Sandra Lee's latest feat is 'Blue Ribbon Baking Championship'

When Sandra Lee won a blue ribbon at the Los Angeles County Fair, her sister called her to tell her the good news.

“It was surreal,” the TV chef says of her 1992 win. “I’m not sure I was older than 25, but I was shocked because I had just sold my car to pay for the position and was in the middle of paying off student loans.”

At the time, the Santa Monica-born entrepreneur was under pressure and “just trying to survive.” It was a way of life she knew all too well. As a child, she raised her four younger siblings while her mother, an addict, stayed bedridden, something she detailed in her memoir, “Made From Scratch.” Lee ran the household and bought groceries with food stamps. She worked with what she had to feed the family, turning cans of soup into tasty casseroles. After dropping out of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, she moved to Malibu and founded a company called Kurtain Kraft, which created a product that used wire hangers and fabric to create window treatments. By 1993, Lee’s ingenuity had paid off with a deal with QVC and commercials.

Ten years later, she debuted on Food Network as the host of “Semi-Homemade Cooking,” where she prepared recipes using mostly store-bought ingredients. The Emmy-winning show spawned Lee’s lifestyle empire, 26 cookbooks and a print magazine, and the series ran for 15 seasons — until she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. She underwent a double mastectomy and announced she was cancer-free later that year. In 2022, she underwent a full hysterectomy to prevent further disease.

These days, he’s preparing for a return to television. He hosts “Dinner Budget Showdown” on Roku and on Friday will make his Netflix debut on “Blue Ribbon Baking Championship,” which takes the model of “The Great British Bake Off” and applies it to the cutthroat but welcoming world of American state and county fairs. Ten bakers from around the country compete for $100,000 and a spectacular blue ribbon — among them a farmer from Long Island, a retired pulmonologist from New Mexico and an Iowa mother who has collected hundreds of blue ribbons.

Lee is the “Queen of the Show” on the show, serving as co-host alongside actor Jason Biggs, a judge (along with former White House pastry chef Bill Yosses and artisan baker Bryan Ford) and executive producer. As a judge, Lee exudes a mix of warmth and toughness — qualities that come across in our conversation. The Times spoke with Lee, who discussed this new chapter in her life, why chefs shouldn’t be elitist and how she found love again with Ben Youcef, an actor 13 years her junior, after her split from Andrew Cuomo, the former governor of New York.

The idea for the Blue Ribbon Baking Championship came to you more than a decade ago. What inspired you?

At the time, The Great British Bake Off was just coming out. I'm very proud of America and what we do here. [BBC series] And I thought, “Wait a minute.” We have state fairs and blue ribbons, which are the gold standard in all of baking and cooking. And our state fairs have been around before our country was a nation. In fact, the [York Fair in Pennsylvania] It was founded in 1765, which is 11 years before 1776. Baking competitions have been around for a long time. If you think about the blue ribbon, I mean, there's nothing more important than a blue ribbon.

I won't give anything away, but I was impressed by the contestants' baking skills. Some of them could compete with a Michelin-starred chef.

And they are more competitive.

The first big challenge of Episode 1, in which they had to improvise food on a stick, seemed to stump the group.

These bakers are great at what they do, and some are great at pies, cakes, and loaves, but in the first competition, we literally leveled the playing field and brought everyone to their knees. After that, there was no ego.

In Episode 1, the contestants had to prepare a snack on a stick for their first challenge. Jeff Bartolozzi, one of the bakers, prepared a brownie bite on a stick that was fried and spread with raspberry jam.

(Netflix)

It's hard to keep food on the stick.

You have a very small opportunity to show it visually and you have a very small opportunity to put your style into whatever it is. Then you have to create something in miniature and you don't have time to do that. … It's compelling television and the reason is [because] Everything happens in real time. There are no stops, no naps, no breaks. They're baking in real time. And that's unlike any other show of its kind.

My pulse quickened when I heard you say that. What made you want to keep the process so authentic?

Because it's real. I mean, when you see meltdowns and people setting things on fire and broken dishes and people getting angry, and even though they're helping each other, the pressure is what it is and it's $100,000. You have to earn it. I mean, you have to be the best of the best. And unless you have that pressure, how do we know?

You strike a perfect balance as a judge: tough but fair. How do you strike that tricky balance between expressing compassion for your fellow chefs while also being honest with them?

Well, I actually know Simon Cowell and I used him as a reference. First of all, when I think about it, I like the stories and I like the sets of personalities. [on the show] so that we understand who they are and what their point of view is. And of course, their talent is very important. But then you have that sensitive fiber and that sensitive fiber comes to life not only in their interactions but also in what they offer you. If you look at Kim [Thompson], [she] She always talked about her son and what he loved. If you looked at Cat [Cheng]She was talking about her pet and her husband, and Ron. [Bronitsky] I was happy to be in the room. And Larry [Kaiser] I made those [potato] bars that left everyone speechless.

For me, I wanted to be thoughtful, give advice, and be direct. I think they expect me to come across as a sensitive person, but to create something like “Semi-Homemade,” you have to have a very distinct palate. You can’t just go to the grocery store and throw things together in a box. What’s the depth of flavor? How do you add it, how do you take it out, how do you balance those kinds of things? I can taste the mashed potatoes and tell if it’s black pepper or white pepper. My talent is really honed for flavor.

Former White House pastry chef Bill Yosses, Sandra Lee and artisan baker Bryan Ford judge the baking competition.

(Netflix)

You've assembled a great team around you: Bill Yosses and Bryan Ford, who dances when he loves a dessert. Oh, and your co-host Jason Biggs. What do they bring to the table, so to speak?

[Bill is] I'm a really technical guy. Look at what they're doing technically, how they incorporate those techniques into what they're doing. I'm visual. [and focused on] Not only do I want to see what the flavors are and the depth of flavor within the dessert and also the consistency, but I also want to see the visuals of everything. Then Bryan, of course, is like the master at the actual base. Because he's a baker, he looks at the fluffiness of the cake, he looks at the moisture. He looks at very specific things that we don't look at. We all have our pillars. And then Jason just eats. He doesn't have a fight in the game. He doesn't have any opinions. He just eats.

Changing the subject, tell me about the decision to leave “Cocina semicasera” aside and withdraw from the public eye.

What I tried to do in the first [“Blue Ribbon”] Competition is leveling the playing field. I think sometimes in life you get a situation that makes you equal. In 2015, when I was diagnosed [with cancer]It was a leveling moment for me. [“Semi-Homemade”]in my career, in terms of maturing and aging, in terms of my personal life. I really went through a rough patch and then my uncle got sick and I had to be in California for a long time. Then my breakup [with Cuomo] Then COVID came, which was a big deal. And then my uncle passed away, which was a big deal. Right after that, I went back to work and [“Blue Ribbon”] They chose it… even though I had already proposed it several times and they had told me it would never work. But they told me that “Semi-Homemade” wouldn’t work either.

You've carved out a niche for yourself with that series. Now, on TikTok, I see a lot of home cooks following your example and making simple dishes from packaged products. Does this trend offer you any validation after your style was mocked in the culinary world?

I’m glad that the chefs and cooks before me have figured out, even though it took them a while, what really resonates and what can be helpful. Our job is to serve. Our job is not to dictate or be elitist. Our job is to facilitate, to isolate support, and to uplift. You’re the only person who’s asked me that question. The only person who’s gotten this answer: Our job is not to judge, to look down on each other, to talk about “unsophisticated” and how… that’s bullshit. It’s not that I’m telling you to eat bologna. I’m not saying that. Not at all. But what I am saying is that we have a very specific platform and we have a very specific responsibility. Some people need to remember that who we serve is somewhere between Manhattan and Los Angeles. Those are the people we have a responsibility to make happy and successful.

Sandra Lee with her boyfriend Ben Youcef at an event in New York in 2023. The couple has been dating for three years.

(Evan Agostini / / Invision / Associated Press)

You shared your health issues in the HBO documentary “Rx: Early Detection, a Journey Against Cancer with Sandra Lee” and have advocated for affordable breast cancer screening. How do you feel now?

I feel good. I mean, I work every day to try not to think about it. I don't know if anyone who's ever heard that word doesn't think about it every day. But I do the best I can and every day is a new day. That's how I feel now. One more year… I'm turning 10, so we won't talk about it until next year.

How did you meet your boyfriend Ben? It seems like the two of you have a loving relationship.

He is very connected and very sweet and always, always available. How did we meet? I was at a restaurant with a friend and I saw him, but I hadn't been on a date or thought about going on one in two years. I don't go on any dates. [dating] places and I don't really sit down and hang out with them. It's kind of hard for me anyway because how can I sit down and say, “Hey, how are you?” I don't think that works for me. They're not going to cook for me, for sure. If they take me somewhere, they're going to stress about the restaurant. And the beautiful thing about Ben is that he had no idea who I was. When I left the restaurant, [he] He knocked on my car door and said, “I want to take you for a ride. I think you’re beautiful. Can I have your number?” And I was like, “No, no. What are you talking about?” And he just insisted. It was meant to be.