Our Mission

Melissa Lee launched Cooking Beautifulee with the mission to create a community of food folks across the globe, coming together to celebrate food, cultures, and curiosities. We dive deep into each dish, exploring the origins and inspiration. We showcase chefs near and far. And, we share creations for all to enjoy. Thanks for joining us.

Where will you start?

Read

We write about what we talk about all day long: food! From new legislation to quirky stories, we cover it all. Spoiler alert: reading this may make you hungry.

Cook

We share recipes from our friends of Cooking Beautifulee with a focus on New American cuisine. Blending traditions old and new, we encourage our guest chefs to share their inspiration, source accessible ingredients, and share recipes that can be cooked in 60 minutes or less. With these recipes, you’ll be empowered to try new approaches to classic dishes and create some memories along the way.

Create Memories

At the end of the day, food is fun. Creating a new dish is an opportunity to create a new memory. We’re cultivating a community and we invite you to join us. Be sure to tag #Cookedbeautifullee on social media to share your creations.

Explore

We don’t all have the opportunity to savor sashimi in Tokyo or taste pesto from Genoa. So, we bring the food stories from near and far. Embracing different cultural backgrounds, we create dig deeper into the origins of New American cuisine and the traditions that have traveled across countries and cultures.

Enrich

Food is what nourishes us. It’s what sustains us. So, we dive deeper, looking at all of the ways ingredients can aid our body, our mind, and our spirits.

Give Back

We will do our part to leverage this platform to inspire responsible actions. Now more than ever, we’re looking carefully at the best ways to support local businesses and Chef-driven independent restaurants. This is a journey and our motto is “progress not perfection,” and we’re glad you’re here with us!

Meet our CEO

Melissa Lee founded Cooking Beautifulee with a mission to cultivate a community of curious, cross-cultural food folks. She calls herself “Chief Entertainment Officer,” and those of us who have met Melissa know that food and family are just about the only things she’s serious about. Melissa is 100% MIT (Made in Taiwan), where she worked as a food writer. She’s also worked alongside renowned chefs like Ming Tsai and Joanne Chang, honing her craft and gathering stories along the way. Part story-teller, part educator, and part food lover, Melissa brings a special blend of experience, skill, and enthusiasm to her work. She blends her Asian background, her new home of New England, and love of food and culture to bring joy, optimism, and inspiration to food lovers and fun-seekers everywhere. When she’s not working, she’s usually visiting Boston’s hot spots or spending time with her two children. Want to know even more about Melissa? Follow along her journey @cookingbeautifulee. 

Our History

1980 Taiwan

In the 1980s, Taiwan became an economic power with a strong presence in the international markets. As it has developed alongside Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong, Taiwan became known as one of the "Four Asian Tigers.”

1982 Taipei, Taiwan

Melissa Lee (ML) is born.

1988 Taipei, Taiwan

ML’s father Pu-San Weng took the position as “chairman” of 味王 (Ve Wong Corporation). Founded in 1959, Ve Wenog began with the production of MSG and by 1966, the company enlarged its capital for both expansion and overseas investment. Since 1970, the company has diversified its product lines into Instant Noodles, Canned Drinks, Soy Sauce, and Retort Pouch Foods. Needless to say, ML never experienced any shortage of soy sauce.

2003 Taipei, Taiwan

ML studied Drama and Theater at National Taiwan University, the most prestigious university in Taiwan. She almost signed a contract to become an actress, but in the end, her father guided her to study abroad instead. Looking back, ML thinks those four years spent studying Drama and Theater were “Much Ado About Nothing.”

2006 Leicester, UK

ML pursued her Mass Communications Masters Degree at Leicester University in the UK. Her research was about “self-help literature in dating.” Ironically, she still has no clue when it comes to that department.

2007 London, UK

ML perused her Art History Graduate Diploma at University College in London, specializing in French Impressionism painting. If you don’t see her in the National Gallery, she was probably at Fortnum and Mason, trying new cakes, pastries, tea and jams.

2008 Chestnut-Hill, MA

ML moved to Boston and formed “Tuesday Cooking Club” with her BFFs, Sharon and Connie. Her first attempt to make “Tiramisu” turned into “Tirami-soup.”

2009 Chestnut-Hill, MA

ML purchased her first shiny KitchenAid mixer, which she named “Little Red” for its rosy hue. If the house is on fire, ML would grab her children, and then Little Red.

2010 Chestnut-Hill, MA

ML authored monthly travel pieces for the Liberty Times, which has the highest circulation in Taiwan. She also contributed articles on recipes as well as on various lifestyle topics for Womany.net, the most popular online periodical website for female readers in Taiwan.

2012 Taipei, Taiwan

ML wrote and published a travel guidebook, Little Explorer: A Guide for Parents, for Taiwanese parents taking their kids to the United States East Coast.

2014 Cambridge, MA

ML studied pastry art at Cambridge School of Culinary Arts.

2014 Boston, MA

ML started as a cookie girl at Flour (Fort-Point Location), working under the great Chef Joanne Chang.

2015 Newton, MA

ML worked at Farmstead Table, a farm-to-table restaurant in Newton Center. She worked with local farmers, using seasonal ingredients.

2016 Wellesley, MA

ML worked at Blue Ginger as a server while she was going through a difficult divorce. She was inspired by Blue Ginger’s extensive wine list and decided to take the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) course and got WSET level-two and level-three certified to become a sommelier.

2016 Southborough, MA

At the end of 2016, ML started to help teach bread-making classes at Culinary Underground, a cooking school that provides recreation classes for home cooks. Her students often asked her to come to their homes for one-on-one workshops and cooking parties. And, the idea for Cooking Beautifullee was born.

A.C. After Cooking Beautifullee

2017 Framingham, MA

ML decided to take a branding and marketing class at Emerson College, where she first heard CJ Kaplan speak. He’s a renowned copywriter who created taglines for companies like Stop & Shop. He knew that ML was a single mom, looking to start a business, and helped her create the name Cooking Beautifullee out of the kindness of his heart.

2017 Boston, MA

ML got WSET Sake Level-Two Certified in the summer. She’s the only Chef Instructor in the Boston area who has this certification.

2017 Cambridge, MA

ML began to teach at Cambridge School of Culinary arts. In October, Cooking Beautifullee’s website went live.

2018 Palermo, Sicily, Italy

ML got to know Natalia Ravida, the president of Ravida EVOO. She visited her olive farms and learned how to cook Sicilian comfort food with her Asian American twist.

2018 Sudbury, MA

ML took her first Barre class in August.

2018 Cancun, Mexico

ML took a trip to Cancun to join a yoga retreat. She was more interested in the tacos than the yoga workshops and requested a one-on-one workshop with chef Enrique Frias at Maya Tulum and learned how to make tacos and ceviche.

2019 Los Angeles, CA

ML hired her first editor, Jordana B. Together, they worked on blog posts about inspiration in the kitchen – and in all areas of life.

2019 Burlington, MA

ML held the first grocery market tour at H-Mart with seven students, taking them through each aisle to explore Asian produce, ingredients, sauces, and cookware. The students were overjoyed to get the inside scoop on what to buy in H-Mart.

2019 Chestnut Hill, MA

ML took her first SoulCycle class in summer. If you had told 16-year-old ML that she would be chasing her dreams, working in commercial kitchens, and cycling in a studio, she would have laughed. She decided to rebrand Cooking Beautifullee into a lifestyle brand and share inspiration on wellness, travel, culture with her audience.

2020 Boston, MA

ML hired a whole new team to expand Cooking Beautifullee into the lifestyle brand she always envisioned. Image Conscious Studios came on to work on branding, Robert H. joined to lead the digital marketing efforts, and Carolyn B. was hired to help with content strategy. ML took Carolyn out to lunch to celebrate their new partnership – on Valentine’s Day! – at Bar Boulud at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

2020 East Boston, MA

The new and improved Cooking Beautifullee launched with a fresh new website and logo, courtesy of Image Conscious Studios.

2020 Framingham, MA

We launched our YouTube cooking channel. Stay tuned and see what’s our next adventure!