December 6, 2025 • 13 mins
Beloved personality Melinda Lee has passed away. She went from KNX to KFI and back to KNX, and she left a legacy of sweetness and gems. Neil pays his respect to the original food reporter.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Normally at this stage of the show, the very beginning,
I usually do the first two segments called Technique of
the Week, and we focused on a technique, and I'll
do that in the next segment here. But we lost
an amazing broadcaster and human being a few days ago,
and her name was Melinda Lee. And I had the
(00:22):
pleasure of knowing Melinda Lee. I've been at KFI since
ninety four. Came as an intern, and she was at
KFI for a while. She started on KNX doing a
food show in the late eighties, I believe, and then
she came to KFI and did a food show. And
when David G. Hall left to program KNX for a while,
(00:46):
he took her with him. They had a great relationship
and that was like going home for Melinda Lee. But
at that time here at KFI, I had the pleasure
of knowing her and what a neat human being she was,
(01:07):
and I believe is just not here on this plane anymore.
So I wanted to spend some time talking about her,
because you know, we don't stay in touch. She actually
didn't re sign with KNX many years ago because she
wanted to spend more time doing other things. She's a
(01:30):
fabulous writer, a wonderful speaker. She was an exceptional host,
and in the food category, there has never been anyone
like her or better than her before and since. I
would never ever put this show in the same category
(01:51):
except for spirit. That the spirit of this show comes
from what I learned from Melinda Lee, and that is
to be gracious and to have fun, have a sense
of humor, don't take yourself seriously, but take people's needs seriously.
When it comes to food, we're all intimidated by it,
(02:15):
and I hope I bring a little bit of that
to you, because what I learned from Melinda Lee, and
what I always saw in her was this over the
airwaves hug of saying, honey, it's gonna be fine. It's
just cooking. You might even make a mistake, probably will,
we all do, but it's gonna be fine, and it's
(02:36):
most likely going to be edible. And the fact that
you try is a success in itself. And I can't
sit here and tell you every single thing I learned,
whether it was about being a good human being or food,
because they're too many to recount. But talking with my
wife Tracy this morning about her when I gave her
(02:57):
the news today because I just learned I think it
was yesterday, and I think it was a couple days
ago of her passing. I don't even know how old
she was. Nobody ever said, she never ever said, I
think in any interview I saw I was reading some
old interviews that she said she was fifty something or whatever.
So I have no idea, but she always seemed like
(03:19):
somebody who lived life to the fullest. She loved a
good meal, she loved a good glass of wine, and
strangely enough, for being this sweet, she was never old,
but her spirit was like it had a gentle wisdom
about it that made her probably seem older than her years,
(03:41):
because she just didn't give a crap about the things
you shouldn't give a crap about, right that everybody weighs
their shoulders down with. And she loved a good, let's say,
ribald joke. She would give a hearty laugh when she
heard something slightly blue or and I remember being because
(04:05):
you know, I've never tried to hide the fact that
I have a crass sense of humor. I come across
as mean sometimes to people I work with, and I'm
always floored. And then I listen back and go Okay,
I hear that, but I don't. I adore the people
I work with, or I don't work with them. You know,
I just don't want to. Life's too short. Melinda Lee
(04:26):
has told my wife one time, and she couldn't remember
the whole situation, but she thought maybe she was talking
with Bill Handle. You know, it's time for some news.
I'll talk more about her. She deserves any time that
I give her and more. Melinda Lee, the beloved Melinda
Lee that took all of our hearts when it came
(04:50):
to food and told us we could do it and
that we should try it. She passed away this past
week and I couldn't find one story written about her. Now,
it may just hit in the news cycle where, you know,
and there's not a lot of you know, radio writers
out there anymore, and it used to be more covered.
(05:11):
So this is not a slam on them. It's just
a news cycle thing. But I couldn't find anything, and
I just I just want her name to be in
the memory of all of this, those of us that
loved her and enjoyed what she did and put her
on that pedestal as the queen of food, talk and writing.
(05:34):
I want us to remember her name. I'll talk more
about her when after we get some news.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
You're listening to The Fork Report with Nil Sevedra on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Hey there, Happy Saturday to you. Look at this. We're
in December. Holidays are here, and for all our Jewish
brothers and sisters out there, Hanukah is on the fourteenth.
Because if you ask, I don't care if religious non
religious jew you ask them when Hank is and they
will go, I don't know, leave me alone. We just
(06:08):
know when it's here, because it's not the same. Like
even though Christ was not born on the twenty fifth
of December, everybody knows that's when it lands, so don't
give them a hard time. It changes all the time,
and it's eight days, so if you forget a couple
(06:29):
of the first days, you're fine. You'll be good. Anyways,
we're in the holidays. Even the weather's getting a little cooler.
The moon was gorgeous on Friday. Holy smokes in the
morning when I got up to the Handle show, just amazing. Anyways,
we got a lot to get to today, including a
restaurant they've been on the show before, but a really
great one to visit here in LA for the holidays
(06:50):
is just festive and colorful and great food and stuff
like that, and so stick around right now. I'm just
I changed things up a little bit to just tip
my hat and focus and do a tribute to Melinda Lee.
She did food news with Melinda Lee. Most recently she
did it on CANX. Prior to that, she was on
(07:12):
KFI for some time, and prior to that she was
on KNX. I think that's where she started, but as
a food writer. And if you didn't know Melinda Lee
or don't remember on the air, and I don't know
how you could be a fan of talk radio and
not know Melinda Lee, She's just the She was the
best at what she did. She put her arm around you,
(07:35):
said that you can do it. And the story that
I was telling right before the break was one that
my wife was retelling to me this morning, because my
wife worked in radio for years as a producer and
she remembers Melinda Lee talking she thinks to handle, and
she said she laughed and cocked her head back and
(07:58):
just told handle. I think she goes, you know what,
you can train a monkey to do what we do.
It's about connection and personality, you know, connect with the listener.
She never thought of herself as anything special. She was
a caterer, I believe, and caterers, I've said this before
(08:19):
on the Fork Report to me, are the front line
of the culinary arts. They are at war when they work.
The kitchen is different, the setup is a different location
to set like. You just have to improvise, adapt and
overcome on every single job. So when she gave advice,
(08:45):
was that old uh was it schwabs or whatever, I
can't remember, but that old commercial like when so and
so speaks and then it would get quiet, everybody listens, uh,
some financial ad But that's how it was with Melinda.
And she threw these gems, these pearls of wisdom out
like they were no big deal. I can remember many
(09:07):
of them. If you've ever made egg rolls at home
or attempted to, and I love making egg rolls, and
you fry them and all those things. She gave the
best tip. One of the things is people don't strain
or dry out the filling enough. So you put that
(09:28):
filling into the wrapper and you deep fry it and
all that liquid comes out and makes some soggy that's
a great tip, a simple one for her, and that
was I probably that was decades ago, probably when I
heard that, it stayed with me, not only the tip
for being smart and practical, practical and appliable, but it's
(09:53):
just something you know by doing it all the time,
by being in those you know, oh craps situations where
you have to do a wedding or a party or
something and you don't get to be bad, you don't
get to have an off day, because by definition, caterers
are warriors. They are They don't get invited for something dull.
(10:15):
They get invited to come out to prepare food for
life events. And that's who Melinda Lee was. She was
a warrior. She was graceful and generous and kind. And
I love the fact that she could tip a glass.
(10:37):
I love the fact that she loved a ryebald joke.
I've met a lot of people in this industry, starting
out when I was I don't know, eighteen nineteen something
like that, whatever it was, and now at fifty six,
there's you know, you find there's people. You know, everybody's
(10:57):
got their own problems. But it's a weird industry. A
lot of insecurity, a lot of weird people. And I'm
not lumping on praise on Melinda Lee because she passed
away this week. I'm lumping on praise because she was praiseworthy,
just a neat person, funny and sweet and kind and
(11:20):
incredibly knowledgeable. And again, I would never put myself in
the category as much as I love food to capture
the magic that ow't to me. Only she did. And
there's beautiful, talented people that do things you know similarly,
that have their own voice that I you know, that
(11:41):
I would put in the same category of strength and wonderfulness.
Chef Jamie Gwinn's a lovely human being and does a
great job. I'm not putting down anybody at all. I'm
just lifting her up for all the work that she
did in this medium of radio. And Melinda Lee was
one of a kind. God bless her. All I can
(12:04):
think about is the rubbing of hands in heaven as
they go, oh my gosh, you know who's coming. Finally
we eat something good up here. It's like, God bless her.
And I hadn't talked to her for years, but I
always was a fan and always was thrilled to have
(12:25):
any time that I had to talk with her or
chat with her, ask her questions. And if this show
can be one thousandth of the light that she was
to the LA audience that she brought with food news
and all of her insights, recipes and devotion to the
(12:46):
craft of cooking and baking, man, I would be thrilled.
So God bless you, God speed. Melinda Lee. Radio has
missed you for years, and I hope that you got
the rest and the introspection and time with family that
you sought out. And to all those that live beyond
(13:07):
her in her family, thank you for sharing her for
so long with us. I knew it took her away
from you, but we all got to call her a
little bit of our own family.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
You're listening to The Fork Report with Nil Savedra on
demand from KFI AM six forty
Normally at this stage of the show, the very beginning,
I usually do the first two segments called Technique of
the Week, and we focused on a technique, and I'll
do that in the next segment here. But we lost
an amazing broadcaster and human being a few days ago,
and her name was Melinda Lee. And I had the
(00:22):
pleasure of knowing Melinda Lee. I've been at KFI since
ninety four. Came as an intern, and she was at
KFI for a while. She started on KNX doing a
food show in the late eighties, I believe, and then
she came to KFI and did a food show. And
when David G. Hall left to program KNX for a while,
(00:46):
he took her with him. They had a great relationship
and that was like going home for Melinda Lee. But
at that time here at KFI, I had the pleasure
of knowing her and what a neat human being she was,
(01:07):
and I believe is just not here on this plane anymore.
So I wanted to spend some time talking about her,
because you know, we don't stay in touch. She actually
didn't re sign with KNX many years ago because she
wanted to spend more time doing other things. She's a
(01:30):
fabulous writer, a wonderful speaker. She was an exceptional host,
and in the food category, there has never been anyone
like her or better than her before and since. I
would never ever put this show in the same category
(01:51):
except for spirit. That the spirit of this show comes
from what I learned from Melinda Lee, and that is
to be gracious and to have fun, have a sense
of humor, don't take yourself seriously, but take people's needs seriously.
When it comes to food, we're all intimidated by it,
(02:15):
and I hope I bring a little bit of that
to you, because what I learned from Melinda Lee, and
what I always saw in her was this over the
airwaves hug of saying, honey, it's gonna be fine. It's
just cooking. You might even make a mistake, probably will,
we all do, but it's gonna be fine, and it's
(02:36):
most likely going to be edible. And the fact that
you try is a success in itself. And I can't
sit here and tell you every single thing I learned,
whether it was about being a good human being or food,
because they're too many to recount. But talking with my
wife Tracy this morning about her when I gave her
(02:57):
the news today because I just learned I think it
was yesterday, and I think it was a couple days
ago of her passing. I don't even know how old
she was. Nobody ever said, she never ever said, I
think in any interview I saw I was reading some
old interviews that she said she was fifty something or whatever.
So I have no idea, but she always seemed like
(03:19):
somebody who lived life to the fullest. She loved a
good meal, she loved a good glass of wine, and
strangely enough, for being this sweet, she was never old,
but her spirit was like it had a gentle wisdom
about it that made her probably seem older than her years,
(03:41):
because she just didn't give a crap about the things
you shouldn't give a crap about, right that everybody weighs
their shoulders down with. And she loved a good, let's say,
ribald joke. She would give a hearty laugh when she
heard something slightly blue or and I remember being because
(04:05):
you know, I've never tried to hide the fact that
I have a crass sense of humor. I come across
as mean sometimes to people I work with, and I'm
always floored. And then I listen back and go Okay,
I hear that, but I don't. I adore the people
I work with, or I don't work with them. You know,
I just don't want to. Life's too short. Melinda Lee
(04:26):
has told my wife one time, and she couldn't remember
the whole situation, but she thought maybe she was talking
with Bill Handle. You know, it's time for some news.
I'll talk more about her. She deserves any time that
I give her and more. Melinda Lee, the beloved Melinda
Lee that took all of our hearts when it came
(04:50):
to food and told us we could do it and
that we should try it. She passed away this past
week and I couldn't find one story written about her. Now,
it may just hit in the news cycle where, you know,
and there's not a lot of you know, radio writers
out there anymore, and it used to be more covered.
(05:11):
So this is not a slam on them. It's just
a news cycle thing. But I couldn't find anything, and
I just I just want her name to be in
the memory of all of this, those of us that
loved her and enjoyed what she did and put her
on that pedestal as the queen of food, talk and writing.
(05:34):
I want us to remember her name. I'll talk more
about her when after we get some news.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
You're listening to The Fork Report with Nil Sevedra on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Hey there, Happy Saturday to you. Look at this. We're
in December. Holidays are here, and for all our Jewish
brothers and sisters out there, Hanukah is on the fourteenth.
Because if you ask, I don't care if religious non
religious jew you ask them when Hank is and they
will go, I don't know, leave me alone. We just
(06:08):
know when it's here, because it's not the same. Like
even though Christ was not born on the twenty fifth
of December, everybody knows that's when it lands, so don't
give them a hard time. It changes all the time,
and it's eight days, so if you forget a couple
(06:29):
of the first days, you're fine. You'll be good. Anyways,
we're in the holidays. Even the weather's getting a little cooler.
The moon was gorgeous on Friday. Holy smokes in the
morning when I got up to the Handle show, just amazing. Anyways,
we got a lot to get to today, including a
restaurant they've been on the show before, but a really
great one to visit here in LA for the holidays
(06:50):
is just festive and colorful and great food and stuff
like that, and so stick around right now. I'm just
I changed things up a little bit to just tip
my hat and focus and do a tribute to Melinda Lee.
She did food news with Melinda Lee. Most recently she
did it on CANX. Prior to that, she was on
(07:12):
KFI for some time, and prior to that she was
on KNX. I think that's where she started, but as
a food writer. And if you didn't know Melinda Lee
or don't remember on the air, and I don't know
how you could be a fan of talk radio and
not know Melinda Lee, She's just the She was the
best at what she did. She put her arm around you,
(07:35):
said that you can do it. And the story that
I was telling right before the break was one that
my wife was retelling to me this morning, because my
wife worked in radio for years as a producer and
she remembers Melinda Lee talking she thinks to handle, and
she said she laughed and cocked her head back and
(07:58):
just told handle. I think she goes, you know what,
you can train a monkey to do what we do.
It's about connection and personality, you know, connect with the listener.
She never thought of herself as anything special. She was
a caterer, I believe, and caterers, I've said this before
(08:19):
on the Fork Report to me, are the front line
of the culinary arts. They are at war when they work.
The kitchen is different, the setup is a different location
to set like. You just have to improvise, adapt and
overcome on every single job. So when she gave advice,
(08:45):
was that old uh was it schwabs or whatever, I
can't remember, but that old commercial like when so and
so speaks and then it would get quiet, everybody listens, uh,
some financial ad But that's how it was with Melinda.
And she threw these gems, these pearls of wisdom out
like they were no big deal. I can remember many
(09:07):
of them. If you've ever made egg rolls at home
or attempted to, and I love making egg rolls, and
you fry them and all those things. She gave the
best tip. One of the things is people don't strain
or dry out the filling enough. So you put that
(09:28):
filling into the wrapper and you deep fry it and
all that liquid comes out and makes some soggy that's
a great tip, a simple one for her, and that
was I probably that was decades ago, probably when I
heard that, it stayed with me, not only the tip
for being smart and practical, practical and appliable, but it's
(09:53):
just something you know by doing it all the time,
by being in those you know, oh craps situations where
you have to do a wedding or a party or
something and you don't get to be bad, you don't
get to have an off day, because by definition, caterers
are warriors. They are They don't get invited for something dull.
(10:15):
They get invited to come out to prepare food for
life events. And that's who Melinda Lee was. She was
a warrior. She was graceful and generous and kind. And
I love the fact that she could tip a glass.
(10:37):
I love the fact that she loved a ryebald joke.
I've met a lot of people in this industry, starting
out when I was I don't know, eighteen nineteen something
like that, whatever it was, and now at fifty six,
there's you know, you find there's people. You know, everybody's
(10:57):
got their own problems. But it's a weird industry. A
lot of insecurity, a lot of weird people. And I'm
not lumping on praise on Melinda Lee because she passed
away this week. I'm lumping on praise because she was praiseworthy,
just a neat person, funny and sweet and kind and
(11:20):
incredibly knowledgeable. And again, I would never put myself in
the category as much as I love food to capture
the magic that ow't to me. Only she did. And
there's beautiful, talented people that do things you know similarly,
that have their own voice that I you know, that
(11:41):
I would put in the same category of strength and wonderfulness.
Chef Jamie Gwinn's a lovely human being and does a
great job. I'm not putting down anybody at all. I'm
just lifting her up for all the work that she
did in this medium of radio. And Melinda Lee was
one of a kind. God bless her. All I can
(12:04):
think about is the rubbing of hands in heaven as
they go, oh my gosh, you know who's coming. Finally
we eat something good up here. It's like, God bless her.
And I hadn't talked to her for years, but I
always was a fan and always was thrilled to have
(12:25):
any time that I had to talk with her or
chat with her, ask her questions. And if this show
can be one thousandth of the light that she was
to the LA audience that she brought with food news
and all of her insights, recipes and devotion to the
(12:46):
craft of cooking and baking, man, I would be thrilled.
So God bless you, God speed. Melinda Lee. Radio has
missed you for years, and I hope that you got
the rest and the introspection and time with family that
you sought out. And to all those that live beyond
(13:07):
her in her family, thank you for sharing her for
so long with us. I knew it took her away
from you, but we all got to call her a
little bit of our own family.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
You're listening to The Fork Report with Nil Savedra on
demand from KFI AM six forty
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