Support Chef Edward Lee to feed people in need.

Edward Lee was born in Brooklyn to Korean immigrant parents and studied literature at New York University before beginning a culinary career built largely on experience rather than formal training — apprenticeships, travel, and five years spent deliberately studying Korean and broader East and Southeast Asian cuisine.

A trip to the Kentucky Derby in 2001 changed the course of his career entirely: Lee fell for Louisville and Southern cooking, moved to the city in 2002, and within a year had taken over 610 Magnolia from its previous owner.

Under Lee, 610 Magnolia became one of the most significant restaurants in the American South, recognised by Food & Wine as among the country’s most important dining rooms. His cooking philosophy fuses Kentucky staples — grits, collard greens, country ham, bourbon, sorghum — with Korean technique and ingredients like gochujang and kimchi, introduced gradually so diners unfamiliar with Korean flavours find an easy way in.

Lee has since expanded into Nami Modern Korean Steakhouse in Louisville, and Succotash Prime and Shia in Washington, D.C. Lee rose to wider prominence through television, including Top Chef, Iron Chef America and Culinary Class Wars, and won a James Beard Award for his book Buttermilk Graffiti: A Chef’s Journey to Discover America’s New Melting Pot Cuisine.

He also founded the LEE Initiative, a nonprofit promoting equity and diversity across the restaurant industry, and has received the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award for that work.

At CEO CookOff Sydney, Lee brings a career built on the belief that immigrant food traditions and regional American cooking were never separate stories — and a genuine track record of using his platform to make the hospitality industry fairer for the people working in it.