Mandy Lee admits she first launched her food blog – Lady and Pups – in 2012 as a way of turning her frustration and anger into a lovely meal. But as time went by, and her following kept growing, what started out as “an angry food blog” (as Lee puts it), turned into a buzzing community of foodies and aspiring foodies. On top of some 120k followers on Instagram, Lee and her blog have been featured in numerous publications, including Saveur, FoodandWine.com, Yahoo, Food 52, and the WashingtonPost.com.
But according to Lee, cooking is first and foremost — a hobby. “It’s as much a hobby to me as video games are to gamers,” she explained in an interview with Outlookindia. “Every advancement in levels only feeds the addiction, and the addiction drives us to reach further into the next level. Even a Nutella sandwich has codes to be cracked. For the life of me, I don’t understand why people cook if they don’t enjoy the fundamental aspects of it,” she adds.
The Taiwan-born, Vancouver-raised, and slow-aged in New York foodie, is currently based in Hong Kong with her husband and pups. According to Lee, Before starting her blog, she had never measured anything during cooking, nor has she ever followed a recipe successfully. Having said that, she likes sharing her recipes with added backstories that make for a comical effect, and hopefully ensures you follow through.
“The advertisements on the blog have no influence on the content,” she stresses. “I try very hard not to warp the content to cater to a particular group, not even to the followers. That’s a slippery slope.”
