TV GUIDE
July 18-24, 2004

Let Them Eat Cake Mix
Author: Eric Feil

Domestic divas and fancy foodies can laugh all they want. Sandra Lee is making over America one Semi-Homemade household at a time!

Stop! Before you go any further, pour yourself a drink. Sit down. Relax. Ah, that's better.

"You know," Sandra Lee says, "once you have a cocktail, it's time to calm down. Day's over!"

Actually, any time is a good time to kick one back with the creator and host of Food Network's smash series Semi-Homemade Cooking With Sandra Lee. After all, her nothing-from-scratch mantra is based on helping people find time to enjoy their busy lives. "It's 70 percent store-bought and ready-made, 30 percent creativity and ingenuity and 100 percent incredible results," she preaches — and a Mexican fondue made from a bag of shredded cheese and a jar of salsa gives a lot more time for margaritas.

In the 10 months since Semi-Homemade Cooking premiered, Lee, 38, has made it a Food Network favorite, grabbing roughly a million viewers per episode. But her philosophy isn't restricted to the kitchen. Cooking, decorating, gardening, entertaining, fashion-you name it, Lee has a quick fix. She's produced books and videos, a Web site, craft kits, product lines and there's even a half-million-member Semi-Homemakers Club. Lee's burgeoning Semi-Homemade media empire is now reportedly worth $35-plus million.

But don't call her the next Martha. Though Lee seems destined to fill the vacuum left by that domestic doyenne's legal woes, she is tired of talking about being next in line to Martha Stewart's throne. "That company offered so much good information that had never been seen before," Lee says, "but there is no 'Next Martha.'"

Rather, Lee is carving out her own territory in the arena of do-it-yourself domesticity. "My job," she insists, "is to find ways for people to emulate that expensive-looking home, party or dinner, but by using things that are affordable." So faux ivy is fine for topiary centerpieces. Spray-on snow is great for the holidays. And that canned processed cheese food that appears in some of her recipes? Let Lee dispel a myth: "I don't love Cheez Whiz. It's a great food resource, but I don't go around eating it on crackers. I actually love really good cheese. But the foodies jumped on that."

Indeed, a critic in the New York Times wrote that Lee's recipes "give people an excuse for feeding themselves and their families mediocre food filled with preservatives." Dominick Cerrone, director of culinary arts at the French Culinary Institute in New York City, offers a broader perspective. "Some processed foods have preservatives and other ingredients I wouldn't want in my stomach," he admits. "But many top restaurants, even in France, will use super-high-quality prepackaged ingredients, like frozen purees, to build on, because you often can't tell the difference and it makes life easy." In the end, Cerrone says, "Everyone needs to compromise to their heart's and mind's content — and
their stomach's — content, too. A Betty Crocker devil's food cake — there aren't many people who can make a better one from scratch."

Fewer people still can find more applications for premades than Lee. "I see things differently than almost everybody else," she says. "For instance, a cup and saucer. Flip the cup over, put the saucer on it, you have a mini pedestal for mini desserts. I think like that all the time."

Lee has been going like this since, as the eldest of five children with a seriously ill mother and a stepfather who wasn't around a great deal, she essentially raised her siblings. The self-reliance and ability to stretch resources creatively served her well. After leaving college in Wisconsin, the Washington State native worked as an accountant and waitress in the Los Angeles area. She lived in a rented room that she decorated using a
jerry-built curtain-making device she concocted to create window treatments using wire and cloth that didn't require any sewing. Her uncle convinced her to take it to the L.A. County Fair and try to make a few bucks.

After patenting her home-decorating kit, including Kurtain Kraft, and making $60,000 in three weeks, Lee, then 23, hit the home-show circuit and quickly found herself bringing in five figures per weekend. A self-financed infomercial followed, then QVC stints and, in a year and a half, a $20 million business was booming. Wal-Mart and Target soon had
Sandra Lee products flying off their shelves, and fans were flocking to her world of easy elegance. She's now working on two more books and is prepping new products ranging from wallpaper to cookware to a line of cards and calendars.

One of the keys to Lee's success can be found in her persona as every-woman's friend, a conspiratorial gal-pal who loves to dish lifestyle pointers and gossip in equal amounts. She really does her work barefoot, shuts drawers with her butt and has infused a new spirit into the DIY culture. "Have fun!" she crows. "Nobody's out there having a good time with this stuff! It's so not serious — it's a freakin' bouquet of flowers.
There's a way to do it, but if you mess it up, so what? Nobody cares."

So people aren't coming to your next get-together for hand-woven place-card holders and lattice-topped homemade pies with blackberries grown in the backyard garden? "What they care about is that you're happy when they get there," Lee says. "People are there because they want to be with you, not because your arrangement looks great or -because your curtains are fabulous."

We'll drink to that.