Aarti Sequeira, season six winner of Food Network Star, spills the tea on motherhood, mental health and how food brings us all together. This week on Food Network Obsessed, host Jaymee Sire talks with Aarti Sequeira about how the “food memories” of our past actively shape our future. She shares what it was like growing up in Bombay and Dubai, and how the weekly fish market trips with her family sparked her lifelong journey of collecting one-of-a-kind food experiences. Aarti walks us through how she successfully transitioned beyond a career in journalism to follow her real passion: Food. She shares the correlation between food and mental health, and recounts how she overcame her own battle with postpartum depression.
Aarti Sequeira, season six winner of Food Network Star, spills the tea on motherhood, mental health and how food brings us all together. This week on Food Network Obsessed, host Jaymee Sire talks with Aarti Sequeira about how the “food memories” of our past actively shape our future. She shares what it was like growing up in Bombay and Dubai, and how the weekly fish market trips with her family sparked her lifelong journey of collecting one-of-a-kind food experiences. Aarti walks us through how she successfully transitioned beyond a career in journalism to follow her real passion: Food. She shares the correlation between food and mental health, and recounts how she overcame her own battle with postpartum depression.
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Find episode transcript here: https://food-network-obsessed.simplecast.com/episodes/aarti-sequeira-opens-up-about-mental-health-and-her-journey-to-a-career-in-food
[MUSIC PLAYING] JAYMEE SIRE: Hello, and welcome to Food Network Obsessed. This is the podcast where we dish on all things Food Network with your favorite Food Network stars. I'm your host Jaymee Sire. And today, we have a vibrant personality on the podcast.
She talks all about her journey from Food Network star to having her own show. She shares behind the scenes stories from filming Guy's Grocery Games. And she gets real about mental health and competition nerves. She's a cooking show host, cookbook author, and fellow journalist who always brings the smiles and the party whenever she's on screen. It's Aarti Sequeira.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Aarti, welcome to the podcast. I don't know about you, but I am ready for an Aarti party if you are.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: Yeah, I am so ready.
JAYMEE SIRE: What are the main ingredients for an Aarti Party besides yourself, of course?
AARTI SEQUEIRA: Lots of food. Usually, things that I have made. Usually, a bunch of cocktails.
JAYMEE SIRE: That's my kind of party.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: Yeah, and that's it. I mean, for me, I love people to walk into my house or anything that I'm hosting and feel like it's their home. People will be like, oh, can I get a glass of water? And I'm like, of course. I could get you something better, but the glasses are over there.
That's one of my favorite things to say to people the glasses are over there, help yourself. Not because I'm a lazy host, because I want you to feel so crazy comfortable here that I get 100% of you and 0% of any sort of created artificial you. I just want the whole real you.
For me, that's the thing that's always been really important to me whether we were in our sort of one-bedroom apartment in LA, and there were like 50 people at our house. People were sitting on the floor. They were sitting wherever they could find a spot. And that's still one of the most magical get-togethers I've ever had.
JAYMEE SIRE: I love that everybody does congregate towards wherever the food is. And now, you have a beautiful space for entertaining. By the way, I have major kitchen envy. I'm still at a rental in Brooklyn, but I love the art decor inspired green tile. It's absolutely gorgeous. It is your dream kitchen. I want to know what were some of your must-haves when designing this space.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: We wanted a really long island so that people could sit at it and work at it. I wanted my kids to be there. So we could all roll chapatis at the same time, or we could all shuck oysters at the same time.
The other thing that was important to me was color. I just wanted as much color as possible balanced by-- we have white cabinets, but that's why we decided to do this big bright green backsplash. And if you haven't seen it and you're listening, you can just go to my Instagram and check it out because I take a lot of photos in the front of it.
But yeah, we got this tile by this company called Zia. And the ironic thing about that is we moved to North Carolina about a year ago. And here we are in Raleigh, and we don't really know anyone. We're missing LA desperately. And Zia is based in LA.
So I was just like there's a little piece of LA still in my kitchen. As soon as I spotted that bright green tile, I was like, that is my tile. I just wanted something bright and beautiful and cheerful and full of joy, because honestly, that's how I feel when I cook. It's peaceful, and it's meditative.
And yes, there are absolutely billions of times when I'm making my kids yet another snack that I'm like, this sucks, but for the most part, the fact that I get to cook is such a joy to me. And it's something that's not lost on me, especially at the moment because my husband has ulcerative colitis, which means there are ulcers on his colon.
So he has been on a diet that has gotten more and more and more restrictive. And these days he eats meat, and that's it. He's on the carnivore diet. He eats meat and duck eggs and organs and dates. Those are the things that are, quote unquote, "allowed."
And so I look at what he cooks every day, and it feels so restrictive that it makes me so grateful for every single thing that I get to cook.
JAYMEE SIRE: It's important to have a space that you love, especially when you are spending so much time there. What does a typical day at home look like for you? I know it's a lot different if you're traveling or shooting shows and that kind of thing. But when you are home, what does a day in the life of Aarti.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: So usually starts pretty early because, again, children. So they are up at 6:00, no matter what time we put them to bed. And so I'm either up with them or I hand them the iPad, true story, and let them watch some shows. I'm sorry I'm a horrible parent.
JAYMEE SIRE: No.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: But sometimes I just need a--
JAYMEE SIRE: I think you're a normal parent.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: I hope so. I hope so. And then I make them breakfast, which can be anything from-- they're so spoiled. They don't like to eat the same thing two days in a row. So we vacillate. We go back and forth between a cooked breakfast and cereal.
And then on the weekends, I usually make them pancakes or waffles, or we try to do something different, or I'll make something like a traditional Indian breakfast for them just to sort of sneak in some culture, some of our culture. The rest of the day is sort of-- it's a juggle between things that are important to me that are not work related.
Like I try to do my quiet time, prayer time every day, and then spending time with my kids and making sure that we have a good balance of things that they should do, clean their room, and things that they get to do. Like right now, we bought them one of those inflatable pools, and they're playing outside. Honestly, I usually skip lunch even though I make sure that the kids have lunch. I don't know why lunch is so hard. Lunch is so hard.
And then around 3:00, I'm like oh, I'm starving. So then I have a Decaf Americano because that's an appetite suppressant. This is so bad, but this is the truth.
JAYMEE SIRE: But it's real. We like that.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: But it's the truth. And then at around like 4:00, I start freaking out about what to make for dinner. And I throw something together, and we eat by 5:30. And then it's like PJs, bedtime story, the whole nine.
Then we're on our own. And my husband and I just kind of stare at each other and go, OK, so now what do we get to do? And so-- and then we do it all over again the next day.
JAYMEE SIRE: Sounds like a pretty normal parent routine. Do you try to keep a routine, or is that kind of impossible with kids?
AARTI SEQUEIRA: I really do always try, and then it doesn't really work out. Every day is so different in this line of work because there'll be a day where I have a bunch of writing to do, or there'll be a day where I have a bunch of recipe-testing to do, or I have an appearance over Zoom. And so every day is so different that it's a little bit hard to get some kind of routine.
So the things that we've ended up doing are, again, like food-related, but they keep some sort of track of time and some sort of sense of hi, it's the weekend. Let's celebrate. Because my husband and I both work for ourselves, so we're home. So a Tuesday and a Friday don't feel that different.
So Friday is family movie night and pizza night, like so many families probably across the country. And so I genuinely look forward to that because it's pizza night, movie night, and cocktail night for me.
JAYMEE SIRE: I love it. And it is a good barometer for what day of the week it is, because I work from home as well. I know what you're talking about. Everything kind of blurs together a little bit, so it's nice to have that.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: There are definitely some things that are non-negotiables every day. One is some form of quiet time, whether it's just praying or reading the Bible or something. And I've started to try to get the children into it too. I just think it's a really good habit, which I haven't mastered yet. So I'm hoping if I start them now, they'll get it.
And then working out, which my husband and I started doing last year inspired by Antonia. It's kind of cool because even though we never worked out together in LA-- and then it was only when I moved away, and then I would come to visit. I think when I was shooting Candy Land was the first time that I went and worked out at her gym.
And it kicked my butt so hard, I said, well, I want to keep this going because I felt so energized. And I felt like I was on this high, honestly. It was a way for me to keep all of that and have all of that but also stay connected to my friend. And so I'm like a total cult member. I'm wearing the T-shirt of the gym. And so that's something that we definitely do like five days a week.
JAYMEE SIRE: I agree with the energy and just the feeling better part, is very important. And I love how you're always posting inspirational quotes and your thoughts kind of on Instagram as well, which I think is also I'm sure very motivating to other people. We love your honesty, your realness. I know you inspire a lot of people, but I want to know who inspires you.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: The person that I see every day is my husband. And I know that sounds trite, but honestly, especially because he has ulcerative colitis. And he had it as a child, and then he was miraculously healed. And so we never thought it would come back.
And so for it to come back and for him to lose so much weight and so much freedom and for him to still not stick his head in the sand and pretend like nothing's happening, but to persist anyway, to be an amazing father and a really attentive husband and to just keep going, to me, is so inspiring. That's such an easy out to say, well, you know what? I'm exhausted, and I'm malnourished, and I don't want to do anything.
And he has never not once said that. So to me, that gives me the inspiration to just push past those things where I feel like I have an easy out here to push past the discomfort, to push past things that feel easy, and to do the hard things.
JAYMEE SIRE: That's lovely. You've been so open and transparent just about mental health, specifically postpartum depression, which I know you experienced with both of your daughters. Knowing how much it affected you, why is it so important for you to raise awareness and just talk about it?
AARTI SEQUEIRA: By the time I was pregnant with my oldest, I was a little bit older. I have the privilege of an amazing education. I'm pretty intelligent. I'm really curious about things. And so I felt like I had a lot of resources. I had a midwife.
I was trying to do it in the most well-rounded way possible with all the information and all the birthing classes and all of that stuff. And I still feel like it blindsided me. When you first have a child or even, heck, if you have your fifth, you feel so responsible for everything that is happening, both to you and to your child. I remember I would breastfeed, and I had the phone in my other hand.
And I was constantly googling one thing or another that I thought was wrong, that I was doing wrong or that she was suffering or why is she making these noises, and stuff like that. And for me, the conclusion always was that it was my fault, and it was my responsibility to take care of. To have that as a default thing that you're carrying around and then on top of that to have your brain failing you, it just doubles down on that feeling. And you feel so responsible like oh, if I have postpartum depression, anxiety, psychosis, then it's obviously my fault.
And so I just wanted to let women know, A, if you're having a really, really, really hard time, it's not abnormal, and it's also not insurmountable. One of the most interesting things to me was when I had told Guy about it. And he was like, I had no idea. He's like, you are like the bubbliest person. How could this happen to you?
And I was like, I just wanted people to know women, and their partners to know, that this could happen and that it wasn't just a mother feeling sorry for herself. I remember going to a support group and sitting there with all these women. I had a very mild case compared to what they were going through.
But so often when there was a new woman that had come in, we would ask about how's your husband taking it? So often she'd say, oh, my husband thinks I'm just making it up, or he thinks I have it so easy because I get to stay home. And I'm not saying all husbands are like that because in my situation, it was my husband that said to me, you're not OK. We need to get you some help.
That's what I think is so important, is for the partners to also know that this is something that's real and can happen, and that in a way, your job as their husband is to fight for them. So yeah, so that's why it has been incredibly validating to me and redeeming to me that so many people have written to me and said, I was wondering whether I had it. And then I watched you talk about it on Grocery Games, of all things, and that's when I reached out, and I got help.
Or someone has said I think my friend has it, who should I call? And I'm able to help people. And I'm a woman of faith, and I remember when I was walking through it, and I was praying, and I was like, God, why would you let this happen to me?
And I just got this really strong sense that he was like, because I know you'll go do something about it. I know you'll go redeem this time. And so that has become kind of my rallying cry, is I'm going to redeem that time that this stole from me.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah, no, I think that's really beautiful. And I think the fact that you can get through to so many other people who might be going through, that, I think that-- if everything was over again, you would probably not want to go through it. But the fact that you're able to help so many other people, I think, is really beautiful and important.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: Yeah. Well, and I think one of the things about depression specifically, but I assume it's similar with other forms of mental health issues, is that it makes you want to crawl up in a corner and be by yourself. The last thing you want to do is be in the same room as anybody and talk about your feelings.
And unfortunately, and maybe ironically, that is the first step to healing, is to get in a room with somebody and talk about it and to shine a light on every depressed, maybe depraved thought that you're having and to just get it out because that in a way steals the shame from it. And so for me, going to that support group was one of the most powerful things I could have done. And so I suppose that's one of the reasons I talked too, is like, hey, I'm talking about it. You need to talk about it too because that's how you're going to heal.
JAYMEE SIRE: Absolutely. You mentioned your education. I know you were born in Mumbai, raised in Dubai, attended a British school. You finished off your education in Chicago. You're in LA. And now, you're on the East Coast. A lot of different culinary influences, cultural influences. When you kind of look back at the beginning of all of this, what are some of your earliest food memories?
AARTI SEQUEIRA: The first thing I always think about are the markets in Dubai, the fish market, the fruit and vegetable market. It was every Friday, rain or shine, which in Dubai is shine, my dad would go to the markets. We didn't call them farmers markets. It's just the market. Go to the market.
And my dad comes from a long line of farmers. And so he is so fascinated by things that grow. And so he made friends with all the best vendors there. And he had an apricot guy. He had an apple guy. And so he would come home with all these incredible bits of fruit and vegetables from all over the world, whether it was light cheese or mangoes from India or apricots from Iran.
And so we would eat these things and also have this sense that the world was very small, especially Dubai being in the middle of all of that. Being a port city, these things were-- it was so easy to have access to those. That definitely is one of the first memory for me, is going and interacting with the people who either grew the things that we were going to eat or knew the people who had grown them and could talk to us about, oh, you want to get the green one because that's the sweeter one or whatever it was, and it being sort of a loud vibrant marketplace.
And like you would step on pieces of fruit that were on the ground. And the fish market stank to the high heavens, but it was great because some of the fish was still moving. I just-- I missed. That I missed that, about going to buy food. It's very sanitary, which is not a bad thing, but it's a little sanitized now. And I feel like it's missing the heartbeat of what I remember growing up.
JAYMEE SIRE: How have all of those experiences really influenced your cooking style? Because it is a unique one, I think.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: I'm fascinated by people's food memories. Sometimes it's hard to break people down and sort of get to the heart of who they are and what's important to them. But if you start talking about food, it's such an easy avenue.
As someone who always felt like an outsider-- I felt like an outsider in Dubai because I wasn't Arab. I felt like an outsider in India because I didn't grow up there. I didn't speak the language. I have a weird accent. And I felt like an outsider with my British friends because even though I knew the same music, movies and references that they did, I didn't go back to England in the summer. So I don't have that to draw on.
And so to me, food was a way to still communicate with all these different cultures and still sort of feel like, hey, we kind of get each other, right? And that was the way that my mom communicated with people too, is through food and sort of trying to blend food together. She had a whole stack of Australian Women's Weekly, had these cookbooks that they would get out.
And she had a shelf installed in the laundry room just so she could put all 200 of those up on the shelf. And I remember going in there. This is before satellite TV. You can just put the TV on when you were bored. And I would go in there, and I'd pull them down and flip through them. And just by osmosis, just absorbing all these different flavor combinations.
So I've just always been fascinated by the authentic story of where a dish came from. And then after understanding that, being able to say, OK, well, how do my food memories communicate with that? And sort of making it my own.
And then getting married to a Boston Irish, German dude means that-- at first when I started cooking for him, he was like, ooh, I don't get this food. And I was like, OK. And so I'd kind of try it from a different angle. I was like, oh, what if I make it a sandwich? What if I take the heat down and sweeten it a little bit?
And now, he's like one of the most-- well, he was one of the most adventurous eaters I know. So I'm a living example of food having been a really beautiful and silent but very loud communicator.
JAYMEE SIRE: It really does connect us all. Growing up, it seemed like your love of food was matched only by your love of performing. Tell us about your dad's nickname for you as a kid and where that came from.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: He had to tell me this only after I won Food Network Star. So my dad said that when I was little, my nickname was Showcase.
JAYMEE SIRE: Amazing.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: Because I always had a song and dance. And I remember letting jokes at school and then coming home and telling my dad. And he would be so excited, and then there'd be like an office party. He'd be like, [? Aru, ?] [? Aru, ?] tell them that joke about the Irishman. You know what I mean? And I was like, OK.
Somewhere along the way, I got really self-conscious and stopped, got kind of serious and sort of receded. But I played the piano, and I was really into music. And so that was one way that-- we still did concerts, and I was a choir director.
And then when it came to a vocation in life, I thought, well, I want to be a reporter. And I want to be a reporter for the right reason. So it was really important to me that I made that clear to people, that it wasn't just that I wanted to be on camera and get all the glamor of it.
I wanted to rough it, and I wanted to get the real stories. And I wanted people who didn't have a platform to get a platform through our reporting. And maybe that was a form of showcasing too, but yeah.
JAYMEE SIRE: Well, didn't you have a pretend news program and pretend cooking show? Yeah.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: Oh, yeah. We got-- there were two newspapers in Dubai. We got them both. And so I would sit there at the dinner table. And I remember just reading them out loud like a news presenter. And then yes, I had Play-Doh. We called it plasticine. And I would roll out chapatis and pretend to do my own cooking show.
And sometimes those things that we do as kids are really-- they're prophetic in a way of what we want to be doing
JAYMEE SIRE: You kind of manifested your own destiny on both of those things because before Food Network, you went on to earn a journalism degree at Northwestern. You worked at CNN. You produced a documentary. What sparked that interest and passion for you, in terms of, like you said, wanting to do it for the right reasons and tell people's stories?
AARTI SEQUEIRA: I grew up in Dubai during the first Gulf War. And I remember we had one TV station, Channel 33. And it started at 4 o'clock. It started with a call to prayer, and then we had an hour and a half of cartoons. And then it went into what I thought was boring TV.
But during the Gulf War is when CNN very wisely would pipe their programming through these local channels. And so that was the first time that I had seen real news, news where people went out and talked to people and got the story from the people, as opposed to just getting a statement and reading the statement. So I think that was just so eye-opening to me. I didn't know that was possible.
And so I think the idea of-- I would watch-- Christiane Amanpour was just my freaking superhero. My dream was to work with her one day because I just thought here's a woman who is doing it. And risking her life to go and get the real story, to me, felt like a really admirable way to live your life.
And I think there's something in me that has always wanted to do something very admirable. I think, for me, I want to get to the end of my life and feel like I exhausted my potential, and I didn't leave anything behind. And so that felt like a really good way to do it. And it felt like a respectable career.
JAYMEE SIRE: Coming up next, Aarti talks about her experiences filming Food Network Star and Aarti Party. And she teases what you can expect from the new season of Halloween Wars. So how did you go from journalist then to the food world?
I know you went to cooking school. You started your YouTube show, which you mentioned a little bit earlier. So how did that all come together in a nutshell?
AARTI SEQUEIRA: Well, it was long and painful, frankly, because all I'd ever wanted to do was be a journalist. And I identified with that so strongly that when-- I got married, and I moved to LA. And suddenly, that was right when the news business contracted, and I couldn't find work.
And I also felt like I wasn't hustling for it. And that was a huge part of being a journalist, is wanting to do it so badly that you hustle. And I was like, well, I don't know what's wrong with me, but I'm not feeling that hustle. So then I felt really lost, really, really lost.
And I remember we had Food Network frankly. And I would watch every cooking show that there was. Whether it was on cable or on the networks, I would just watch every single one I could get my hands on because it just brought me peace, and something in there fed me.
And then I would walk to the supermarket because I didn't know how to drive yet. I would walked at the supermarket, grab a bunch of ingredients, come home and cook. And for me, it was a sense of control again over what felt like a very chaotic part of my life. It was something that I felt like I could do.
And then that's what sort of-- my husband got me a gift certificate to a local cooking school. And I did that, but even then, I was like I don't know why I'm doing this. I'm just doing it because it's kind of fun, and this is silly. And I felt like a failure. And I felt like I totally disappointed my parents, that they had wasted all this money on me.
But after cooking for a little while, I worked at a restaurant for a while. And then I started this YouTube show. And then someone said based on watching those videos, there were different people in my life that said, hey, do you know that Food Network has the show called Food Network Star? And I was like, I will never do it.
JAYMEE SIRE: So how did you finally do it then? Did somebody send the tape in for you, or did you actually finally do it?
AARTI SEQUEIRA: I really felt like God was like, you got to go do this, sister. In fact, I remember going through all the rounds of interviews and stuff. And I remember sitting there reading my book. And the phone rang, and it was a 917 number, which I was like that's New York. And they're calling, and they're saying that they want me, and I'm not going to pick up.
And I listen to the voicemail. And I was like oh, no. They want me. This is so scary. I just was such a believer in prerequisites. You need to have all of this training and all of this experience in order to do this for real on the Food Network, which I was like, if you are on the Food Network, that means that you're an expert and you know what you're doing.
I didn't know what it was called back then, but it was 100% imposter syndrome. And I still feel that today, but I did it. And thank God, I won because otherwise, that would be a lot of therapy.
JAYMEE SIRE: Well, you did win.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: I did.
JAYMEE SIRE: Season 6, it was over a decade ago at this point.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: Oh, my gosh.
JAYMEE SIRE: What do you remember about that experience and going through the actual competition?
AARTI SEQUEIRA: I remember being scared a lot. I remember feeling like I was constantly being asked to walk on water. And somehow every week, I managed to do it. And I was genuinely surprised. That just taught me that I cannot trust my own perception of things all the time.
That whole trust your gut thing, I'm like, no, not mine. I can't because if I did, I would never do anything. And I would never try anything because I was just like, I suck, and I'm going home. And then I'd win, and I was like, what the heck? And I think about my friends that I made on that show and just the whole experience of it, I'm forever changed.
JAYMEE SIRE: Do you like competing? Are you good at competition shows, or do you get pretty nervous?
AARTI SEQUEIRA: I do not like it. I do not. However, I do always feel great afterwards. It's kind of working out, I guess, but in front of millions of people. Yeah, I just-- the one thing that I do enjoy about it is seeing what my brain will come up with under pressure. I do think that there's a part of your brain that you don't have access to until you're in some form of a crisis situation.
So sometimes I'll come up with a dish, and I'm like, dang, where did that come from? That was amazing. It's just a good exercise to challenge yourself. And I think we're missing out on the lessons of those experiences and sort of a chance to see yourself in 100% different light.
JAYMEE SIRE: That experience also led to the Aarti Party on Food Network, which was so fun. And I think I personally could listen to you talking about food and cooking all day long.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: I can't watch those episodes,
JAYMEE SIRE: Really? Why not?
AARTI SEQUEIRA: I don't know. It's not terrible, but it's a little like I'm not 100% that person anymore. And also, I was making mistakes that I would never make now. But I made back then because I was so green and so new to this whole thing. And if I had to do it over again, they would definitely be changes.
But I'm also really proud of the stuff that we did on that show. There wasn't another show that was cooking with those ingredients and in that fashion. I'm proud of the fact that people got very comfortable with saying and using turmeric and garam masala and green chillies and ginger after that. That makes me happy.
JAYMEE SIRE: We talk a lot about that on the podcast, how important representation is in media, and especially food media. And I'm sure that there are a lot of young people, girls especially, who have those roots in India to see themselves represented on screen, to see those ingredients that you were just talking about that weren't being talked about as much, how special is that to you to be that person for them?
AARTI SEQUEIRA: It's huge. There wasn't-- I think Padma had had a show a few years before mine. She was doing some of that too. When I won, I was just-- I felt this responsibility. I want to be as authentic to who I am as possible, but I also know that for many people who were watching back then, they had never even considered cooking with these ingredients before because they felt very foreign and very scary and very unfamiliar.
And people don't want to cook something that they feel like they're going to mess up because it's a waste of time and money and a meal. And I get it. I'm the same way. So the fact that I got to do that, and then-- now, I look at all of the people, Indian-American, South Asian-American, South Asian, that are now on TV or have cookbooks, there are just so many of them. And they went there when I started.
And so I don't want to take credit for it. But a little part of me is like, if you hadn't gone, they wouldn't have a place right now. And I feel really humbled and really grateful that I was given that opportunity and given that privilege. It's huge.
JAYMEE SIRE: And now, they get to watch you on Guy's Grocery Games as well as other programming on Food Network. But I want to talk about that one first because I think it looks like an absolute blast. Do you have behind the scenes stories you can share? Because like I said, all of the judges on the show, you guys seem to have the best time. You're all really good friends, and it definitely shows on screen.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: It feels like camp. We're shooting up in Sonoma County. So none of us are home, including the crew. The only person that's home is Guy. At the end of the day or before, we're like, do you need a coffee? I'm going to the coffee shop. I'll get you some.
What are you doing for dinner after we finish shooting? And so it's a time for us to work and work really hard, but then to check in with each other and see how we're doing. And especially because we're all across the country, we don't get that.
And yet to do this line of work and work the way that we do, there's really only a small number of people that do that and understand each other and understand the highs and the lows of it. To get to go to Grocery Games, first, it's just a blast. And Guy makes the hours fly. We all love each other, and we have so much fun.
JAYMEE SIRE: Speaking of being on set, do you have any new shows that we can be on the lookout for?
AARTI SEQUEIRA: Yes. So I was away for three weeks because I was shooting Halloween Wars.
JAYMEE SIRE: Fun.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: Which is super fun, especially because I'm not a sugar artist. I'm not a chocolatier. I can bake a cake. I hadn't been in this world before. So for me, to see what people can do with evaporated sugar cane juice, right? That's what sugar is, and they could transform it into all these incredible things.
It was really-- it was such a wonderful experience. And I got to just meet incredible people. I'm really excited about it.
JAYMEE SIRE: We're excited to see it. This has been so much fun, but we are going to finish off with a little rapid fire round. And then we have one final question for you.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: OK.
JAYMEE SIRE: So rapid fire, how do you take your coffee?
AARTI SEQUEIRA: Black, no sugar, no cream.
JAYMEE SIRE: Favorite comfort food.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: Probably chapatis and yoghurt.
JAYMEE SIRE: Favorite Food Network show that you do not appear on.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: It's still Ina. It's still Ina.
JAYMEE SIRE: Aw, yeah, she's the best.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: Yeah.
JAYMEE SIRE: Favorite food city.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: Los Angeles.
JAYMEE SIRE: Best piece of advice you've ever received.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: Just tell the truth to yourself and to others. Just tell the truth and stop worming your way out of things.
JAYMEE SIRE: That's great advice. If you were a dish, what would you be.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: I'd be khichdi. Khichdi is like our version of a rice porridge, rice and lentil porridge. And it's actually funny because during COVID last year, I went to the Indian store to get rice and lentils. And you know how in regular grocery stores we were at a flour, at the Indian store, we were out of rice and lentils. It's like-- it was like the comfort food.
But for me, khichdi because I have all of these different influences running through my veins. And when you eat khichdi, every bite is different. And every version of khichdi is different too. So to me, that's-- it's like Indian gumbo.
JAYMEE SIRE: Love that.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: That's who I am.
JAYMEE SIRE: Best thing you've ever cooked.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: The first thing that comes to mind are my ribs with a-- it's a tamarind ketchup manis sauce with shallots and garlic and honey. And they are so damn good. And it was one of those recipes that I woke up, and I was like, ah, the muse, the muse this is here. I'm going to make these ribs. And they just turned out fire from the very beginning.
JAYMEE SIRE: I love ribs. So that sounds absolutely perfect. Thing you are most proud of in your career.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: The show. I think-- I'm proud of myself for doing Food Network Star because it really was-- it was so stinking scary for me. But I am proud of Aarti Party and what it was and what it gave birth to, what it made room for. It was sort of the tip of the spear.
And I just look at old all the recipes now. How many recipes-- I open Food Network Magazine. And in the weekly cooking ideas, weeknight cooking ideas, there's always something that has like a little Indian influence to it. And I'm like, that wasn't how it was. And so I'm proud of that. I'm proud of being part of that movement.
JAYMEE SIRE: You started the party. Well, before we let you go, we have one final question that we ask everybody here on Food Network Obsessed. And that would be, what's on the menu for your perfect food day? So breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert.
Take us through the entire day. There are no rules. You can travel. You can time travel.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: So for breakfast, we would go to Singapore. And we would have the-- they have a whole elaborate set up for breakfast with the rice with the congee, pieces of fish and chili and sambo, all these things that go. I just love a savory breakfast, so we would start there.
Then somewhere mid-morning, we would go to Republique in Los Angeles. And we would get a cup of coffee, like an Americano, and the kouign-amann and maybe a couple of their pastries. So that's around 11:00. And then around 1:00 or 2:00, we would have tacos for lunch.
We'd go to Mariscos Jalisco on the east side of LA and have seafood tostada. And then they have these fried shrimp tacos. They close it up, and then they fry it. And then in the afternoon, I would go to the farmer's market and just chomp on whatever fruit is in season because that, to me, the LA farmer's market is still my favorite.
And then for dinner, we would go-- we would fly to India, and we would eat whatever my mom has cooked up because that is-- she is the bee's knees. She is the progenitor, and for today, she is the last bite as well.
JAYMEE SIRE: OK, no dessert then? Or she's cooking dessert too?
AARTI SEQUEIRA: Oh, No, no, no. No, we are going for dessert. And I take her with me because we are an ice cream obsessed family. So I would take them to Salt & Straw in Los Angeles. And I would make them bring back the mincemeat ice cream, which is that Christmas flavor, which tastes just like mince pies and has little pieces of the pastry in there and the candied orange peel and the currants that are soaked in brandy. It's so stinking good, and they made it one year, and they never made it again.
JAYMEE SIRE: Maybe they'll listen to the podcast and hear your cries.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: Do you know what the name Aarti Party came from?
JAYMEE SIRE: No.
AARTI SEQUEIRA: So my husband and I have been together since we were 18 in college at Northwestern. And so one day for Valentine's Day, we went to 7-Eleven. And we each got a pint of Ben & Jerry's for ourselves because we are fat kids.
So we sat in his car looking at the lake, eating our ice cream. And he said, well, if you had your own Ben & Jerry's flavor, what would it be? And so mine was basically every candy bar in peanut butter ice cream. And he said that sounds great.
And he goes you know what we could call it? And I said what? And he said Aarti party. And I was like that's lame. And then so many years later when I started my YouTube show, that's what we called it. And it stuck.
JAYMEE SIRE: This is so much fun. Thank you so much for taking the time, and best of luck with all the shows this
AARTI SEQUEIRA: Thank you, Jaymee. Woo-hoo.
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JAYMEE SIRE: Such a great time getting to know more about Aarti. I really love her transparency and honesty about her life, both in and out of the kitchen. You can catch more of Aarti on Halloween Wars premiering Sunday, September 19 at 9:00/8:00 Central on Food Network and streaming on Discovery Plus.
Thanks so much for listening, and make sure you follow us wherever you listen to podcasts, so you don't miss a thing. And of course, if you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to rate and review. We love it when you do that. That's all for now. We'll catch you foodies next Friday.
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