Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee is a writer, an artist, a photographer, and a producer. She started her academic life studying biochemistry as a premedical student, but finished her degree in conceptual and installation art. She started her writing life as a poet, but now focuses on personal essays, food, and travel writing. A James Beard Award nominee, she has written for a variety of publications, including Food + Wine, Eating Well, Serious Eats, Eater, Vice, Simply Recipes, and The Washington Post. She has authored several travel guides, including all editions of Frommer’s South Korea and Frommer’s Day by Day Seoul. Her cookbooks include Quick & Easy Mexican Cooking, Quick & Easy Korean Cooking, and Eating Korean: From Barbecue to Kimchi, Recipes from My Home. Her books have been chosen as the Best of the Best by Food + Wine, the cookbook of the month by Gourmet magazine, and nominated for the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. She was a restaurant critic, food writer, and photographer for the LA Times for over two decades.

She has produced a feature film in Myanmar, a documentary about a crazy cartoonist, a podcast for America’s Test Kitchen, and a competition cooking show for ABC. Her writing and artworks can be seen in such places as Google, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, MGM Studios, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. When she’s not packing her bags, she writes, paints, cooks, and gardens in the City of Angels.