Sandra Lee taking break from writing
Sandra Lee taking break from writing
NEW YORK (AP) — Sandra Lee says her next cookbook will be her last. At least for a while.
The Food Network star known for semi-homemade cooking — and more recently as the live-in girlfriend of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo — says the release this month of her 25th cookbook marks a turning point. She wants more time to focus on her eponymous magazine, as well as to write a home and gardening book.
“It’s quite a milestone,” Lee said of her new book, “Every Dish Delivers.” ”Especially when you take into consideration that when I was out shopping my very first cookbook, everybody on the planet told me it wouldn’t work. I’d sit in these meetings and say to people, ‘Seriously? Have you been to Middle America? Do you know the American housewife?’”
Though she loves writing cookbooks, Lee said she prefers the immediacy of a magazine because it can better reflect the moment and season.
“I am completely and passionately dedicated and intimately involved with every line in the magazine. And I don’t know a lot of people who are like that anymore,” she said in a telephone interview. “When people go and put their dollars on the table, that’s what they deserve. That’s what they think they’re buying and that’s what you should be delivering to them.”
Dinner at elBulli sells for $28,000
HONG KONG (AP) — A rare chance to dine with world-famous Spanish restaurateur Ferran Adria sold at auction Wednesday for 220,500 Hong Kong dollars ($28,270).
Bidding started at HK$40,000 ($5,000) for the meal with Adria, often cited as the planet’s most talented and imaginative chef. His now-closed restaurant elBulli was rated the world’s best five times by British magazine The Restaurant.
An online bidder beat out four others at the Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong with a winning bid of HK$180,000, not including a buyer’s premium of more than 20 percent.
The winner and three friends will eat with Adria and his brother at a restaurant in Barcelona and visit the premises of the elBulli restaurant, in Catalonia, Spain.
Another meal with the chef known for his creations in molecular gastronomy will be auctioned off April 26 in New York.
“Everybody knew there was just one chance to get this lot of spending time with the great chef Ferran Adria, in his hometown of Barcelona. And this will probably never happen again,” said Serena Sutcliffe, international head of wine at Sotheby’s.
After maintaining an exceptional Michelin three-star status for more than a decade, elBulli closed in July 2011.
Adria, who was in charge of the elBulli kitchen for 27 years, says the dinner offers a rare opportunity to discuss food and cooking ideas with him.
The proceeds of the auction will go to the elBulli Foundation, a project set up by Adria and business partner Juli Soler, which will turn the restaurant into an experimental center looking at the process of culinary innovation and creativity.