Created by

Chef Aliya LeeKong

Aliya LeeKong at home with her two daughters

“We all remember playing Candy Land, or watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and being lost in that fantastical world. As a chef and a mom of two, I have always seen the kitchen as a learning landscape for so much more. All of those desserts and pastries and confections are deeply rooted in science — so let’s take kids on a wonder of a journey, and teach them a little chemistry along the way.”

Aliya LeeKong

Aliya LeeKong is a chef, cookbook author, television personality and mother, with a passion for bringing global, conscious food into everyday cooking and eating.

She earned degrees from Brown University — in science! — and Columbia University before training at the International Culinary Center. She travelled to learn food traditions first-hand, and worked in kitchens across New York City including Jean Georges, Per Se and Junoon, before writing her first cookbook, Exotic Table: Flavors, Inspiration, and Recipes from Around the World — to Your Kitchen, named a “Best of the Best” by Food & Wine.

Aliya has been a guest chef on NBC’s Today Show, a judge on Beat Bobby Flay and Worst Cooks in America: Celebrity Edition, and a culinary expert on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. She has worked with brands including Stella Artois and Cadillac, and her work has been covered in Food & Wine, Vogue India, Shape, Eater and Food Republic.

She is also the creator of Issa’s Edible Adventures, a children’s concept and iOS app teaching global citizenship and diversity through food and cooking. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters.