Mary Lee Montfort got her professional start in the kitchen of the Union Bay Cafe in Seattle, Washington, as a pantry/line cook. Her responsibilities included making all of the chef's homemade desserts.
Mary Lee went on to open her own successful small baking business, Mary Lee's Desserts, in Northern Virginia in 2004. All of her desserts were made to order for every customer by Mary Lee, which quickly set her apart from commercial bakeries. From single cakes to large corporate events, holidays – when Mary Lee routinely baked over 1,000 cookies – to galas and Bards Alley Bookstore & Café, her desserts were always known for their quality and amazing taste. Mary Lee designed desserts and morning goodies for the cafe within Bards Alley Bookstore in Vienna, Virginia, and was so proud to have her creations available in retail.
Mary Lee is an advocate for Marriage Equality and the LGBTQ community and as such, proudly participated in the Chefs for Equality Galas (swag bags!) in Washington DC. Mary Lee believes in passing things forward and has covered all of the costs of designing, producing, distributing, and marketing her cookbook herself so that she can donate ALL of the profits from each book's sale to three charities doing amazing work: World Central Kitchen, The Trevor Project, and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
