RIGHT NOW. Well, in an hour. I’m sitting here by the service station while they set up dinner. The glamorous life of a blogger, eh? Anyway, Padma Lakshmi is on this panel. Maybe she’ll get carried away on a haute cuisine high and spill the deets on the baby daddy?
As longtime readers know, I’m all thumbs. So this should be fun! Will be liveblogging for MTV Iggy here.
Unconventional. Indian Women. Leading Culinary.
At Vermilion. January 12. 6-9pm
Food has never been so fashionable. Meet the leading women behind different facets of cuisine and beverage, all of whom have made unconventional career choices given their backgrounds and Indian origins. Learn about the ins and outs of what’s behind the “foodie” wave we’re all swept in – behind the most successful food shows (Top Chef, Check Please!), the business of opening and operating restaurants, wines and the economics of a beverage program, the art of cooking and being a chef, and writing on food & wine. More info here.
Meet Your Panelists:
Padma Lakshmi: Emmy-nominated host of  TV show “Top Chef,” award winning author, actress, and model
Alpana Singh: Master Sommelier, host of the Emmy-winning TV show “Check, Please!” and author of Alpana Pours
Rohini Dey: Owner/Founder of Vermilion Restaurant, formerly of McKinsey & Co. and the World Bank
Maneet Chauhan: Vermilion Executive Chef
Moderator: Vijay Vaitheeswaran (award-winning Editor of The Economist, author of Zoom)
Okay, so my typing is pretty crap. But this should be a fun conversation between several very sassy women. Let’s go!
6:35: Panel starts at 7:30 I’m told. Alrighty then. Hang out with me people 🙂 I’m scoping out Padma’s bodyguard as he scopes out the place. Read live here.
he he – if i had known, i would have stopped by – i’m 5 blocks away! esp. for my sister – she would totally have loved this kind of a thing.
on the issue of food shows, i must say that the last season of top chef was the best one so far, and PL’s hosting skills were certainly improved, too.
OMFG. My hands are killing me. That went on for almost 2 hrs! Padma is really smart! (DAMMITTTTTT!!!) if y’all are interested, pls let me know in the comments here? I’l cross post if so. Otherwise no need to waste SM bandwidth.
While flipping through the current issue of The Economist, I saw a full-page ad for this event. Of course, it had to be scheduled after I left NY to return to Chicago. I ate at the Chicago Vermillion many years ago. It was only about one year old then. It was OK – I was attracted to it because the idea of Indian tapas was intriguing. But, unfortunately, I walked out still thinking that tapas will not compete with dim sum for a long time. But if you want to try something besides the usual buffet, it may be more to your liking.
You guys have to check out Manjula’s Kitchen! She totally reminds me of my mom showing me how to cook (except my mom just puts a ‘little bit this’ and ‘little bit of that’ and voila). My wife and I lovingly call her Manjula Aunty – she is extremely unassuming and low-key.
http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/
Very interesting evening– Cicatrix, I think I interacted with you briefly chatting with Alpana. Your live blog was masterful! I think you got every comment.
What an impressive group of women! I wish there had been more time so the evening wouldn’t have been quite so Padma-centric. She was certainly articulate and entertaining but I would have liked to hear the others speak more, Chef Chauhan to compare Culinary school experiences in India and US, and Alpana Singh talk more in general. Rohini Dey is downright intimidating! Brilliant women!
As to the Vermilion experience: It’s a difficult prospect to get food out well to a couple of hundred people– It was tasty and well executed but somehow not satisfying. Except for the Butternut Squash soup– can be a cliche, but not this time. It was wonderful with lots of well developed flavors. I also really enjoyed the pani puri with jal jeera limeade thought it made a great amuse bouche. Aspects of the other dishes were really good, but it just didn’t quite add up. I’ll go back for lunch and/or dinner now that I’ve had a test drive before I pass judgment. The space is a little too space age bachelor pad for my taste, feels rather stand-offish . Good for high powered cocktail sessions …
The issue was touched on a bit by Rohini, that there is nothing in mid-range neighborhood hangout spot for Indian cuisine. It’s taxi stand takeout, to 9.99 all you can eat, then a blank, then a few high end contenders such as Vermilion. I think I see a niche, the Indian gastro-pub…. Anybody want to go into business? 🙂
Very interesting. I do agree that I would like to hear more from the other ladies, but I have to say that despite seeing too much of her already so much of what Padma says is insightful and true. Especially about a lot of “what people have been introduced to is NOT being good Indian food..there’s a disconnect between the traditional healthy home food and what you get in restaurants.” I can’t eat Indian food in restaurants for the same reasons- it’s greasy, oily and too pungent as compared to my grandmother’s delicious cooking.
I also wonder why these Indian “fusion” restaurants like Vermillion work so well in places like Manhattan, and yet in other normally culinarily adventurous places they don’t survive long-for example Tallulah’s Indo-French in San Francisco (if anyone quotes David Chang/Anthony Bourdain here I kindly request that they go Momofuku themselves 🙂 )
Wonderful liveblogging. Thanks so much.
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In the booming cities of India, a growing middle class is using more electricity and drive more cars. Emissions of carbon dioxide – the main heat-trapping gas associated with global warming – are increasing. But Kohlu, no cars and little electricity, the carbon dioxide emissions are nearly zero. Here, as in tens of thousands of rural villages in developing countries, is soot – or black carbon – which is emerging as a major cause of global climate change.
In the booming cities of India, a growing middle class is using more electricity and drive more cars. Emissions of carbon dioxide – the main heat-trapping gas associated with global warming – are increasing. But Kohlu, no cars and little electricity, the carbon dioxide emissions are nearly zero. Here, as in tens of thousands of rural villages in developing countries, is soot – or black carbon – which is emerging as a major cause of global climate change.