She\u2019s since competed on many shows, including two seasons of Top Chef and four seasons of Food Network\u2019s Tournament of Champions, where she made the final four in season six<\/a>.<\/p>\n During her latest competition experience, Food Network\u2019s 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing, Lee Anne said, \u201cI have been competing on television for 20 years now, and I\u2019ve never won one of these big ones.\u201d She also said, \u201cI don\u2019t know who\u2014I literally have shit for brains right now, I\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n And that\u2019s because 24 in 24 is a grueling, nonstop, 24-hour competition\u2014although I learned from Lee Anne that it\u2019s actually more like 27 hours on set, because of occasional pauses in production. <\/p>\n Lee Anne narrowly escaped elimination early in the 24 hours, and those exhaustion-induced shit for brains seemed to really affect her during the middle of the season. As she said on the show, \u201cI almost could give up at any minute, but I can\u2019t, because I\u2019ve never gotten this close.\u201d<\/p>\n That paid off: Lee Anne won 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing season three<\/a> and $100,000. I talked to her about the experience, how she prepared, and what happened after she won. <\/p>\n We also discussed her life in Hawaii today, after the brutal Lahaina fires<\/a> in Maui that killed more than 100 people and completely destroyed a town, including Lee Anne\u2019s restaurant, Papa\u2019aina, which was in a 120-year-old hotel<\/a>. <\/p>\n Is she going to reopen it? How did her time producing reality TV affect her approach to the competition? What advice did a previous 24 in 24 winner give her that she took? Lee Anne answers all those questions and more below!<\/p>\n This interview has been condensed and edited to clean up human speech.<\/p>\n Andy Dehnart:\u00a0 At the end of the episode, we see you walk over and start to hug the crew. Tell me what happened after that. Did they put you on a stretcher and take you to a hotel and drop you into bed for three days?\u00a0<\/p>\n Lee Anne Wong: It was kinda crazy. Everybody\u2014the crew, who I see all the time for the Lando [Productions-produced] shows\u2014I love everybody who works on the shows, the behind the scenes, from the camera guys, the producers, to all of the PAs, everybody on set has just been awesome.\u00a0<\/p>\n They basically brought me upstairs. By the time I was finished, everybody was gone. They started breaking down the set. I think I ordered California Pizza Kitchen for lunch. And then I was like, okay, I can go back to the hotel.\u00a0<\/p>\n I couldn\u2019t actually get to sleep, because when your cortisol levels are like that high for that long, your body is so stressed out. I was kind of like just flopping around on the bed like a fish because my back hurt, my legs hurt, like everything just hurt. <\/p>\n It\u2019s, like, noon. And I was like, okay, blackout curtains, air conditioning, like turn out all the lights. I think I took a nap for like maybe two, three hours before I was like, Okay, I can\u2019t sleep.<\/p>\n That\u2019s wild. How many hours or days later did you sit down and do the interview where you\u2019re talking through that 24 hours?<\/p>\n It was literally the next day. I was just overwhelmed.\u00a0 <\/p>\n I think my call time [on the day of competition] was at 5 a.m. to get in hair and makeup. And then it\u2019s another couple hours before you\u2019re actually on set and it\u2019s go time. And once go time happens, we definitely battled for 24 hours, but they would stop the clock when they had to bring in the judges and stuff like that.\u00a0<\/p>\n [Judges only entered the set after the chefs were sequestered.] This season they did blind tasting, which is great. I love that; that alleviates any issues of fairness. I just love blind tasting, blind judging. It\u2019s the fairest way to do these shows.\u00a0<\/p>\n So 24 hours was really closer to almost 27, 28 hours on set. So by the time you\u2019re done with everything, I had been up for almost 36 hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n I was curious about that: the clock kind of jumps forward at times, whether to clear the set or do the judging. Is there any time to actually sleep, to rest, during those \u201ddowntimes\u201d? Because it\u2019s not exactly a stopdown like a normal show.<\/p>\n No, no, the clock\u2019s always ticking, for the most part. They would pause it occasionally to bring judges in, clear sets, swap out food. But the only time that we had to rest was if you had time in the break room. So it was earned time.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some people chose to sleep. I know that if I had chosen to power nap, sleep, whatever, it would have probably been the end of me.Viet came prepared with beauty masks. Dawn, who is an Olympic athlete, was doing yoga and stretching all the time. Everybody had their own thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n By like shift seven and eight, we were all truly, truly exhausted, and there were moments that the crew would film me; I think I was pretty much like sleeping open mouth on the couch. Closed my eyes for two minutes.<\/p>\n Did you do anything to prepare for that physical challenge? Did you nap a lot coming into that first day? Is there any way to even prepare?<\/p>\n I don\u2019t really nap. And I\u2019ve been I was saying: I\u2019m almost 50. So my body\u2019s going through all these crazy changes where I wake up in the middle of the night. I can\u2019t sleep. I sweat exclusively out of my face. And so it was a really there\u2019s no way to get prepared for that.\u00a0<\/p>\n I think the the only thing that you can do is study your recipes, knowing that you quite possibly have to come up with 24 different dishes in a 24-hour period.\u00a0<\/p>\n I think that\u2019s the beauty of the game, and also what makes it so hard, is that most of these competitions that we see on TV are filmed over the span of days and weeks. This is all of that pressure, all of those challenges compressed into a 24-hour period\u2014which is totally nuts when you think about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been doing culinary competition for 20 years. I used to produce it\u2014produce Top Chef\u2014and to see 24 [in 24], it\u2019s a feat of TV production. It\u2019s incredible what Lando Productions does for that show.\u00a0<\/p>\n But it was just a pressure cooker and a test of endurance. It\u2019s a test of skill. It\u2019s a test of mental fortitude, who can make it, physical endurance. So 24 in 24 is definitely one of the hardest competitions I have\u2014if not the hardest competition I\u2019ve ever been in. And it\u2019s not to say that the Randomizer on TOC is not; the Randomizer is extremely difficult, but it\u2019s a very different mindset of a game where it\u2019s sudden death.<\/p>\n Yeah, and, it\u2019s a different kind of intensity with Top Chef\u2014three or four weeks nonstop. To go a few layers into this, obviously you\u2019re tired and exhausted and you had this dip during the competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n What did that [exhaustion] affect for you? Conceiving of dishes? Remembering how to execute and do these things well? Is it just that you start getting sloppy?<\/p>\n I almost got sent home in the second episode because I created a dish on a terrible vehicle for Judy Joo. After that point, it was my objective to remain [and] stick with dishes that I knew, stick with not to go overboard and try and get too wildly creative and do things I had never done before. Stick with recipes, ideas, concepts that I\u2019m seasoned in doing, whether it was at the restaurant or dishes that I do for events.\u00a0<\/p>\n But you have to dig deep and really come at with all your culinary knowledge that lives inside, because you don\u2019t know the challenge that\u2019s coming at you, whether it\u2019s elevated street food or adaptability.\u00a0<\/p>\n Or, oh, you\u2019re in charge of a brunch team and three other people. That was a hard one because, you know, we\u2019re pretty tired at that point. It\u2019s like midnight, I think. We\u2019d already been in competition for over 15 hours. Suddenly, you\u2019re in a team challenge It\u2019s like, Oh no, I\u2019m responsible for all these people. That was emotionally and mentally taxing because you don\u2019t ever want to be the reason that anybody else goes home. You want your food to stand on its merit.\u00a0<\/p>\n When Viet broke us up\u2014me and Joe, and then Zach and Dawn, to play against each other, it was heartbreaking, because like Zach\u2019s such a good friend of mine. But I think after that win, it was very, it was the pick-me-up that I needed to say that we\u2019re safe. And I was like, okay, let\u2019s stick with what we know. Let\u2019s do really focused, simple execution and make sure everything is dialed in.\u00a0<\/p>\n One of the reasons I ask is: I\u2019m obviously watching this on my couch. I\u2019m relatively well-rested, except when my cat wakes me up in the middle of the night.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the challenges\u2014and I had fun writing about it\u2014seem overly complicated. Do this and then here and then there\u2019s five layers and I can\u2019t keep track of it, and I\u2019m not been awake for 18 hours!\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s really funny because I tend to not watch myself afterwards. And I\u2019ve watched every episode of 24 in 24, and it\u2019s very funny to just watch our facial expressions where we\u2019re just like, What are you talking about?\u00a0<\/p>\n But that\u2019s to be expected, you know? And I think we all watched the show. We all studied the previous seasons to kind of get an idea of what would get thrown at us. Are they going to turn the gas off? Are they going to turn the power off? What\u2019s going to happen? Oh, they\u2019re going to take away our knives. Okay.\u00a0<\/p>\n So you\u2019re kind of prepared for those things to happen. But when you\u2019re in the moment, you\u2019re like, all right, I have to improvise. I call it mercenary cooking, which is something that I think every chef has to do at some point in their career, where nothing\u2019s working and you have to make food happen. Coming in with that mentality is always helpful, and being prepared to be surprised is part of the game.<\/p>\n Obviously this is the editing, but it sounded like some of your competitors were like, I expect this, and so I\u2019m gonna make this choice. But that can backfire. If you\u2019ve seen any reality show, you know that that\u2019s, they\u2019re not gonna give you what you expect most of the time.<\/p>\n Yeah: reality TV is not supposed to be the same season after season\u2014actually, exactly the opposite. Watching my friends participate on the first two seasons\u2014I talked to Kevin Lee, I talked to Stephanie Izard.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jon Sawyer was like, Bring extra socks. I was like, That\u2019s a really good idea. I was changing my socks every four to six hours, so my feet would feel fresh. Viet brought the beauty mask and I was like, all right, I\u2019ll just bring extra socks. I\u2019m not going to hit coffee until like at least hour 16 so I don\u2019t go into the like the peak and the crash. So it was it was trying to endure until then, until I could permit myself a little bit of coffee.<\/p>\n You have an interesting and unique arc in going from competitor, to behind the scenes [producer], back to competitor. And I\u2019m curious if that behind-the-scenes experience, if it helped you.<\/p>\n There was a solid four or five years of my life where I was like actually just producing culinary TV. And the choice to try leave that job behind was because I\u2019m four or five years doing this and I\u2019m injuring myself\u2014 because producing Top Chef was very strenuous work.\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019ve put my own culinary career aside to make TV. I thought about why I first got involved with culinary competition: to promote my own career and grow my own career. I wanted to go back to that.\u00a0<\/p>\n And it was a really amazing thing when Cooking Channel came out, and it had just all this great content that we did. So I was on six seasons of Unique Eats, and I had a noodle special, and after that Iron Chef America, Chopped All-Stars. I started doing competing again, and it was like a good feeling.\u00a0<\/p>\n I had competed [on Top Chef] way back in 2005, and then I wasn\u2019t actually allowed to participate in any of the reunions or any of that because I worked for the company. So it was nice that Food Network and Cooking Channel gave me the opportunity to come back into the fold and get my feet wet again.\u00a0<\/p>\n I love competing. It\u2019s a natural thing. And at the same time, because I had that time doing behind the scenes, I\u2019m also very copacetic when I lose, because there can only be one. You know what I mean? It\u2019s anyone\u2019s game, and there can only be one [winner], and everybody here is already awesome. So I don\u2019t take it personally, let\u2019s put it that way.<\/p>\n Does the producing and those years you spent working behind the scenes help you at all as a competitor or coming into a show like 24 and 24? And if so, how?\u00a0<\/p>\n Absolutely. I think it helps me because understanding how behind the scenes works, and also just having the history and experience with Lando Productions, their culinary team does an incredible job.\u00a0<\/p>\n And so for me, I know they\u2019re doing their best to give us everything that we need to make great TV. I\u2019m never like, Somebody\u2019s out to get me! or This wasn\u2019t right. They make the game and the playing field as fair as possible. I understand these things. And I\u2019m really grateful for them.\u00a0<\/p>\n As we\u2019re out there working, and we\u2019re in this sort of fishbowl pressure cooker, there\u2019s a whole team of 100-plus people working to make us look good and working to catch every moment on camera. So I am really grateful for the production team.\u00a0<\/p>\n And I try not to be a pain in the butt\u2014until I think at some point I started like yelling at Michael Symon. (laughs) I don\u2019t remember, but I was not a happy camper for a couple of reasons at some point. And that was just the exhaustion getting to me. (laughs)<\/p>\n That\u2019s hilarious. Hopefully, love to see that outtake on YouTube at some point. (laughs)<\/p>\n Michael\u2019s like, Sorry I had to yell at you about the knives, Lee Anne. I was like, That\u2019s okay, Michael. We all had dull knives while we were cutting our artichokes. We all still have our hands and fingers.<\/p>\n I really appreciate everything you\u2019ve done about what\u2019s happened in Hawaii\u2014and obviously it affected you, too. And I guess just as a first question about that, how are you doing? How is your restaurant? How is your staff? These kinds of things fade away from media attention after a while. So I\u2019m just curious where things are for you and the people near you.<\/p>\n I live on Maui still. After the fires, we had looked into moving to Oahu and the Big Island. We moved to Maui right before the pandemic with the intention of buying a home.\u00a0 Prices doubled after the pandemic because we had a lot of people come here, buy a property, drive up real estate prices.\u00a0<\/p>\n While I don\u2019t plan on rebuilding, we live here still. One of the most beautiful islands, obviously, and the community here is really resilient, which is the lesson.\u00a0<\/p>\n I tell everybody who wants to come to Maui: Please support local, please support small business, please go out there and don\u2019t go to the\u2014not that we have a ton of corporate places. But the idea is that the restaurants that have recovered or have moved or have new businesses that have started since the fires, they\u2019re doing their best.\u00a0<\/p>\n Something like 8,000 workers left the islands after the fires. So the job market is hard, but at the same time, there are just some amazing businesses here that are doing really well for themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n My focus now is on my restaurant on Oahu, Koko Head Cafe. I fly over weekly. When I\u2019m back in Hawaii, I\u2019m over there three to four days a week. We\u2019re going to leave tomorrow morning, and I\u2019m going over for the weekend to do menu changes. I have a great team over there that takes care of the restaurant while I\u2019m away, while I do TV, while I do a residency. So they\u2019re fantastic. And our restaurant there is doing really well. And we\u2019re also in Japan.<\/p>\n Ah, nice, yeah. I was going to ask you about that, because when I was in Oahu years ago [in 2018], I went to Koko Head and it was just wonderful. So I\u2019m glad to hear that it is and going well.<\/p>\n Yeah, we\u2019re doing really well and we\u2019re open for dinner now. So we\u2019re doing brunch seven days a week and we do dinner four nights a week. Doing 24 in 24 and actually winning\u2014I always have my community rooting for me whenever I do these shows, but like this one was big for me just because of, I think the intensity of it. And yeah, I mean, it couldn\u2019t come at a better time. Let\u2019s put it that way.\u00a0<\/p>\n Do you see people come in because of the show and say, like, I saw you on Food Network.<\/p>\n Yeah, and I think that\u2019s great. People want to be able to come in and taste the food that I create with my team. And so having a restaurant and having a place that is 12 years old and is well-known within the community is great.\u00a0<\/p>\n So I\u2019m focused on keeping that open, keeping it alive in the face of rising costs\u2014because we\u2019re in Hawaii, so everything is that much more expensive because we are so isolated. And yeah, it\u2019s just one foot in front of the other. It\u2019s always a hustle.<\/p>\n All of reality blurred\u2019s content is independently selected, including links to products or services. However, if you buy something after clicking an affiliate link, we may earn a commission. Learn more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two decades ago this spring, Bravo followed Project Runway with the premiere of Top Chef: its first cooking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[146,85,46,411],"class_list":["post-481652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Lee Anne Wong cooks during 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing season 3 (Photo by Rob Pryce\/Food Network)<\/p>\n