CHEF LEE · FOUNDER
He brought the craft learned in hotel kitchens
back to a pot shared by his family.
Chef Lee rose to the position of sous-chef at Sheraton while still remarkably young. He later brought that discipline home with one simple thought: if the family loves hotpot, make a broth worth lingering over together.
Read his story01 · FROM THE KITCHEN
FROM THE KITCHEN, FOR THE FAMILY
Cooking is not about putting technique on display. It is about caring for every detail until the people you love can eat with confidence.
Chef Lee’s path began in professional hotel kitchens. He rose to the position of sous-chef at Sheraton while still remarkably young, refining his understanding of heat, knife work and the structure beneath a broth within the traditions of Chinese and Hong Kong cuisine.
What remained was not a habit of displaying credentials, but an almost stubborn respect for detail: broth needs a clear foundation; ingredients should meet the table in the right condition; heat should open a path for flavor rather than cover it.
He later brought that craft back to the family table. His family loved hotpot, and that became the beginning of JIHE. In his mind, the first promise has never changed: if you would not take a shortcut when cooking for family, do not take one for anyone who sits at your table.
“First, make the pot worth eating. Then look after the people who have come to share it. Everything else can grow from there.”
02 · THE MORNING DECIDES THE TABLE
SEE THE INGREDIENT, NOT ONLY THE SPECIFICATION
Choosing ingredients is not just purchasing. It is taking responsibility for today’s table.
Freshness is not a word printed on a menu. It is the weight in the hand, the condition of a shell, and the life still present in a leaf when it meets water.
Chef Lee likes to see ingredients for himself. With clams, size is only one clue; fullness, moisture and the day’s condition matter. With produce, origin matters, but so does the sweetness it will leave in the broth.
JIHE wants the ingredient that deserves to be cooked well now—not the one whose specification makes the loudest claim.
Explore the Ingredient Guide
03 · BROTH IS BUILT, NOT RUSHED
A POT THAT CAN TRAVEL THROUGH THE WHOLE MEAL
Mala broth is more than heat; milk broth is more than creaminess.
In a mala broth, the order in which spices meet the pot, the oil temperature and the time given to simmer decide whether a sip offers only force—or aroma, depth and a finish that brings the hand back to the ladle.
Early in JIHE’s story, Chef Lee also devoted attention to milk broth. Before it became a familiar sight across neighborhood hotpot restaurants, the question was how to let the broth carry the milk aroma so that it would remain smooth and balanced through the meal.
It became one of the flavors people first associated with JIHE, remembered by diners and food media alike. Trends move on. Craft remains only when the next pot is made with the same attention.
Read a Broth Note04 · ROOTS, THEN BRANCHES
GROWING INTO THE NEXT GENERATION
After weathering a difficult season, JIHE grew again—one pot, one table and one neighborhood at a time.
The pandemic quieted restaurant tables and forced an honest question: what should the next generation of JIHE preserve? The answer was more than a new interior. Ingredients, broth, service and partner support all needed to be gathered into a stronger operating foundation.
- 2014
One pot begins
Professional kitchen craft returns to the kind of hotpot the family loved.
- EARLY YEARS
A flavor people remember
Milk broth becomes one of the early signatures through which diners meet JIHE.
- AFTER THE PAUSE
A new generation takes root
Lessons in resilience become new spaces, processes and support for partners.
- TODAY
One table at a time
In every city, the work begins by becoming a table the neighborhood wants to revisit.
05 · WHY LEEHARVEST.COM
A WISH HELD INSIDE A NAME
Lee is one person’s craft.
Harvest is what a whole table brings home.
The character 禾 begins in the earth; a harvest matures through time. JIHE’s name carries respect for ingredients, while leeharvest.com carries an old-fashioned wish for everyone who gathers here.
May family feel whole. May busy days find their answer. May the work you are building in life and business come, in its own season, to a harvest.
May you leave with warmth—
and with a harvest of your own.