Experience
2024 - Present
Chef Owner
Koko Head Cafe (Osaka)Osaka, Japan
2023 - Present
Chef Owner
Koko Head Cafe (Tokyo)Tokyo, Japan
2023 - 2024
Contestant
Food Network's Tournament of Champions
2023 - 2023
Author Collaborator
Audacious Cookbook
2020 - 2020
Contestant
Top Chef: All-Stars L.A.Los Angeles, CA
2018 - 2018
Executive Chef
Hawaiian Airlines
2017 - 2017
Contestant
Top Chef: ColoradoColorado
2016 - 2016
Guest Chef
Hawaiian Airlines
2014 - 2014
Author
Dumplings All Day Wong
2013 - 2013
Host
Food Crawl with Lee Anne Wong
2012 - 2015
Judge
Chopped
2011 - 2011
Contestant
Iron Chef America
2010 - 2013
Host
Unique Eats
2009 - 2009
Host/Chef
Bravo's Wong Way to Cook
2007 - 2007
Chef Consultant
No Reservations (Movie)
2006 - 2010
Supervising Culinary Producer
Bravo's Top Chef
2006 - 2006
Contestant
Top Chef: San FranciscoSan Francisco, CA
2003 - 2006
Executive Chef of Event Operations, Continuing Education
The French Culinary InstituteNew York, NY
Education
1999 - 2000
Culinary Arts
The French Culinary Institute (now Institute of Culinary Education)New York, NY
Fashion Institute of TechnologyNew York, NY
Advice from Lee Anne Wong
Quotes about career path, skills, and teamwork from an industry leader.
Be patient.
The older we get, the faster time passes. Enjoy the moment. I've been lucky enough to have such a wide breadth of experiences. Enjoy it while you can, and don't be in a rush. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
The mental health crisis in our industry—the substance abuse problem—it's bigger than it's ever been.
I've been doing a lot of work with Southern Smoke Foundation and just working on my own mental health in the past year and half since my restaurant in Maui burned down. It's really important that you take the time to process whatever it is that you're going through, whatever it is you're feeling. That way you can be your best self in the kitchen and around your co-workers.
Everybody has access to the ability to put themselves out there in the media.
My recommendation to people who want to get involved is to answer: ‘What's your story? Why would people want to watch you? What do you bring to the table? Is it technique? Is it great recipes? Is it farm-to-table? Is it just comedy? Do you just want to share?’
It can be any reason, but have a goal and have a reason to do it and understand that it is a commitment. You have to be consistent about it.
The biggest thing for us is creating culture.
It's creating your own work, Ohana, and you do that by creating a positive work environment, which means having great management, great leaders in place, and then making sure that you're communicating every day with your staff and making sure everybody's enjoying a good time.
You don't have to take the standard of going to culinary school and working in a restaurant.
There's so many other things you can do — from culinary literature, to food styling, to recipe development, consulting, entrepreneurship, consumer packaged goods. There's a billion things you can do, not just go into a restaurant. Although I do recommend everybody does at least a year in a restaurant to get the full breadth of our industry.
I worked my way up and spent 2 1/2 years at Aquavit.
I opened up 66, Jean-Georges's Chinese restaurant in Tribeca. I did a very, very short stint as a private chef, figured out that I don't ever want to do that.
I think 2 1/2 years into college, I got really bored with what I was doing.
I was living in Times Square, and I had this 13-inch box TV that sat on the floor. I was sleeping on a futon mattress on the floor. And I got basic cable and Food Network by some miracle. So I started obsessively watching Food Network and cooking for my friends. And they were like, you should go to culinary school — become a chef.
Roles in Culinary
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