While Sandra Lee was trying to make it big in the food scene, she knew she had to look to the right person for inspiration for her look.
Just before she launched her first cookbook in 2001 — the so-called Semi-homemade — cooking, fast and fantastic — she styled her hair like an absolute icon in the hopes that it would make an impression.
“I cut my hair like [Princess Diana] for my first cookbook before I had a publisher,” Lee, 57, reveals to PEOPLE at the GLAAD Media Awards. Maybe it was the hairstyle or maybe it was her penchant for turning store-bought ingredients into glamorous home-cooked meals, but the fact remains that Lee quickly became fame soon after and has since released dozens of cookbooks (and won a Daytime Emmy for her show Semi-home cooking with Sandra Lee).
Sandra Lee at the GLAAD Media Awards on May 11.
Jamie McCarthy/Getty
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Still, she tells PEOPLE that her show, which ran for 15 seasons, had “a certain reputation” for not being “particularly healthy” once upon a time.
Lee recalls an early time when her nephew Bryce, who accompanied her to the GLAAD Media Awards (and who you might recognize on Netflix Confidence), was going to join her on the show for Mother’s Day, and she changed the recipe to deal with the criticism.
“I was going to make Rum Baba with Twinkies, but we changed the whole recipe and used sorghum [a crop cultivated for its grain] — it’s very southern,” she recalls.
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Lee may not be rocking her Princess Diana hair these days, but she’s leaning towards ’70s style. For the GLAAD Media Awards, Lee let her long blonde hair down into loose curls and blew bangs around her face. It’s similar to the hair she’s worn for years, but she’s added some volume for a vintage touch.
She wore a long-sleeved floral dress with puffy shoulders and accessorized it with tan heels and a matching handbag. To tie it all together, Lee wore sparkly earrings.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education