Sandra was born and raised in San Jose and continues to live there now with her husband. She is very close with her family as well as her husband's so they have family dinners multiple times a week. She enjoys cooking for her husband's siblings and letting them be her guinea pigs.

Coming from a family of immigrants, Sandra loves cooking all types of foods but definitely favors cooking her favorite Vietnamese foods that she grew up with as well as traditional Italian food. Her family was busy working when she was a young kid but once they established themselves Sandra spent a lot of time with her parents and grandparents in the kitchen after school.

Sandra is no stranger to her family's tough love when it comes to her cooking but she thinks it only makes her a more creative chef. While she believes her mother makes the most amazing egg rolls, Sandra loves that her brother in law thought her Italian egg roll creations were the best egg rolls he has ever had.

Since her family didn't have a lot of money growing up Sandra learned to cook on a budget at an early age. She favors soups because they are budget friendly and she can sub hardy vegetables for expensive meat or add rice as a filler. 

One of Sandra's favorite budget cooking tips is combining ground beef with ground pork instead of using wagyu beef in a recipe. While it doesn't taste exactly the same it does have that fat content and sometimes makes her dishes taste better.