Matt Lee
Years of Participation
2018-2020
Matt Lee — along with his brother and collaborator, Ted Lee — grew up and learned to cook in Charleston, South Carolina. When they left to attend colleges in the Northeast, they so missed the foods of their hometown they founded The Lee Bros. Boiled Peanuts Catalogue, a mail-order catalogue for southern pantry staples. They became food journalists and cookbook authors in 2000, when an editor of a travel magazine asked them to write a story about road-tripping South Carolina in search of great food. They have written hundreds of features for The New York Times, Travel + Leisure, Martha Stewart Living, Southern Living, Saveur, Bon Appetit, and Food & Wine. Their three cookbooks, The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook (2007), The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern (2009), and The Lee Bros. Charleston Kitchen (2013) have, combined, won six James Beard and IACP Awards. They were on-air commentators for all seven seasons of The Cooking Channel’s hit series Unique Eats and the hosts and executive producers of Southern Uncovered with The Lee Bros. on Ovation. They are founders of Cookbook Boot Camp, a professional-development curriculum for food and beverage professionals, and the curators of The Lee Bros. Classic Library, a series of vintage and out-of-print cookbook reissues that Rizzoli publishes. And their next book, HOTBOX: Inside Catering, the Food World’s Riskiest Business, will be published by Henry Holt in April 2019. Matt lives in West Ashley.