Latest / I Am All In with Scott Patterson / I Smell Pop Culture: Sandra Lee

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I Smell Pop Culture: Sandra Lee · I Am All In with Scott Patterson

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Speaker 1: I Am all In.
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Speaker 2: As I Smell Pop Culture with Easton Allen and iHeart
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Speaker 2: Radio podcast.
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Speaker 1: Do you smell something I do? I Smell pop Culture? Hey, everybody,
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Speaker 1: this is Easton Allen. This is the I Am all
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Speaker 1: In Podcast one eleven productions. I Heart Radio, iHeart Media,
0:29
Speaker 1: iHeart podcasts. We're doing I Smell pop Culture. I'm back again.
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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening. Thank you. I've gotten
0:37
Speaker 1: all your letters, I've gotten all your fan mail. It's
0:39
Speaker 1: just overwhelming the amount of positive reaction we've gotten from
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Speaker 1: this show. So thank you again. Before we get started
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Speaker 1: to hear on this next episode, I just want to
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Speaker 1: thank you so much from the bottom of my heart
0:50
Speaker 1: for giving us a chance. You know, given me the
0:54
Speaker 1: gift of your time. I listened to a lot of podcasts, Okay,
0:57
Speaker 1: I listen to a lot of shows, and like every
0:59
Speaker 1: now and again, a show you'd listen to, you'll get
1:02
Speaker 1: like the sidekick or like the third guy on the
1:05
Speaker 1: microphone will like have his own bit or his own
1:08
Speaker 1: he'll host the show, like some as the producer that
1:10
Speaker 1: you hear from from time to time, we'll like host
1:12
Speaker 1: their own show. But never once have I listened to
1:16
Speaker 1: a show and heard them say, Okay, we're gonna let
1:18
Speaker 1: the sound guy host it. I've never heard that before,
1:21
Speaker 1: so I don't want to use the term trailblazer or
1:25
Speaker 1: pioneer lightly, but I do believe that we're covering new
1:30
Speaker 1: ground here. We are going boldly into a place that
1:33
Speaker 1: has never been to before in the world podcasting. And
1:37
Speaker 1: I'm so glad, glad that you're coming along with us,
1:40
Speaker 1: because you know, you download a podcast about your favorite show,
1:43
Speaker 1: it's hosted by the guy that plays your favorite character,
1:46
Speaker 1: and then you press play and you hear the sound
1:49
Speaker 1: guy instead, and that's got to be a audio whiplash
1:53
Speaker 1: on a scale hitherto undreamed of. So thank you for
1:56
Speaker 1: coming along with us. We're we have a really exciting
2:00
Speaker 1: show for you today. So here's what we're doing this week.
2:05
Speaker 1: You know, Melissa McCarthy did not return as Suki for
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Speaker 1: the revival for the Year in the Life mini series,
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Speaker 1: and the fix there was to bring in a bunch
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Speaker 1: of like celebrity chefs that would fill her vacancy at
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Speaker 1: the Dragonfly in And we're going to talk to a
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Speaker 1: chef that was mentioned in A Year in the Life summer,
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Speaker 1: and I'm so excited to get into this, but first
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Speaker 1: I got to preheat the oven here, I got to
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Speaker 1: adjust my table scapes. But stick around and we'll be
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Speaker 1: right back after these words.
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Speaker 3: iHeart podcasts. Listen on the iHeartRadio app.
2:43
Speaker 1: Hey, wow, those are some fantastic products, fantastic services. I
2:47
Speaker 1: can't wait to spend all my money there and use
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Speaker 1: all those promo codes that we so graciously give you.
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Speaker 1: My name is Easton Allen. This is I smell pop
2:53
Speaker 1: culture here on the IM all In podcast. So as
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Speaker 1: I was saying right before, right before we heard all
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Speaker 1: this wonderful commercials. In a Year in the Life, we
3:03
Speaker 1: have a vacancy at the Dragonfly In. The chef position
3:07
Speaker 1: is open, and they bring in celebrity chefs like Roy Troy,
3:11
Speaker 1: Anthony Bourdain, Rachel Ray. They all come by to try
3:15
Speaker 1: to get the job at the Dragonfly In. They're all
3:18
Speaker 1: chefs vying for this prestigious role. And in summer, in
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Speaker 1: a Year in Life, summer, there's a scene where Luke
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Speaker 1: and Loralai are arguing in Luke's diner and Luke storms off,
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Speaker 1: but first he says, I've got muffins in the oven
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Speaker 1: at the end for breakfast tomorrow, because Sandra Lee called
3:35
Speaker 1: and canceled because she talked to Aine Garden who said,
3:38
Speaker 1: don't go to the Dragonfly because it's awful. How was that? Scott?
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Speaker 1: Was that good? Could I be Luke in a in
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Speaker 1: a stage production? Maybe? But so Luke says that, And
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Speaker 1: we're going to talk to Sandra Lee. Yes, Sandra Lee
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Speaker 1: is going to be here on I Smell Pop Culture.
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Speaker 1: We're heading into the kitchen today. We're going to head
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Speaker 1: into the kitchen. We're going to talk to this legendary
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Speaker 1: chef and crafting icon, Sandelie. She is a pioneer herself,
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Speaker 1: talk about trailblazing like we're doing here on this podcast.
4:10
Speaker 1: Sandralie is truly an innovator. She created the semi homemade
4:15
Speaker 1: concept that was her show on the Food Network. It
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Speaker 1: ran for fifteen years, Semi Homemade. And what that concept
4:21
Speaker 1: is is it's the fraction is like seventy percent store
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Speaker 1: bought thirty percent fresh ingredients. You're taking like a pre
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Speaker 1: made food, food thing and adding in something else, changing,
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Speaker 1: tweaking something, adding in a different ingredient and creating something new.
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Speaker 1: And I think that is just such a such an
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Speaker 1: interesting and exciting idea, especially for if you're trying to
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Speaker 1: create something excellent on a budget. I think that's such
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Speaker 1: a cool idea she got. She won an Emmy Award
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Speaker 1: for Semi homide Cooking with Sandralie. It ran for fifteen seasons.
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Speaker 1: She's also a best selling author. She has written twenty
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Speaker 1: seven books. Friends, I don't think I have read twenty
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Speaker 1: seven books in my lifetime. She has written twenty seven books,
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Speaker 1: the cookbooks, She's written a novel. She's a breast cancer survivor,
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Speaker 1: she's an advocate, she's an aspiring business woman, truly inspiring.
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Speaker 1: We're going to talk about it all, and I promise
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Speaker 1: you we're going to find out what would have happened
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Speaker 1: if she hadn't bailed on the Dragonfly and if she
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Speaker 1: had taken that job, what would have happened. We're going
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Speaker 1: to find out about it all. But wait, do you hear?
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Speaker 4: That?
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Speaker 1: Looks like it's ready. Sandra Lee. She's here. Let's bring
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Speaker 1: her in. Sandra Lee is here with us. Thank you
5:38
Speaker 1: for doing this. We're so excited.
5:40
Speaker 3: I'm so happy to be here. Thanks for including me.
5:42
Speaker 1: You're such a legend. There's so much to get into,
5:45
Speaker 1: but I want to go back to the beginning. I
5:47
Speaker 1: want to start at the start. That's a great place
5:50
Speaker 1: to start. How did you first fall in love with
5:55
Speaker 1: being creative through crafts and food and things?
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Speaker 3: Like?
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Speaker 1: When did you discover you had a passion for that?
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Speaker 3: Always when I was I mean I remember being when
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Speaker 3: I lived with my grandmother until I think I was
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Speaker 3: six years old. We were always in the kitchen or
6:11
Speaker 3: I was in the sandbox and making something in the backyard,
6:14
Speaker 3: or coming in the kitchen and decorating cakes with her.
6:17
Speaker 3: Because my grandma makeed all the cakes for the church.
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Speaker 3: So that was kind of her donation because we didn't
6:22
Speaker 3: have a lot of money, but she would bake all
6:24
Speaker 3: the wedding cakes, she would bake all the shower cakes
6:27
Speaker 3: and all the birthday cakes, and so that was her
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Speaker 3: gift because she couldn't donate money, so she did that
6:34
Speaker 3: and she ran the community service there for her entire
6:38
Speaker 3: adult life.
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Speaker 1: I think is that where did she when you were
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Speaker 1: baking cakes with her? Did she like did she get
6:46
Speaker 1: super creative with how she decorated them? Is that kind
6:49
Speaker 1: of where you kind of got that.
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Speaker 3: Her decoration and her presentation. So my birthday cake, my
6:55
Speaker 3: sister and I our birthdays are one year and four
6:59
Speaker 3: days apart, so I'm July third, July seventh. So my
7:02
Speaker 3: grandma would bake cake. She would bake them from scratch,
7:04
Speaker 3: though she's not a box girl, but she would do
7:08
Speaker 3: things like make us an eight inch cake and bake
7:10
Speaker 3: two of them right like you do. And then she
7:13
Speaker 3: would take one of those silver pie tins and flip
7:15
Speaker 3: it upside down and put the cake on top of
7:17
Speaker 3: that as our pedestal.
7:18
Speaker 1: I love it.
7:19
Speaker 3: It would decorate it with all the icing and all
7:21
Speaker 3: the little fancy stuff, and we would each have our
7:23
Speaker 3: own cake, and then she just hand us a fork.
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Speaker 3: And I still do that, like I have friends. I'm
7:28
Speaker 3: a godmother of two boys with my best friend Alexander
7:31
Speaker 3: Stanton and her husband Sam, And before they were even married,
7:34
Speaker 3: we would go to the store if we were like
7:36
Speaker 3: having a week and I was just starting semi homemaid
7:39
Speaker 3: living in New York City to do some my homemade
7:42
Speaker 3: and we would go to the store and buy a
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Speaker 3: sheet cake, take it to the hotel, get forks, and
7:46
Speaker 3: literally just sit there and eat the sheet cake and talk.
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Speaker 1: I knew I was gonna love talking to you that
7:52
Speaker 1: I did this exact same thing. There's nothing matter in
7:54
Speaker 1: just eating she cake with a fork.
7:57
Speaker 3: I know. I have this new QVC show coming it's
7:59
Speaker 3: called Sandra Lean Now, but it's introducing it Sandy Claus
8:02
Speaker 3: and they're like, do you want to put cakes in
8:04
Speaker 3: your show? I'm like yes, and they go, okay, so
8:06
Speaker 3: how are you going to slice and serve it? I go,
8:08
Speaker 3: I'm going to stick a fork in it? And they go,
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Speaker 3: I don't think you can do that. I'm like, I
8:13
Speaker 3: think I'm gonna do that. Okay, I'll cut a slice
8:16
Speaker 3: and then I'm going to stick a fork in the cake.
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Speaker 3: Why not?
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Speaker 1: Oh my god? I love it. And speaking of QVC,
8:24
Speaker 1: you've you've been with QVC for a long time.
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Speaker 3: There is my entire adult life.
8:31
Speaker 1: It's something I was really impressed by that I didn't
8:34
Speaker 1: know until I was doing some research for this. You
8:36
Speaker 1: created a product in the nineties called the curtain Craft,
8:40
Speaker 1: and I was so impressed and blown away by that,
8:43
Speaker 1: Like how how did you come up with that? For
8:46
Speaker 1: people that don't know's, it's like it's a system to
8:49
Speaker 1: create your own drapery and things like that and take
8:52
Speaker 1: spare fabric and repurpose it. How did that idea come
8:55
Speaker 1: to you?
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Speaker 3: Well? I needed to decorate on a budget. And I
8:59
Speaker 3: had a bedroom that I was renting in California in
9:01
Speaker 3: a house and I it was actually hairy Malibu. I
9:05
Speaker 3: was a waitress at the time, but I went down
9:07
Speaker 3: and I got fabric sharing fabric from downtown LA. It's
9:11
Speaker 3: like a dollar twenty five a yard dollar ninety nine
9:14
Speaker 3: maybe ninety nine cents. It was really inexpensive. And I
9:18
Speaker 3: take coat hanger wire and I just started bending it
9:21
Speaker 3: and like making these apparatuses where I could pull fabric
9:25
Speaker 3: through and make pretty flounces and you know, swags and ruffles.
9:31
Speaker 3: And my uncle came over, my uncle Bill, who just
9:35
Speaker 3: went to Heaven a couple of years ago, and he said, honey,
9:39
Speaker 3: those he was he's a welder and a construction worker,
9:42
Speaker 3: and he goes, I think that's a product people would like.
9:45
Speaker 3: So I showed it to my aunt, who was a
9:47
Speaker 3: huge crafter. I mean she did everything from tri kim
9:50
Speaker 3: which is like painting, to jewelry making to art making.
9:55
Speaker 3: I mean she was just a genius crafter, baking, she
9:58
Speaker 3: did everything you could eat, all for Flora's aunt Peggy.
10:02
Speaker 3: But my uncle said, you have a gift in this
10:05
Speaker 3: is a product line, and you have to take it
10:07
Speaker 3: to a fair and exhibit it. And so his friend
10:11
Speaker 3: was a welder and he made up all of these
10:13
Speaker 3: for me, and I took it to the La County Fair.
10:15
Speaker 3: I won the Blue Ribbon for Product Display and Design.
10:20
Speaker 3: It's a home decorating line. It ultimately wound up being
10:23
Speaker 3: about one hundred and twenty products. People think I always
10:26
Speaker 3: wanted to be a personality, and maybe I did, but
10:29
Speaker 3: I hired Florence Henderson at this time to be my spokesperson,
10:32
Speaker 3: and Gary Collins from the Homey Home Show Days, which
10:34
Speaker 3: nobody remembers that show, but it was just this brilliant
10:38
Speaker 3: how to show. And so I really started in product
10:42
Speaker 3: design and manufacturing and creating packaging and ways for people
10:49
Speaker 3: to do things that were beautiful like you saw in
10:52
Speaker 3: all the fancy magazines, but on a budget. And so
10:56
Speaker 3: curtaincraft was born, and then floral craft was born because
11:00
Speaker 3: my grandmother would say, Honey, don't send me flowers. They
11:03
Speaker 3: just die. And I'm like, she's right, they just what
11:07
Speaker 3: should I do? So it was this silica gel crystals
11:12
Speaker 3: and you put a flower in them and you cover
11:15
Speaker 3: it up completely and you leave it in there for
11:17
Speaker 3: like a week or two and all the water is
11:20
Speaker 3: absorbed and you just have this gorgeous, real flower. And
11:26
Speaker 3: then I would take the you know, the flower wire
11:29
Speaker 3: and the flower tape, the floral tape, and I would
11:31
Speaker 3: make her a bouquet that lasted forever. And she loved them.
11:34
Speaker 3: But then she called me and she's like, Sandy, it
11:36
Speaker 3: just collects dust.
11:38
Speaker 1: I'm like, you can't wait.
11:41
Speaker 3: Can I say that on the air? I was like, so,
11:45
Speaker 3: I'm like, she's right. So then I created a product line.
11:49
Speaker 3: I got with a chemist and I created a product
11:51
Speaker 3: to go with that silica gel that ate the dust
11:54
Speaker 3: so you would it wouldn't hurt the flowers, but it
11:57
Speaker 3: ate up all the dust. I'm like, Grandma, look and
11:59
Speaker 3: she's like, oh, that's really She goes you know what
12:00
Speaker 3: I saw, honey. I saw these pretty Cape de Monte
12:06
Speaker 3: flowers that are on the side of a vase. And
12:08
Speaker 3: I used to like my first money ever, Nobody's going
12:11
Speaker 3: to know what the hell I'm talking about. They're just
12:13
Speaker 3: going to think I'm like crazy. But I drove all
12:16
Speaker 3: the way out to Librea, California, from Santa Monica, which
12:20
Speaker 3: is like ninety minutes, because they had a new store
12:23
Speaker 3: called fitzen Floyd wasn't a new product, but a brand
12:26
Speaker 3: new grand opening store, Fitzmfloyd. We was all these teapots
12:30
Speaker 3: with like bunnies on them or bears on them, and
12:32
Speaker 3: they're really collectible. You were talking about. This is like
12:35
Speaker 3: the early nineties. So anyway, yes, I was born before
12:38
Speaker 3: two thousand. Anyway. So I drove all the way out
12:44
Speaker 3: there to buy this teapot and I'm like, cro call
12:46
Speaker 3: my aunt Peggy. She's like, you don't even have an
12:48
Speaker 3: apartment yet, honey, and I go, I know, but I
12:50
Speaker 3: have to have this teapot from fitz Employd. So fast forward.
12:54
Speaker 3: Kapi de Monte was like the next level of Fitzmployd,
12:57
Speaker 3: which you still can't afford. But they make these gorgeous
13:01
Speaker 3: flowers out of glass. So I created a product within
13:06
Speaker 3: the floral Craft line that if you sprayed it on
13:10
Speaker 3: the flowers multiple times, they turned into this glass like thing.
13:16
Speaker 1: You spray it on the like once living flower.
13:18
Speaker 3: On the one living flower that you dried. So then
13:22
Speaker 3: that was born. So floral Craft became a whole line.
13:25
Speaker 3: And I really what I do is I invent products.
13:28
Speaker 3: Nobody knows that I like invent products like I'm doing
13:30
Speaker 3: Christmas now and I'm working on twenty twenty five Christmas
13:34
Speaker 3: because twenty four is done and we're loaded in. But
13:36
Speaker 3: look at this bow. This is like a double bow.
13:39
Speaker 1: It's stunning.
13:40
Speaker 3: It's stunning. You can't get this one yet, but I
13:42
Speaker 3: mean I literally pulled it out this morning. I'm like,
13:45
Speaker 3: that's twenty twenty five. So when you're sitting I think
13:49
Speaker 3: about this Christmas, I'm already decorating for next Christmas. That's
13:53
Speaker 3: called it Sandy Clause. Like, I just love it.
13:55
Speaker 1: I love it. And that's something that I'm so impressed
13:57
Speaker 1: by with you, Like the level of inn I mean,
14:00
Speaker 1: how many people are when they're creating, come up with
14:03
Speaker 1: an idea or a product, They're like, let's get a
14:05
Speaker 1: chemist on the phone, and like so they can create
14:07
Speaker 1: what I see in my head and what I want
14:09
Speaker 1: to do. I love that.
14:11
Speaker 3: Thanks. Everything is chemistry. Everything is science, like every single thing.
14:15
Speaker 3: And that's how some my Homemade was born and it
14:17
Speaker 3: was so big and everybody told me, they're like, you
14:19
Speaker 3: can't do that. I go, why And they're like, because
14:22
Speaker 3: you just can't tell people what name brands to use.
14:24
Speaker 3: I go, But we are shopping at grocery stores, and
14:27
Speaker 3: every product has different ingredient bases, and every product goes
14:31
Speaker 3: with another product differently, Like Hellman's and Best Foods are
14:35
Speaker 3: the same thing, but that's not miracle. Miracle with is
14:38
Speaker 3: salad dressing. These are mayonnaise. People don't realize that what
14:42
Speaker 3: we have to share and cookie mix can be a
14:45
Speaker 3: base for a pie. Why can't we create recipes and
14:48
Speaker 3: tell them exactly what I use that they can be
14:51
Speaker 3: successful at home. Because you can't tell people what brands
14:54
Speaker 3: to use. I go, okay, well I'm doing it anyway.
14:57
Speaker 1: No, I love it, And like I mean, at least
14:59
Speaker 1: in my experience, I always thought it was like it
15:01
Speaker 1: was one or the other. It's like, Okay, I'm either
15:03
Speaker 1: going to make everything from scratch or I'm like making
15:05
Speaker 1: it from the box and I'm only going to use
15:07
Speaker 1: what they say on the box. I didn't like. I
15:10
Speaker 1: didn't really until I watched sam My Hood Made. I
15:11
Speaker 1: was like, oh, I didn't realize you could mix them
15:13
Speaker 1: or change that. And it's just such a brilliant idea.
15:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, it calls for water, and if you don't want
15:19
Speaker 3: to use water, use chocolate. Malk and a chocolate cake
15:21
Speaker 3: recipe it just deepens the flavor. If you don't want that,
15:25
Speaker 3: use coffee. If you want something more elevated. It depends
15:28
Speaker 3: on the audience that you're serving. Like for brownie mix,
15:32
Speaker 3: I only get I only buy the browning mix that
15:35
Speaker 3: has the chocolate pouch in it, and I only put coffee.
15:40
Speaker 3: I don't even put cof coffee in that. I put
15:42
Speaker 3: espresso in that.
15:44
Speaker 1: Oh.
15:45
Speaker 3: I underbake it by about eight minutes and it is
15:50
Speaker 3: so gooey and delicious and fattening.
15:55
Speaker 1: That's the best, guy, Oh my god, I absolutely love it.
15:59
Speaker 1: I I want to go back to to your blue
16:02
Speaker 1: ribbon at the La County Fair. I'm so glad you
16:05
Speaker 1: filled me on that because I read that you want
16:07
Speaker 1: a blue ribbon, but I couldn't find what you want
16:10
Speaker 1: it for, and so I was so curious. Was it
16:12
Speaker 1: for something baking?
16:13
Speaker 3: But it was booth display and design on curtain craft
16:17
Speaker 3: booth display and design.
16:19
Speaker 1: We're going to talk more about the fair element here
16:23
Speaker 1: in a bit, but I just really want to fanboy
16:26
Speaker 1: out over the idea of fair. The fair is like
16:29
Speaker 1: my favorite thing all year long. I live for it.
16:32
Speaker 1: I go to the La County Fair, I go to
16:35
Speaker 1: the OC Fair. I've been to the San Diego Fair.
16:37
Speaker 3: That's the best fair this Oh my gosh, the San
16:40
Speaker 3: Diego Fair that was my first fair really put off
16:43
Speaker 3: my student loans on that fair I did.
16:47
Speaker 1: That's incredible. It's I mean, the San Diego County fair
16:51
Speaker 1: grounds are stunning. But the thing about the fair that
16:54
Speaker 1: I love is that, especially these days, we're so like
16:58
Speaker 1: we're so disconnected as people. But when you go to
17:01
Speaker 1: the fair, I love walking through the baking and the
17:05
Speaker 1: crafting competitions and seeing like these are things that people
17:08
Speaker 1: in my community are making, and these are talents that
17:11
Speaker 1: people have, and I just feel so connected to my
17:13
Speaker 1: community and people around me. Like brings a tear to
17:15
Speaker 1: my eye. I always run to the city who got
17:18
Speaker 1: those blue ribbons at the fair, and I love that
17:21
Speaker 1: you had that same passion.
17:23
Speaker 3: You know what's amazing this particular year in the largest
17:26
Speaker 3: fair in this country, which is the Texas Fair. It
17:30
Speaker 3: takes place in Dallas. I've been to it. It is incredible.
17:34
Speaker 3: I think the child there was a child that took
17:38
Speaker 3: the blue ribbon in the adult baking competition, and I
17:42
Speaker 3: think that I think, I don't know exactly, I just
17:45
Speaker 3: kind of like you know, heard it through the grape vine. Yeah,
17:49
Speaker 3: I think that this kid was thirteen, maybe twelve, like
17:53
Speaker 3: it was a thing that this kid won a thing.
17:56
Speaker 3: But yeah, to look at the baking cases, and it's
17:59
Speaker 3: also very motive. You really should go though and look
18:02
Speaker 3: at the baking cases right after they hand out the
18:04
Speaker 3: ribbons because that's when the baked item looks the best,
18:07
Speaker 3: right when you go down where it's like, how did
18:10
Speaker 3: that win a ribbon? Well for three weeks baby? And
18:13
Speaker 3: that green stuff on there is called mold because the
18:16
Speaker 3: cases are not refrigerated. But yeah, there's something like two
18:21
Speaker 3: hundred different entries that you can place jams, jellies, you know,
18:26
Speaker 3: fruit preserves, you can cookies, brownies, wandies, pies, cake pops, cupcakes, cakes, like,
18:35
Speaker 3: and that's just the sweet part. There's a whole savory section.
18:40
Speaker 1: I mean, there's something for everybody there. What do you
18:42
Speaker 1: think about the Sometimes I'll walk by the cake decorating
18:46
Speaker 1: and I see the ones that are like ninety nine
18:49
Speaker 1: percent fondan't you know like where it's like it almost
18:52
Speaker 1: turns into sculpting at that point, Like, what do you
18:55
Speaker 1: think about that style of cake decorating?
18:58
Speaker 3: Well, when I was first going to QBC my first
19:03
Speaker 3: three years, and I was in my late twenties early
19:06
Speaker 3: early early thirties, like maybe thirty thirty one. QBC sent
19:10
Speaker 3: me over to launch QBC in England and Germany, so
19:13
Speaker 3: it was UK and then I was in Dusseldorf in Germany.
19:17
Speaker 3: When I went to the UK, my sister Kimmy used
19:19
Speaker 3: to come with me because it was you know, what
19:21
Speaker 3: you did here in an hour, it took you a
19:23
Speaker 3: week to do there, and you're sleeping on couches and
19:25
Speaker 3: you're just like, it was such an incredible process to
19:29
Speaker 3: launch this network, but it was you know, it's a grind.
19:34
Speaker 3: You're launching something brand new, and I was in I
19:37
Speaker 3: was launching home, garden and crafts, so I was in
19:39
Speaker 3: that department. I hadn't gone into food yet, but I was.
19:44
Speaker 3: My sister and I would go to Herod's and Harrods
19:47
Speaker 3: is like one of those great department stores in the world,
19:50
Speaker 3: Like you have to go to Herods and we would
19:53
Speaker 3: go to the food court and we would buy my
19:56
Speaker 3: nieces and nephews in Santa Claus all their stocking stuffers.
20:00
Speaker 3: They had candies we didn't have here, and we would
20:02
Speaker 3: buy them all the beanie baberries, which now are worth working.
20:05
Speaker 3: I wish we would have kept them. Kids would have
20:07
Speaker 3: known like we got them all. You couldn't get them here.
20:10
Speaker 3: But they had a cake area, and in their cake
20:14
Speaker 3: area was the most beautiful cakes you've ever seen. And
20:17
Speaker 3: I was sitting there in absolute wonderment thinking of my grandmother,
20:22
Speaker 3: and I was like, how did they get the icing
20:24
Speaker 3: that smooth? Like, I don't understand, how do you do that?
20:28
Speaker 3: And then when they shared with me the process, it
20:31
Speaker 3: was all fonded. And then years years, years years later
20:35
Speaker 3: you go to Michael's or Joanne's and you can buy
20:37
Speaker 3: it ready You can make fond it yourself, but you
20:39
Speaker 3: can buy it ready made. And they would also use
20:42
Speaker 3: like almond paste and they would make these great little
20:44
Speaker 3: like bunnies for Easter, Santa's, for Christmas or whatever it is.
20:49
Speaker 3: And now it's every day here. Back in the day,
20:53
Speaker 3: and when I first started some my homemaid, no one
20:56
Speaker 3: was doing it, so I just felt like I was
20:57
Speaker 3: so smart sol and coming to the walk around foodstems,
21:02
Speaker 3: I was like, I'm in hair is learning how to
21:04
Speaker 3: cake decorate.
21:07
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I love it so much. We have
21:10
Speaker 1: so much more to get into with Sandra Lee. Stick around,
21:14
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after these words. Sandel is with us,
21:27
Speaker 1: the legendary Sandra Leie. I'm so excited about this. Something
21:31
Speaker 1: I wanted to bring up is when I go to
21:34
Speaker 1: the fair, the first thing I look at are the
21:37
Speaker 1: table scapes, the table scaping competition. That is something that
21:41
Speaker 1: I am. I'm obsessed with. My wife and I are obsessed.
21:44
Speaker 1: We study it. It's our favorite thing at the our
21:47
Speaker 1: single favorite thing. And you coined the term table scaping.
21:50
Speaker 1: I mean that term is attributed to you.
21:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I created the word.
21:55
Speaker 1: Yes, that's what I'm saying.
21:56
Speaker 3: Like, well, because for me, I really didn't want to
22:00
Speaker 3: do the Food Network show, and Ray and I are
22:03
Speaker 3: really good friends, but they said, just watch Rachel Ray
22:05
Speaker 3: and do what she's doing. And I'd already created two
22:08
Speaker 3: semi homemade cookbooks and I'm like, yeah, but what Rachel
22:11
Speaker 3: does is not what I do. She's doing thirty minute meals.
22:13
Speaker 3: I do semi homemade and I'm not from scratch. And
22:17
Speaker 3: for me, I at the time, remember I was doing
22:19
Speaker 3: home and gardening crafts and even though I did cooking,
22:23
Speaker 3: I almost did the cooking because they told me I
22:25
Speaker 3: couldn't do it. I was like, oh yeah, I watch this,
22:27
Speaker 3: and no one will publish it. So I'm like, oh yeah,
22:29
Speaker 3: I watch this. So I was like bringing my paper
22:31
Speaker 3: from Japan. I was printing it in China because I
22:33
Speaker 3: was manufacturing anyway. Then I wrote the cookbooks and they
22:37
Speaker 3: weren't perfect, but they were me and they were I
22:39
Speaker 3: was happy.
22:40
Speaker 4: And so I I told them that I would do
22:47
Speaker 4: it with a couple conditions, because I really want an
22:51
Speaker 4: HGTV show.
22:54
Speaker 3: They said, redecorate your kitchen. And I said, every single show.
22:57
Speaker 3: And they're like, yeah, did which the outfits came from,
23:02
Speaker 3: the hair came from, and the window treatments came from
23:04
Speaker 3: and all that had come from that, the florals and
23:07
Speaker 3: all the color palettes, like you know, now you know
23:09
Speaker 3: my background, so you understand how they came to life.
23:11
Speaker 3: And I said, the job of this show, the job
23:15
Speaker 3: of Semi Homemade, is to give you quick tips and
23:19
Speaker 3: tricks and thoughtful ways to use what you have in
23:22
Speaker 3: your pantry, not just to save you money, but to
23:25
Speaker 3: bring your family around the table. Right, your job is
23:27
Speaker 3: to bring your family around the table and create a
23:30
Speaker 3: community with your own family and or friends. So I
23:34
Speaker 3: want to do. I want to do the place settings.
23:36
Speaker 3: I want to teach people how to do the tables
23:37
Speaker 3: and make it beautiful. And they're like, oh, that's a
23:40
Speaker 3: great way to end the show. So that will be yours.
23:42
Speaker 3: So you're going to have to figure out what you
23:43
Speaker 3: want to call that, and I said, well, it's a
23:45
Speaker 3: table escape. It's escape, right, and they said great. So
23:51
Speaker 3: every single show I end the show, that's an amazing show.
23:54
Speaker 3: That show. I think I did four recipes, a cocktail,
23:57
Speaker 3: two wardrobe changes, and a table escape. I mean, I
24:02
Speaker 3: couldn't have been happier. And we shot almost three hundred
24:04
Speaker 3: of those shows. It was on for fifteen years. Yeah,
24:07
Speaker 3: it was on for fifteen years and two Emmys later.
24:12
Speaker 3: I mean, I have an Emmy for makeup because I
24:14
Speaker 3: don't look like this in the morning.
24:15
Speaker 1: Like seriously, oh my god, it's incredible. Can you think
24:22
Speaker 1: of the most like I don't want to say or
24:24
Speaker 1: no ambitious tablescape that you that you pulled off? Like,
24:28
Speaker 1: what was like the most complex that you can think of?
24:31
Speaker 3: It was a Thanksgiving tablescape?
24:33
Speaker 4: It was.
24:36
Speaker 3: It was. I did it up in Albany at the
24:38
Speaker 3: Mansion and I ordered these huge chocolate turkeys, which you
24:44
Speaker 3: can get online. They're a fortune. And I ordered flowers
24:48
Speaker 3: and I just it was a table. I think that
24:51
Speaker 3: was set for. I mean, I want to say thirty people,
24:59
Speaker 3: big table. So the tablescape had to run down the
25:02
Speaker 3: entire line. And then we had a dessert table and
25:05
Speaker 3: two buffet tables. So there was a kid's table, and
25:09
Speaker 3: then there was that and I and in addition to
25:11
Speaker 3: that was so I had the flowers, I had the
25:13
Speaker 3: edible turkeys, I had all of it. The room smelt amazing.
25:17
Speaker 3: The other one, I would say was probably my wedding,
25:20
Speaker 3: and I think that was back in two thousand and one. Obviously,
25:24
Speaker 3: you know that my marriage at the time only lasted
25:27
Speaker 3: my relationship only lasted seven years. So but the wedding
25:33
Speaker 3: tables were really important to me and how I did them.
25:36
Speaker 3: And then we had it done at a private home.
25:39
Speaker 3: We did it at a private home, Green Acres in
25:41
Speaker 3: Beverly Hills, which was so fun at the time because
25:44
Speaker 3: remember from where I come from, like a small town
25:46
Speaker 3: in Washington State, welfare and food stamps and you know,
25:49
Speaker 3: parents that were not participating in our lives. That was
25:52
Speaker 3: to goat so to be able to do like my
25:54
Speaker 3: magic at this amazing home and being getting married at
25:58
Speaker 3: thirty two and having built company, I wanted to be
26:01
Speaker 3: over the top, of course I did. But my nieces
26:05
Speaker 3: and nephew's table was the most important table to me.
26:09
Speaker 3: So I did the centerpieces. But in the centerpiece I
26:16
Speaker 3: put these huge vases, and the vases were full of
26:20
Speaker 3: water and they were full of goldfish.
26:23
Speaker 1: Wow.
26:24
Speaker 3: And it was a Midsummer's night dream table. And then
26:27
Speaker 3: at each place setting for the child that was there,
26:29
Speaker 3: my niece or nephew that was there, they got a
26:32
Speaker 3: beta fish to take home, so all the color was
26:35
Speaker 3: all the way around, and beta fish have to be
26:36
Speaker 3: kept separately, right because they're fighting fish. And then they
26:39
Speaker 3: had plume flowers, so it was flowers and it was fish,
26:43
Speaker 3: and it was just this fantasy. So that tablescape was
26:45
Speaker 3: super important to me too. So those are the one
26:47
Speaker 3: those are the two I remember the most, but they
26:50
Speaker 3: were for my personal me. It wasn't I couldn't do
26:53
Speaker 3: that well. I did recreate for Alexander Stanton, which I
26:56
Speaker 3: brought up earlier. My best friend for her wedding, I
26:59
Speaker 3: did all individual cakes and individual sugar eggs, so I
27:03
Speaker 3: wanted her a wedding reception to reflect Faberge eggs. So
27:10
Speaker 3: I worked with Sylvia weinstock makes You Rest in Peace,
27:15
Speaker 3: and we did all these edible fab Faberge eggs for
27:19
Speaker 3: individual wedding cakes on the table, and then we did
27:22
Speaker 3: big huge sugar eggs that reflected those. So it was
27:25
Speaker 3: an inredibly jeweled tone bowls. We did everything, so hers
27:30
Speaker 3: was probably like definitely the top three.
27:33
Speaker 1: So in the time you've done that, you did semi homemade. Uh,
27:39
Speaker 1: there's there's a lot of things that stuck in people's minds.
27:41
Speaker 1: Like me and my sister watched the show a lot
27:44
Speaker 1: and I told her that you were coming on, and
27:45
Speaker 1: she was just like beyond excited.
27:47
Speaker 3: Why isn't she on with us? She's on with us.
27:50
Speaker 3: I always hear that, and they never invite like their
27:52
Speaker 3: mom or their sister or their aunt, Like just it's
27:56
Speaker 3: a party, it's us, let's just do it.
27:58
Speaker 1: You know it's a party. Well, let's let's say had
28:00
Speaker 1: to my sister Kimberly. You know she's she's sitting at
28:02
Speaker 1: home listening.
28:03
Speaker 3: That's her name, Kimberly. M name, Kimberly.
28:06
Speaker 1: Isn't that a great sister name. It's a great I
28:09
Speaker 1: call her.
28:10
Speaker 3: What do you call your sister?
28:11
Speaker 1: I call her Kimberly, I do the full thing.
28:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, well I'll call her Kimmy. Hi, Kimmy Aunt. Sandy
28:16
Speaker 3: loves you.
28:17
Speaker 1: Oh my god, she's gonna she's gonna die. Thank you.
28:20
Speaker 1: But uh, you know, so we were talking about like
28:22
Speaker 1: our favorite things that you did on the show, and
28:25
Speaker 1: there's a lot of things that people talk about online still,
28:27
Speaker 1: like the glassware Christmas Tree.
28:30
Speaker 3: The cocktail Christmas Tree. So that's where cocktail glasses and
28:33
Speaker 3: turn them all upside down and hung them in the
28:35
Speaker 3: tree and wired it in. It was cocktail Time tree
28:38
Speaker 3: because everybody loves cocktail. Yes, cocktail time was mine too.
28:41
Speaker 3: I that was my whole thing. I was the first
28:44
Speaker 3: person to bring cocktails onto the show. They didn't want
28:46
Speaker 3: me to do drinks. I'm like, okay, I don't really
28:48
Speaker 3: want to do the show anyway. They're like, I go,
28:51
Speaker 3: I really don't want. I don't care. It took nine
28:53
Speaker 3: months to do the show, to do the contract for
28:55
Speaker 3: the show. I'm like, I don't really care. And they're like,
28:58
Speaker 3: who says that everybody wants to be on TV? I'm like, yeah,
29:00
Speaker 3: but that's not what I want.
29:01
Speaker 2: To do.
29:01
Speaker 3: I want to do a daytime show. I wanted to
29:03
Speaker 3: do a Monday through Friday, like thirty minute or one
29:07
Speaker 3: hour show and like semi homemade four point oh. So
29:14
Speaker 3: they told me, okay, fine, but just so you know,
29:17
Speaker 3: nobody wants to do cocktails. And I said, my best
29:21
Speaker 3: friend Colleen Schmidt and for Donia Wisconsin, who I went
29:25
Speaker 3: to college with, who I'm still dear, dear friends with.
29:29
Speaker 3: She is having a bloody mary when she's watching the
29:32
Speaker 3: Packers every Sunday at noon. I'm telling you right now.
29:36
Speaker 3: And they're like, hm, maybe she's right. So they said, fine,
29:41
Speaker 3: we'll let you do cocktails, but you have to be
29:43
Speaker 3: really responsible with what you did, and I said, sure,
29:47
Speaker 3: two shots of vodka.
29:49
Speaker 1: Yes.
29:50
Speaker 3: It just is kind of like it is. It is
29:52
Speaker 3: like when semi home aid, Like, you can't do semi homemaid.
29:54
Speaker 3: Why cause you can't tell people what to use. I'm like,
29:56
Speaker 3: I'm doing that. You can't do cocktail time. You can't
29:59
Speaker 3: do more than like one shot per drink. I'm like, oh, yeah, okay,
30:04
Speaker 3: no problem.
30:05
Speaker 1: There's no rules in the world of Angele.
30:07
Speaker 3: And then it was like the biggest meme in the world,
30:09
Speaker 3: Like my nieces. They're traveling in like Europe, and people
30:11
Speaker 3: are like, wait, Sandra Lee like two shots of vodka?
30:15
Speaker 3: Time is your aunt? Yes, she's actually my aunt. I
30:19
Speaker 3: know she's called Aunt Sandy, but she's actually my aunt.
30:23
Speaker 1: That's I'm so jealous of your nieces. I'm sorry, Like
30:28
Speaker 1: that would be so cool to have you as an aunt.
30:30
Speaker 3: I should like Aunt Sandy. I'm not putting it to
30:32
Speaker 3: your on my head. I'm like, there's only you have
30:34
Speaker 3: one job. I'll do everything else. I just wanted to
30:37
Speaker 3: hear on your head. Danielle, She's like.
30:39
Speaker 1: Ye, do what Aunt Sandy says.
30:43
Speaker 3: She's she's definitely my niece doing that.
30:49
Speaker 1: So you're you're super close with your nieces. Do you
30:51
Speaker 1: see them often?
30:53
Speaker 3: My niece, Danielle. I was just with her in Arizona.
30:56
Speaker 3: The love one of the loves of my life. I
30:58
Speaker 3: love that child And now I know how my grandma
31:01
Speaker 3: feels when I don't call her. Oh yeah, he I
31:05
Speaker 3: never guilt trip my niece and nephews. But my niece
31:09
Speaker 3: and called me for two weeks. That is like, that's
31:12
Speaker 3: like taking this pencil and sticking in my heart and
31:15
Speaker 3: I'm like, Dan, I finally sent her a guilt trip,
31:17
Speaker 3: which I never do. I literally never guilt trip her.
31:20
Speaker 3: I'm like, you're perfect, You're fabulous, You're this, You're not
31:22
Speaker 3: like I love you so much. You're like fabulous and
31:25
Speaker 3: smart and all the things that that, and she's like yeah, yeah, yeah,
31:29
Speaker 3: Like it's some days I wish my aunt was here
31:32
Speaker 3: saying that to me, but not today. So I said Danielle,
31:36
Speaker 3: I was so dramatic. I'm like, really hurts my feelings
31:39
Speaker 3: when you don't call me poor child, But yeah, she's perfect.
31:44
Speaker 3: My niece Katie is in medical school. Wows going to
31:48
Speaker 3: be a doctor. My niece Stephanie is a teacher, and
31:51
Speaker 3: she teaches children that cannot communicate with their parents because
31:55
Speaker 3: they're deaf. She teaches them sign language and their parents
31:58
Speaker 3: sign language. She's like amazing and smart. So I have
32:03
Speaker 3: three nieces, Danielle, Katie, and Stephanie, and I never feel
32:09
Speaker 3: like I'm close enough to any of them. But then
32:11
Speaker 3: they're like, Aunt, Sandy, you can be sitting on top
32:13
Speaker 3: of me kissing my face and you wouldn't feel close enough.
32:17
Speaker 1: So true, if they're throwing like a party or having
32:20
Speaker 1: an event, do they call you and ask for ideas
32:22
Speaker 1: or anything do they do they know this valuable resource,
32:25
Speaker 1: they have their fingertips.
32:26
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, Bryce, Bryce might, but when Bryce
32:33
Speaker 3: and I do it, my nephew Bryce, who grew up
32:34
Speaker 3: on my show. Bryce's with me a lot, so Bryce
32:38
Speaker 3: might do it, but the other one's not so much.
32:43
Speaker 3: I think they're just used to me kind of saying, oh,
32:46
Speaker 3: I think you should be this for Halloween, or I
32:48
Speaker 3: think you should do that, or you know, I'm you
32:51
Speaker 3: know how kids.
32:52
Speaker 1: Are, Yeah, you know, Yeah, I get it, I get it.
32:58
Speaker 3: You just got to tell them that you love them
32:59
Speaker 3: and wait for them to call Danielle.
33:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, daniel if you're listening, calling it Sandy right now.
33:05
Speaker 3: Right now and right wrong, right now?
33:08
Speaker 1: Maybe we're waitnutes yet.
33:10
Speaker 3: She And then of course the other day when she
33:13
Speaker 3: finally did call, I was on the other phone doing
33:15
Speaker 3: something I couldn't put down, of course, Like all I
33:20
Speaker 3: wanted to do was take her call. I'm like, oh, yeah,
33:24
Speaker 3: every parent goes through this when their kids turn thirty two.
33:27
Speaker 3: And when she told like, I keep forgetting she's thirty
33:29
Speaker 3: two because to me, she's five. The other day when
33:31
Speaker 3: I was with her, She's like, yeah, I'm thirty two.
33:33
Speaker 3: I go, you're thirty two. She's like, Aunt, Sandy, and
33:37
Speaker 3: I just started crying. I'm like, you're two. She's like,
33:41
Speaker 3: are you crying? You know we lost I go, yeah,
33:46
Speaker 3: but gosh, gosh, you're thirty two. And then it occurred
33:51
Speaker 3: to me how old I am? And then we cry
33:54
Speaker 3: hard or not really, I'm happy.
33:55
Speaker 1: To be Sandelie is with us. It's I smell pop
33:59
Speaker 1: culture here on the I Am On podcast. We have
34:01
Speaker 1: so much more to get into. You know, we gotta
34:03
Speaker 1: talk about Gilmore Girls. We have to talk about Gilmore Girls.
34:06
Speaker 1: Stick around with us. We'll be right back after these words.
34:17
Speaker 1: We're back with sandel Lee. So it's in the Netflix
34:21
Speaker 1: revival they mentioned you, and I wanted to know if anyone, Yeah,
34:25
Speaker 1: did any did anyone call?
34:27
Speaker 3: Everybody sent it to me? Yeah, everybody sent it to me.
34:31
Speaker 3: How I found out, I was like, Wow, good for them,
34:33
Speaker 3: good for me. This is auce.
34:36
Speaker 1: So the context of the mention is they're they're bringing
34:41
Speaker 1: in all these like celebrity chefs to work at the
34:43
Speaker 1: at the Dragonfly in and and you canceled because you
34:46
Speaker 1: heard it was bad. That's the that's the reference. It
34:48
Speaker 1: was a bad gig. Would you have actually wanted to
34:51
Speaker 1: work at the Dragonfly in Stars Hollow? Is that something
34:54
Speaker 1: you would have won?
34:55
Speaker 3: You know what's interesting is my personality, My real personality
34:57
Speaker 3: would have never canceled because I would have been like, Okay,
35:00
Speaker 3: I can fix this.
35:02
Speaker 1: Yes, that's what I thought. I was like, that doesn't
35:07
Speaker 1: sound like xchange.
35:07
Speaker 3: Really give me twenty four hours. I'm telling you, I
35:09
Speaker 3: am at Sandy Claus for a reason. It's just like
35:11
Speaker 3: a whirling dervish. When has happened? Does everybody go away?
35:16
Speaker 3: And I'm like Courtney Cox her character and friends. Yes,
35:21
Speaker 3: and it's true, like I'll do everything for everybody and
35:24
Speaker 3: I'll make it perfect. And then I literally halfway in
35:28
Speaker 3: the party, I'll like crawl and go to bed. My sister,
35:32
Speaker 3: Kimmy kimber Lee will come in the room and she's like, Sandy,
35:37
Speaker 3: you always do this. You have a party, and then
35:39
Speaker 3: you miss all the fun and all the kids are
35:41
Speaker 3: out there having a great time and they're dancing and
35:43
Speaker 3: you're not seeing it. She's like here and she'll shove
35:46
Speaker 3: coffee in my face. It's like, drink this coffee, get
35:48
Speaker 3: your ass out of bed, work, go into party. And
35:51
Speaker 3: so I'll just put on sweats and I'll like go
35:55
Speaker 3: hang out. But it's a thing like I would have
35:58
Speaker 3: fixed that.
35:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean that that was something else I
36:03
Speaker 1: was going to ask, is what what would you have
36:06
Speaker 1: done to make this small town like bed and breakfast
36:10
Speaker 1: something grand that would bring in people from all over?
36:13
Speaker 1: What's something you would have suggested for them?
36:15
Speaker 3: Well, I'm saving that from my own show, of course,
36:18
Speaker 3: I can't tell you.
36:21
Speaker 1: Sorry, It's okay. I had to ask. I still have
36:23
Speaker 1: to ask. And how does it? I know you do,
36:30
Speaker 1: and we'll we'll get to see it at some point, right.
36:33
Speaker 3: I hope. So, yeah, did you just knock on wood?
36:37
Speaker 2: Yes?
36:37
Speaker 1: I did. I Oh, my Angelie, look at us. How
36:43
Speaker 1: does it when you heard from all your friends, everyone
36:45
Speaker 1: that sent you the the reference, They're like, oh, they
36:48
Speaker 1: talked about you and gil mor girls. How does that feel?
36:50
Speaker 1: I mean, that's not the first time, obviously, that you've
36:51
Speaker 1: been mentioned in something. I mean, everybody talks about you
36:54
Speaker 1: all the time. How does that feel to be like
36:56
Speaker 1: I am part of popular culture to the point where
37:01
Speaker 1: these TV shows are talking about me saying my name.
37:05
Speaker 1: How does that feel?
37:06
Speaker 3: Obviously, my career is a big part of my life
37:09
Speaker 3: and building my career was a big part of my life,
37:12
Speaker 3: and I did it for a reason, probably a lot
37:14
Speaker 3: because of where I came from and how I was
37:16
Speaker 3: raised and what we had or didn't have, and what
37:19
Speaker 3: I want for my family and the experiences that are
37:23
Speaker 3: really important for us to get to have. So it
37:27
Speaker 3: came from that place. But there is definitely I mean,
37:34
Speaker 3: there's the professional Sandra Lee, and then there's you know,
37:38
Speaker 3: Sandy who I am, and there's Aunt Sandy Claus. Like,
37:42
Speaker 3: you know, there's days where I don't feel like my peppy, wonderful,
37:47
Speaker 3: little cheer lady self, and sometimes those days are triggered
37:51
Speaker 3: by people just being mean. You know, there's a lot
37:54
Speaker 3: of that I'll never forget. When The New York Times
37:57
Speaker 3: came out with that scathing review of Semi Homemade when
38:01
Speaker 3: it first hit the air, that really hurt my feelings.
38:07
Speaker 3: But the network called immediately and said, whenever we see
38:12
Speaker 3: something this big, that means it's going to be really huge,
38:15
Speaker 3: and it was. Semi Homemade was I think the top
38:19
Speaker 3: show for almost three years and in the top ten
38:22
Speaker 3: for the next ten. Semi Homemade was just like this
38:27
Speaker 3: crazy zeitgeisty thing that helped so many people and I
38:34
Speaker 3: was happy to do it and proud to do it.
38:36
Speaker 3: And it requires being the face of it. I mean
38:38
Speaker 3: I was trained. I was I was educated. I had
38:44
Speaker 3: fantastic mentors.
38:46
Speaker 4: You know.
38:48
Speaker 3: Florence Henderson really taught me how to be a good talent.
38:51
Speaker 3: Florence Henderson did not require makeup and hair. We went
38:54
Speaker 3: to Chicago to launch curtain Craft. She was a spokesperson
38:56
Speaker 3: for that. She's like, I'll do my own hair and
38:58
Speaker 3: hair and makeup. I only had a small amount of money.
39:01
Speaker 3: I did an infomercial and I had a small amount
39:04
Speaker 3: of money left, and I needed a talent to do
39:09
Speaker 3: the infomercial. And she said no to me every which way,
39:12
Speaker 3: and I finally said to her agent. I co called
39:14
Speaker 3: the agent and I was I don't know what I
39:16
Speaker 3: was thinking. I was like twenty seven, twenty six wow,
39:20
Speaker 3: And I said, I want to meet with her. I
39:23
Speaker 3: know she lives in Marine del Ray. I live in
39:24
Speaker 3: Marine del Ray. I want to meet with her. So
39:27
Speaker 3: she sat down with me and I explained her my
39:29
Speaker 3: story and I told her what I wanted to do
39:32
Speaker 3: and why it had to be her because when I
39:34
Speaker 3: watched Brady Bunch, she was literally my mom. I didn't
39:37
Speaker 3: have one. So the Brady Bunch mom was my mom,
39:38
Speaker 3: and it had to be Florence, and that's who it was.
39:40
Speaker 3: They wanted it to be this mom from this mom
39:43
Speaker 3: and that mom and this other mom, and I said, no,
39:46
Speaker 3: it's Florence Henderson. It has to be Florence. And so
39:50
Speaker 3: she finally said yes. She accepted my money. She took
39:52
Speaker 3: all of it. I'm happy to give it to her.
39:55
Speaker 3: But she would show up and she would post for
39:57
Speaker 3: photos a certain way, and she would stand there certain way,
40:00
Speaker 3: and she would go to trade shows a certain way
40:03
Speaker 3: which was different than my way. And she taught me
40:05
Speaker 3: how to be good talent. Good talent doesn't sit in
40:07
Speaker 3: a green room with her feet up. Good talent is like,
40:10
Speaker 3: how can I help you make this better? How can
40:12
Speaker 3: I work a little bit harder? What will make your
40:14
Speaker 3: life easier? That is how she rolled. Gary Collins was
40:17
Speaker 3: the same way Gary Collins taught me about lighting, because
40:20
Speaker 3: he would walk around going where's my pill? Where's my pill?
40:23
Speaker 3: And I thought Phil was his assistant. Is like light,
40:26
Speaker 3: it comes up so you don't look, you know you're
40:29
Speaker 3: a and it like fills you. Right, there's a reason
40:32
Speaker 3: why Jennifer Aniston always looks the way she looks on
40:34
Speaker 3: the set right in Reese Witherspoon, they have a light
40:37
Speaker 3: like light, light light, and I like God's light. But
40:41
Speaker 3: God's light can be a little harsh, yeah, compared to
40:44
Speaker 3: studio lighting. But yeah, being a talent is a And
40:51
Speaker 3: then I saw a really famous person at Gladstone's here
40:56
Speaker 3: and I sat there and I watched him. And this
40:57
Speaker 3: is when I was a waitress and some one came
41:00
Speaker 3: up to him and he turned around and handed them there.
41:03
Speaker 3: But were approaching him while he was in a conversation
41:08
Speaker 3: out in public, And in my mind I thought, I
41:11
Speaker 3: didn't say anything because I wasn't that bold yet. I
41:13
Speaker 3: would probably say something now, But I thought, your talent,
41:20
Speaker 3: your job is to be available. You wanted to be famous,
41:24
Speaker 3: you are famous. You wanted to be an actor. You're
41:27
Speaker 3: on the biggest show in the whole wide world. And
41:30
Speaker 3: someone wants to talk to you and say hello, and
41:32
Speaker 3: that made their life a little bit better and you
41:36
Speaker 3: just handed them there. But not cool. Yeah, being a
41:41
Speaker 3: talent and being famous comes with a lot of responsibility,
41:44
Speaker 3: and it also comes with you have to eat it sometimes,
41:47
Speaker 3: meaning you have to suck it up. You have to
41:50
Speaker 3: eat the bad reviews with the good reviews. I mean,
41:52
Speaker 3: people always say to me, your facelift is terrible. I'm like, oh, well,
41:55
Speaker 3: I didn't get one. I gained thirty pounds thanks, I
41:59
Speaker 3: aged thirty two anymore. And they say like the meanest things.
42:04
Speaker 3: I'm like, delete delete, delete, Get off my Facebook, get
42:07
Speaker 3: off my Instagram. You're not nice. Don't be mean to me.
42:10
Speaker 3: Why would you be mean to me.
42:12
Speaker 1: That's something I'll never understand, Like where that that just
42:16
Speaker 1: breeds more negativity in your life and it poisons you.
42:19
Speaker 1: I don't know why people do that. It's insane.
42:21
Speaker 3: Why would you want me to have to go have
42:23
Speaker 3: two shots of vodka because you're mean not nice? So yeah,
42:30
Speaker 3: so there's good and bad with being famous.
42:32
Speaker 1: Yeah.
42:32
Speaker 3: And by the way, you don't always get the reservation
42:36
Speaker 3: even when you're a foodie.
42:40
Speaker 1: Sandeleie is here. Your new show is called Sandra Lee.
42:43
Speaker 1: Now it's on KVC. I know that's so exciting.
42:47
Speaker 3: Home Decorp Trimetry Linen's Gifting. So the first show starts
42:53
Speaker 3: November tenth. Is that four pm Eastern Standard Time, which
42:56
Speaker 3: is one pm Pacific. We all know that. And the
43:00
Speaker 3: first show I'm just picking out all my favorites for holiday.
43:04
Speaker 3: The second show, which is on the seventeenth of November,
43:07
Speaker 3: is all my termitory stuff, and that'll probably be the
43:10
Speaker 3: only show that there is. And I did something very
43:13
Speaker 3: specific this year. I did a lot of gingerbread and
43:15
Speaker 3: very kind of pale blonde colors so that you could
43:19
Speaker 3: take it from Thanksgiving all the way to Holiday. So
43:22
Speaker 3: the things you're going to see in my show on
43:23
Speaker 3: the seventeenth you can use on your Thanksgiving tablescape and
43:26
Speaker 3: you can decorate the tree with it. I decorate in advance.
43:29
Speaker 3: I used to decorate the Friday after Thanksgiving, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
43:32
Speaker 3: I don't do that anymore. I am it's time on
43:38
Speaker 3: November first, so I put it all up and I
43:41
Speaker 3: do copper. My sister Kimber does a lot of copper,
43:43
Speaker 3: and I collect cookie getters, so I do a lot
43:45
Speaker 3: of copper. I do a lot of gingerbread. Now gingerbread
43:48
Speaker 3: is like the big deal of this Christmas is like
43:50
Speaker 3: the trend.
43:51
Speaker 1: Wow.
43:51
Speaker 3: So a lot of gingerbread, and I'll carry it right
43:55
Speaker 3: through the holidays. I might put some red bows on,
43:57
Speaker 3: but I leave that off until right after Thanksgiving, and
44:00
Speaker 3: then it only takes me like an hour. And I
44:02
Speaker 3: used to do seven trees and themed every single room,
44:05
Speaker 3: but now I only do two trees.
44:08
Speaker 1: A modest two trees I do a moda is too huge.
44:11
Speaker 3: And I just love Christmas. I have a storage unit
44:13
Speaker 3: full of Christmas decor and I love creating crafts at
44:16
Speaker 3: Christmas time. Love it. And you'll see a lot of
44:19
Speaker 3: those beautiful, easy things that you can use in the kitchen.
44:23
Speaker 3: There's like this gorgeous rolling pin that I designed based
44:27
Speaker 3: off the European Christmas markets which I've gone to for
44:32
Speaker 3: the last couple of years, and of course I went
44:34
Speaker 3: to when I was super young. And there's these charming
44:41
Speaker 3: cookie cutters, Christmas trees, gingerbread Christmas trees, stockings, I love stockings,
44:50
Speaker 3: stars and snowflakes, which I love. So there's little there's
44:54
Speaker 3: these tree lights like Charles Dickens tree lights that are candle,
44:58
Speaker 3: three of them. I love those your tree and it
45:01
Speaker 3: goes it's They're incredible. I think you're gonna love it.
45:07
Speaker 3: And then the last show is on the twenty third,
45:08
Speaker 3: right before right before Thanksgiving, and that will be giftables
45:14
Speaker 3: and food and just yeah, yeah, if you like Semio
45:19
Speaker 3: made and you like what I did, You're gonna love
45:23
Speaker 3: these shows, So tune into QBC. This is my thirtieth anniversary.
45:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is a big deal coming out with Dan
45:30
Speaker 1: Sandy Claus on QVC. It's sanje Lee now. And then
45:32
Speaker 1: you can also watch the fantastic and incredible Sandelie on
45:37
Speaker 1: The Blue Ribbon Baking Championship which is on Netflix, and
45:42
Speaker 1: that is incredible too. I have seen that show. It's
45:44
Speaker 1: so much fun and brings the joy and the love
45:47
Speaker 1: of our state fairs and the thrill of getting a
45:49
Speaker 1: Blue ribbon right to your screens. You got to check
45:51
Speaker 1: that out too. Thank you so much for doing this, Sanjelie.
45:55
Speaker 1: You're just the absolute best. I'm such a big fan.
45:58
Speaker 1: Thanks and this was a dream come true.
46:00
Speaker 3: You're in great host. It's fun.
46:03
Speaker 1: Oh my god, thank you. I'm blushing. Hey everybody, and
46:34
Speaker 1: don't forget follow us on Instagram at I Am All
46:38
Speaker 1: In podcast and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.