It's just over two years since Suzie Lee first made a huge impact on the world of cooking after winning the BBC’S Best Home Cook.
Since becoming a TV sensation following her appearance on the national cookery competition, Suzie has been on a mission to help the people of Northern Ireland make the very best of whatever they have in their cupboards and create great meals from scratch on her two cooking shows for BBC NI.
Now the mum-of-two from Lisburn, who is also a fully-qualified Chartered Accountant, is preparing for another milestone with the launch next week of her debut cookbook.
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Leafing through the pages of ‘Simply Chinese’, it's clear to see the huge influence her late mum has played when it comes to Suzie's love for food.
Her Hong Kong-born parents, Peter and Celia, moved to Northern Ireland in 1980 and food has always played a big part in family life. The couple opened a Chinese takeaway - the Man Lee in Lisburn - which is still going strong and where Suzie helped out through much of her youth.
Sadly Suzie’s mum died suddenly on February 8 2000 during a flight from Hong Kong to Heathrow and just six weeks earlier on the last Christmas they spent together, 16-year-old Suzie cooked a traditional turkey dinner, under the guiding eye of Celia.
“At Christmas that year, back in 1999, my mum just refused to cook the dinner. Every year on the run up to Christmas our takeaway was crazy busy so I nearly died when she refused to cook. I was like 'no, no, no, I love Christmas dinner' and I said 'I’ll do it instead',” she told Belfast Live.
Her mum worked 14 hour shifts so no wonder she didn’t want to slave over a hot stove for another day but Suzie asked her to show her how to do it.
Under her mother’s guidance, the schoolgirl, who was preparing for a GCSE in Home Economics at the time, pulled off a super meal for her parents, as well as her three older sisters and little brother.
“When I think back to it I feel like she was prepping me,” recalls Suzie, who is married to teacher Steven Arbuthnot and mum to two young children, Zander and Odie.
“I have to laugh about it because the turkey was huge and there I was in the middle of it. The thing weighed about 30lbs, and I remember thinking to myself, 'I can do this, I can do this'.
"I think everything was pretty good, although the roasties were a bit late. I made a sticky toffee pudding and a trifle as well, so mum was pleased that I tried everything.
“She wasn’t one for gushing and telling us everything was amazing, but she’d really helped me to dig deep and make that big meal for the family. It was the last time we were all together as a family in that way.”
When her mum passed away, Suzie pretty much took on the role of mother, so she had to properly cook. Now, she has dedicated her first cookbook to Cantonese food, with 70 recipes "broken down in steps, so people won't be scared of Chinese cooking".
A cookery book has been in the pipeline for a while but Suzie admits that it all came together in just seven weeks.
"It was just a matter of no sleep and keeping going at it but you know what it was good and kept me focused. A lot of people get a two year deadline, you'd probably keep going back and forth to it so I'm quite glad to have been put under a really tight timeline," she added.
"The hardest part was writing down the exact ingredients for each recipe because I do everything by feel and improvise if I don't have certain things so I had to be strict with myself.
"That meant it was something completely new in terms of challenging my brain and I'm really happy with the end result - it has exceeded all my expectations."
While there is a takeaway section in the book with recipes including sweet and sour chicken and spring rolls, Suzie is keen to highlight that traditional Chinese cooking is all about fresh food and ingredients.
"The book is a dedication to the Cantonese food my mum used to make and I think people don't realise that it's fresh and not all deep-fried or high in calories," she explains.
"It's not all sticky, sweet sauces and yes there is obviously some of that but there's a vast variety of foods, including comfort food that you can rustle up with what you have in the kitchen.
"Cantonese food is actually quite different from takeaways because we grew up on fresh vegetables and ingredients. I'm trying to drive people to their local food producers suppliers because, especially here in Northern Ireland, we have so many wonderful foods available in terms of fruit, vegetables, meat, fish.
"I also want to make the book less scary and more accessible to everybody because your local corner store has most of the ingredients as well as the bigger supermarkets, so you can say to yourself 'you know what I can make this'.
"Sometimes when you open a cookbook, as much as a recipe looks beautiful, there's 100 ingredients and you feel that you won't be able to make that. It's also pared down to food that my kids enjoy too so it's not difficult at all."
Suzie is also keen to showcase the uniqueness of Cantonese cuisine, compared to other regions in China.
"Cantonese food is another string to that whole Chinese story. It's mainly Hong Kong so right by the seaside and there's seafood and other very fresh food."
She added: "This has been an emotional journey for me as it's what I remember from growing up with mum. It was quite therapeutic too, going back over recipes, remembering how she used to make it, when we ate it as a family and why I still cook it now.
"You think 'oh wow I've produced this' and as much as it's lovely and beautiful, you wish she was here to share it."
Simply Chinese by Suzie Lee (published by Hardie Grant, £20; photography by Lizzie Mayson), is available from 18 August.
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