George Lee is a rising food star who believes that “plant-based is the future.”
over Zoom. I'm just like, 'OK, I'm happy that a lot of these people are interested in my love for what I do.'”
The young cook, who has trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, launched his Instagram last March when the coronavirus pandemic was starting to pick up steam in the U.S. Lee, who is currently a biochemistry student at the University of California, Berkeley, had gone to visit his brother in Hawaii for spring break but ended up staying and living with him for the rest of the year.
“I think it was just the time and place and everything because … the pandemic when I first started my whole media, online stuff. I was cooking more and eating more plant-based,” Lee said. “I think a lot of people as well. They were just staying at home more and not a lot of people like to — I think that's the general consensus — butcher down whole beef or chicken just to cook themselves a meal. I think a lot of people eat vegetarian when they're at home. And I was doing that a lot.
Since he started developing his own recipes, Lee estimates he has about 150 recipes in his repertoire to date with some still in progress and about 80 published on his website. He’s also working on a cookbook specifically about vegan Taiwanese food, something he has already been doing with plant-based takes on quintessentially Taiwanese dishes like