Top Chef Season 18 Headshot Edward Lee

Edward Lee

A competitor on season nine of Top Chef in Texas, Chef Edward Lee is the Chef/Owner of 610 Magnolia and Whiskey Dry in Louisville, KY and Khora in Cincinnati, and the Culinary Director for Succotash in National Harbor, Maryland and Penn Quarter, D.C.

Edward was the recipient of the 2019 James Beard Foundation Award for Writing for his book Buttermilk Graffiti: A Chef’s Journey to Discover America’s New Melting Pot Cuisine. He is also the author of Smoke & Pickles: Recipes and Stories from a New Southern Kitchen. Lee has been a six-time finalist for the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: Southeast. In 2018, FOOD & WINE named 610 Magnolia one of the country’s most important restaurants of the past 40 years. The Michelin Guide D.C. awarded Succotash a Bib Gourmand in 2019.

He appears frequently in print and television and his writing has been featured in The New
York Times, Esquire, FOOD & WINE among others. He was nominated for a daytime Emmy for his role as host of the Emmy-winning series, Mind of Chef on PBS. He has also hosted and written a feature documentary called Fermented.

In 2018, Edward launched The LEE Initiative, which works to bring more diversity and equality to the restaurant industry. In 2020, the relief efforts of LEE Initiative has totaled more than $5 million dollars of direct aid and has been recognized as one of the foremost organizations helping restaurant workers and farmers during the COVID-19 pandemic.