Gotham
December 2005 – January 2006

Life is Semi-Sweet

Blonde bombshell Sandra Lee first got our attention when we stumbled across her in the Food Emporium’s dairy aisle. Well, not literally: There, right next to the Land’O’Lakes Indian princess, was Lee’s lovely face splashed across the Philadelphia Brand cream cheese package, urging us to cook – or at least to semi-cook. At a cocktail party a month later, we heard someone refer to Lee as “the next Martha Stewart,” and that really got our attention. Later we caught her show, Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee (which the Food Network recently picked up for three more seasons), and that truly sold us on the “semi-homemade” way of life.

“Semi-homemade is legacy cooking,” says Lee. “Your grandmother made amazing meals, but you’re more time-conscious. With semi-homemade, you aren’t going to have to give up any of the quality or quantity or flavor.” This fits perfectly into our Gotham lifestyle, as we never seem to have enough space on the Viking for a full-blown culinary masterpiece – or enough space for a Viking, come to think of it.

Lee, who cites Samantha from Bewitched and the old Enjoli fragrance TV commercial (you remember – the one with the woman who could “bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and never, ever let you forget you’re a man”) as her inspiration, suggests the following holiday party tip: “When you’re entertaining, doing a big sit-down meal can be daunting. Tapas and ‘tinis are very sophisticated and aren’t as labor intensive. You can still have a very elegant affair.”

And where does the woman who brought glamour back into the kitchen choose to spend her noncooking time? When not dining at Nello or Michael’s, Lee heads over to Central Park. “Every single weekend is different, but my favorite thing to do is go to the park – it just makes me happy.”