I’m staring at Angela Hartnett and Mary Berry’s cookbook in my kitchen right now. These are people that I really respect and whose recipes I use, so it was really nice to meet them in person and learn from them. Having been brought up eating all kinds of seafood and even tripe, Suzie was keen to encourage her own children, Zander (7) and Odelia (4), to be healthy and adventurous eaters. To win and to have a Michelin-starred chef compliment my pastry and tell me I was a 'really good home cook' was a massive confidence booster.”

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." Since winning Best Home Cook in 2020 Suzie has presented two cooking shows on BBC NI (Image: BBC NI ) 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. The book is aimed at the home cook, with the majority of ingredients available from your local shop or supermarket.She loved food and was so passionate about cooking," says Suzie about her mother, who passed away suddenly when she was just 16. 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. It’s all about making use of all of those flavours – the sweet, the sharp, but also the fresh – and playing with those. I find there’s a much cleaner taste, compared to if you’re going to the north of China. Szechuan cooking is really obviously about spice; everything’s all very heavily spiced. That’s their culture, but with Hong Kong Cantonese cooking, because you were able to get fresh ingredients, they were making sure those ingredients sung on their own with a little bit of soy – if it’s fresh fish, some ginger, spring onion, and letting the dish do its thing.” – PA Annual travels home to family in Hong Kong, as well as experiencing the cuisine in Chinatowns around the world, from Sydney to New York, embedded her passion for Chinese food.

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". Cut around the edges, leaving a 1cm (½in) gap between the outer edge and the flesh (make sure you don't slice straight through the skin). Cut down either side of the core and remove it, then carefully score the flesh in a grid pattern so you can extract cubes of the pineapple with a spoon or knife. Then finely dice. A cookery book has been in the pipeline for a while but Suzie admits that it all came together in just seven weeks.

Veggie Singapore noodles

Lee is still an accountant by trade. “If you ever meet me,” she says, “I will always say I’m an accountant who cooks, because that’s my day-to-day job. I’m still a chartered accountant, I still have my accountancy business – that’s what brings in the money. The other stuff, as much as it seems really glossy, it doesn’t pay the bills.” 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.” Related Articles

I just think people have lost their confidence with cooking. The rising level of obesity is all driven by convenience foods, but making good food that is healthy is really not that difficult.” Viewers can also discover a range of new cooking skills and ways of adding variety to mealtimes, including how to make homemade tortillas and rice noodles.We never had a choice as children, we just ate what the adults ate and that's the ethos I've brought my kids up on. Suzie Lee’s Home Cook Heroes begins on August 6 at 7.30pm on BBC One Northern Ireland, also available on BBC iPlayer. For accompanying recipes visit Bbc.co.uk/suzielee