Sandra Lee (Getty Images)
TV chef Sandra Lee was rarely seen with Gov. Cuomo, with whom she lives, this past summer and now we know why.
The famous “Semi-Homemade Cooking” star has been making two new TV shows set to debut next month on Food Network and its sister station, the Cooking Channel, according to sources.
As The Post reported yesterday, Lee, 46, is also starting a new monthly lifestyle magazine in partnership with TV Guide.
Together with the two new shows — including her first in prime time — it represents an aggressive push to move beyond the stand-and-stir shows for which she is known and become an all-around TV personality along the lines of Rachael Ray.
“Sandra’s Restaurant Remakes,” premiering Oct. 14, features her traveling to restaurants around the country and, with the chefs there, showing how to make home versions of signature restaurant dishes.
“Sandra Lee’s Taverns, Lounges & Clubs,” which debuts Oct. 17 on the Cooking Channel at 10:30 p.m., is an outgrowth of her “Semi-Homemade” show.
A feature on the show called “Cocktail Time,” “has always been the most popular part of the show,” said a source familiar with the new series. “So we just made it into a show by itself.”
Similar to the Food Network’s popular “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” with Guy Fieri, the new “Taverns” show features Lee traveling to a wide array of night spots to imbibe the local cocktail.
Lee has had her problems being accepted by the upper-crust chefs in the food establishment, because she has specialized in making over pre-prepared food for harried home cooks.
But she picked up a lot of believers in the TV business last summer when she won an Emmy for Outstanding Lifestyle/Culinary Host — the prize that Martha Stewart regularly won in years past.
Lee will continue to do her original shows, “Semi-Homemade” and “Sandra’s Money Saving Meals,” the source said.