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Katie Lee in the kitchen

McKenzie Graham

Katie Lee in the Kitchen

Miami University alumna Katie Lee is no New York native, even if she does live in "the city" now. Sporting an accent straight out of West Virginia, her home state, it's easy to picture the home she describes.

"I always loved cooking, and I grew up in my grandma's kitchen pretty much so that was a big part of my life," Lee said.

Lee, recently divorced from musician Billy Joel, released her second cookbook The Comfort Table: Recipes for Everyday Occasions in late October.

Her cookbook is full of recipes with country comfort but city chic blend, parallel to the author herself.

Her RedHawk years

Before graduating as a Miami journalism student in 2004, Lee was a features reporter for The Miami Student.

Lee said she remembers writing stories about historic homes on campus and new computers for Miami.

"I wrote about all different kinds of stories," Lee said.

Lee said then, her goal was to be a food writer for a magazine.

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Off campus, Lee said, her culinary roots began to take hold. Lee worked at Kona and Main Street Gourmet.

Lee said she loved working at Kona as a waitress and hostess because she ate there all the time.

"I think they have great food," Lee said. "They have such good coffee, and it's such a charming place. My first weekend I got to school I ate there, and I said I have to work here. I love this restaurant. So my sophomore year I applied there and got a job."

Lee said her time at Main Street Gourmet had a family feel.

"We called it the Main Street Gourmet gang," Lee said. "It was this group that would have their coffee there every morning. (They were) all really sweet people, a few of them were professors."

Outside of her foodie jobs, Lee was involved on campus with Greek life as a Kappa Alpha Theta. Lee was the sorority's social chair.

"I guess (it) foreshadowed what I was going to do later in life," Lee said. "I was always into entertaining. I planned the parties and I loved coming up with themes."

Lee said some of her favorite themes were South Pacific, safari and bikers and babes.

Even though the parties haven't changed much, the weekend "uniform" has evolved, Lee said. She said then, girls wore black pants, a dressy top and black boots when they went out. Lee said she would have never made it through those late nights in stilettos.

A long way from Oxford, Lee lives only several blocks away from a close friend she made first week of her first year.

"I was actually talking about this with my girlfriend," Lee said. "We were talking about Miami fashion, (and) we said that the reason we could stay out so late is that we never wore high heels. You know if we wore boots out, they just had one or two inch heels, and now when I go out I'm wearing five inch stilettos and a couple of hours into the evening I'm thinking, 'OK I'm ready to go home' because my feet hurt so bad."

It was during her time at Miami that Lee met Billy Joel. Cheryl Heckler, a journalism professor who had Lee in three of her classes, remembers the event well.

"She wanted to talk to me and just seemed kind of pre-occupied," Heckler said. "I was giving her a ride home and she said 'Well, I kind of went out with somebody special ... he's kind of famous.'"

Heckler said when Lee told her she was dating Joel, she pulled the car over.

"(I) said 'first of all honey the next time you tell somebody that story, make sure she isn't driving a vehicle and speaking like your momma, what's this man want?' So actually it was pretty funny looking back on it."

Out of the Ox-box

In addition to writing for Cosmo, Lee is the food correspondent for The Early Show, hosted Top Chef, has written two cook books and is on the entertainment counsel for "Feeding America." Feeding America is a one of the biggest food charities in the U.S. Her first cookbook, The Comfort Table (hint: that spells comfortable put together), is full of classic comfort food recipes, like meatloaf and deviled eggs.

Lee said in her first cookbook, she paid homage to her favorite sandwich at Kona Bistro.

"They had a grilled three cheese sandwich with chipotle and a couple of onions and sliced tomatoes that I would always eat," Lee said. "That's in my first cookbook. I love that sandwich."

Josh Seidel, manager at Kona Bistro, said he's glad Kona was included.

"It's exciting that one of Kona's recipes would be in a book like that," Seidel said.

Seidel was not the manager while Lee was a waitress.

Her second book, The Comfort Table: Recipes for Everyday Occasions is menu-based, Lee said.

"When I went on my first book tour people kept telling me 'We love to cook, we just don't know how to put together a menu,'" Lee said. "So I call it everyday occasions because I think it doesn't have to be some sort of special event or special occasion to have your friends over for dinner."

Lee said she divided the book into menus with wine parings and song play lists.

Lee keeps things approachable, a theme she carries through her column for Cosmopolitan.

Lee said her column "Eat This Up" is perfect for people who don't have a big kitchen or a lot of utensils and appliances.

"(They're) very basic but very good recipes," Lee said.

Katie Lee on TV

Lee has a very close relationship with another food maven - Paula Deen, the southern TV hostess with the mostest. Paula hosts Paula's Best Dishes on Food Network.

"I've known Paula now for about four years, and she's become a really good friend," Lee said.

Some viewers doubt Deen's authenticity, claiming she's only bubbly when she's cast in the limelight. Lee disagreed with this rumor.

"She's exactly like what you see on TV only more fun, if that's at all possible," Lee said. "So I have a really good time with her. I'll go stay with her in Savannah and hang out and eat her food and she has the greatest family. You know how you meet somebody and kind of just love each other from the start? That's how we were together."

She may not know Oprah as intimately but that doesn't detract from Lee's excitement to be a guest on the show.

"I kind of had to pinch myself when I was sitting on the couch with her," Lee said. "It was really incredible and I wasn't nervous, which surprises me. I just wanted to soak up every minute of it and say 'I'm really here.'"

Lee's mom even ended up on the show several weeks later. Lee said a producer called for her mom's contact information because Oprah wanted to have her discuss A New Earth, an Oprah book-club selection.

When she's in front of the TV and not on it, Lee enjoys watching The Barefoot Contessa, Gossip Girl, True Blood and Entourage.

"I love all those trashy housewife shows," Lee said.

Katie's Thanksgiving

Lee said she, like many Miami students, is going home for Thanksgiving to be with family.

"My family loves to eat, we're really big eaters," Lee said. "I'm going back to West Virginia ... for Thanksgiving and my great aunt is hosting everybody. There'll be a ton of people."

You might think with all of the experience Lee has with cooking, writing about food and talking about food she'd be whipping up Thanksgiving dinner on her own. But Lee said her family goes potluck for the holidays. On Thanksgiving, Lee and her mom are bringing Brussels sprouts to dinner at her great aunts house. Lee also said she's making pumpkin roll, a pumpkin cake and cream cheese combination.

"It's just really about being with family," Lee said.

Lee said her favorite part of the holiday is the leftovers.

"We always make a turkey gumbo and take the carcass and cook it and add some sausage and Cajun spices and make gumbo, and I eat on that for days," Lee said. "It's all about leftovers for me."

Apart from big holidays like Thanksgiving, Lee said cooking everyday is just as

important. Lee said she started living off campus sophomore year because she wanted a kitchen.

"I think it's just about finding simple recipes that don't take a lot of time because everybody's short of time in college," Lee said. "Look for quick recipes that are also healthy and inexpensive".

Suggestions? Lee said she made a lot of stir-fry. Lee suggested cooking the chicken in a skillet to add flavor. Lee said pasta is a good dish to make but warned to pay attention to the details even though it's easy.

"Don't think about just opening a jar of pasta sauce," Lee said. "Actually take the time to make your own. It's really quick to make a fast tomato sauce and chop up some vegetables to add to it."