live with their grandmother, Lorraine Waldroup.
Later, they moved to Sumner, Washington with their new stepfather and changed their last name to Christiansen. With their mother ill and their father absent, Sandra took on the responsibility of raising her three younger siblings.
Growing up, she learned to feed her siblings frugally on food stamps and welfare, which shaped her future approach to cooking. Sandra graduated from Onalaska High School in Wisconsin and attended the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
She mentioned that her family was Catholic, but she was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness and was a Seventh-Day Adventist. She left home during her junior year of college to live near her family in Malibu, California, and later attended a recreational program at Le Cordon Bleu in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
personal life
From 2001 to 2005, she was married to then-KB Home CEO and philanthropist Bruce Karatz, for whom she converted to Judaism. In the fall of 2005, Lee began a relationship with Andrew Cuomo, who served as the 56th Governor of New York from 2011 until his resignation in August 2021.
The couple lived in a house owned by Lee in Chappaqua. On September 25, 2019, they publicly announced the end of their relationship. Lee has reportedly been in a relationship with Algerian-born Abdulwahab Benyoucef, a professional actor known by his stage name Ben Youcef, since March 2021. The couple was affectionately known as “Bendra” by their friends.
Profession
In the early 1990s, Lee developed a product called Sandra Lee Kraft Kurtains, a DIY home decor kit designed to transform metal racks and excess fabric into stylish curtains. The product was marketed through television commercials and cable shopping networks, and Lee was hired as an anchor on QVC.
Within 18 months, she sold $20 million worth of merchandise and was selected by QVC to launch its crafts and home decor categories in the UK and Germany. In 1994, she launched her first DIY home improvement video series, which sold over a million copies.
Her performance Sandra Lee’s Semi-Homemade Cooking The show premiered on Food Network in 2003 and ran for 15 seasons, becoming one of the network’s top three weekend new series in its first five years.
Each episode includes a fun and craft segment where Lee decorates her dining table and kitchen to fit the theme of the meal she is preparing, which she calls her “tablescape.”
Lee’s second Food Network series following the Great Recession Sandra’s Budget Mealswhich premiered in 2009, making her the only host on the network to have two cooking series on the air simultaneously.
Her show has been broadcast in 63 countries and she has written 27 books, including Sandra Lee’s Semi-Homemade: Cool Kids Cooking and a memoir Crafted from scratch.
Her Books Semi-homemade cooking Her novels have been on the New York Times bestseller list, and in 2009 a magazine based on her performances was published.
In addition, she hosted a series of four one-hour specials called Sandra Lee Celebrates It aired on HGTV in late 2009. In 2012, Lee won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lifestyle/Culinary.
Awards
- Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lifestyle/Cooking Host (2012)
- Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lifestyle/Cooking Host (2013)
- Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lifestyle/Cooking Host (2014)
net worth
As of 2024, Sandra Lee’s net worth is estimated to be $20 million.
dispute
Seattle Post-Intelligencer writer Hsiao-Ching Chou wrote a review of Lee’s cookbook Semi-homemade cooking As early as 2002, she criticized Lee’s recipes and her “semi-homemade” methods.
Zhou later wrote another column acknowledging the unexpectedly enthusiastic response to her comments.
While many readers agreed with Zhou’s views, some supported Lee’s stance, such as one reader who highlighted the desire for cooking convenience, saying, “Many people don’t want to spend time chopping a cup of carrots but want to cook a good meal.”
In an article for Newsweek, Kurt Soler compared Lee’s influence on television cooking to that of Julia Child, though their approaches were very different. Soler emphasized that both women occupied a unique niche in the culinary landscape that had previously been underexplored.
Amanda Hesser in the comments Semi-homemade cooking In a 2003 New York Times article, Lee criticized that his recipes can cost more, require harder-to-find ingredients, take longer to prepare, and ultimately don’t taste as good as homemade recipes because of their reliance on packaged ingredients.
Hesser also expressed concern that Lee’s recipes could foster a disdain for cooking and provide a justification for serving subpar, preservative-laden meals to families.
At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Jessica Bennett of The New York Times and Jaya Saxena of Eater magazine both observed that the concept of semi-homemade had taken on new meaning amid pandemic-induced shortages.
Saxena noted that Lee’s performance Semi-homemade cookingLee demonstrated the infamous “Kwanzaa Cake” recipe in one episode. Semi-homemade cooking It sparked quite a bit of criticism.
The recipe, which involves store-bought angel food cake topped with a variety of pre-made toppings and seven Kwanzaa candles, has drawn harsh condemnation from food writer Anthony Bourdain and media outlets including the Houston Chronicle and the Tulsa World, with descriptions ranging from “horrible” to “horrible.”
The segment became the subject of ridicule and mockery on various platforms, including Salon.com, and went down in the annals of culinary disasters.
Denise Vivaldo, a cookbook author who claims to have ghostwritten recipes for many celebrity chefs, publicly acknowledged the creation of the “Kwanzaa Cake” recipe in a Huffington Post article in December 2010. Vivaldo attributed the idea of adding candles to Lee, for which she apologized.
Additionally, Vivaldo criticized Lee’s food taste. However, Lee responded by getting her lawyer involved, which resulted in the post being deleted. Lee herself acknowledged the criticism of the recipe and attributed its creation to the request of the Food Network at the time.
social media
- Instagram: @SandraLeeOnline
- Twitter: @SandraLee
Filmography
- Sandra Lee’s Semi-Homemade Cooking (2003-2015) – Host
- Sandra’s Restaurant Remake (2012) – Host
- Sandra Lee’s Pub, Lounge and Club (2015) – Host
books
- Sandra Lee’s Semi-Homemade Cooking (Year 2003)
- Sandra Lee’s Complete Semi-Homemade Recipe (year 2004)
- Semi-homemade party (2006)
- Semi-homemade desserts (2006)
