Sunny Lee

Sunny Lee has found passion for cooking her entire life, starting from her PlaySkool kitchen at the age of 2. She told her parents she wanted to be a chef at age 6, and the dream never wavered. She found her true passion, making Korean banchan, after a decade of working through NYC's Blue Hill, Eleven Madison Park, Battersby, Estela, and Insa. When she isn't a contributing writer to Serious Eats, she moonlights as a free-lance private chef, hosts pop-ups, and is a ceramicist.

Sunny Lee went to culinary school at The Culinary Institute of America, before settling down first in Boston, and then in NYC. She has been a resident of Brooklyn for the past 12 years, and worked through Blue Hill, Eleven Madison Park, Battersby, Estela, and Insa. She has been a private chef for one family for the past 5 years, and has spread her skills into recipe writing and development for the past two years.

Sunny's Desert Island Food: "The "Jerry Lewis" from Defonte's in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Fried eggplant slathered with pesto, fresh mozzarella and tomato in a seeded semolina hero. Add on broccoli rabe thats been fried in garlic, and extra "hot salad". The olive oil is going to drip all over you, lean into it."