After several months of waiting, the “Next Food Network Star” has been announced, and it is none other than fellow desi Aarti Sequiera! Lakshmi did a brief write up on Aarti as the competition to select the Food Network’s next celebrity chef began, and now we can see the results come full circle. Aarti’s show, currently titled “Aarti Party,” will be the first cooking show on national American television to focus on Indian food, and be hosted by an Indian American.
I consider myself to be an amateur foodie, and between tasting new cuisines, learning how not to starve to cook, and avidly reading others’ food blogs, I always make time to enjoy the veritable smorgasbord of culinary shows. If there are any other foodie mutineers out there, you will know that the Food Network is often mocked for its commercial drive, and celebrity chefs who are more celebrity than chef. I usually don’t watch the Food Network unless I feel like listening to Paula Deen’s comforting southern drawl, but in between seasons of “Top Chef,” “The Next Food Network Star” keeps me satiated.
I have been watching “The Next Food Network Star” since its start, and the Food Network for even longer, but it wasn’t until the third season of TNFS that I noticed something about the Food Network…its lack of diversity in both food culture and the ethnicity of its hosts. One of the contestants on that season, Joshua “Jag” Garcia, was disqualified from the competition after it had been revealed that he lied about some of his culinary experience. In his exit interview, he mentioned how the Food Network has no Latino chefs or shows featuring Hispanic cuisine, and he had hoped he could be the first to bring his culture to the channel. Shortly after, Food Network produced “Simply Delicioso.” Around the same time, the first African-American hosted cooking show premiered, “Down Home with the Neely’s.” Aarti’s Prawn Masala
Since both of these programs aired, I have been constantly bothered by the lack of Asian cuisine on the Food Network, and the relative dearth of Asian chefs as well. Masaharu Morimoto is one of the Iron Chefs, and Ming Tsai occasionally graces the screen, but there is not a single desi chef on the channel, nor any legitimate South Asian cuisine. In Canada or the UK this is certainly not the case; yet even with a large desi population in America, as well as a growing interest in Indian food, it’s shocking that the Food Network, the self proclaimed “authority on food,” would not be all over this by now.
It’s frustrating that the most ethnic food on the Food Network was Italian up ’till recently, but thankfully those days are no longer. However, I still find it somewhat suspicious that the Food Network has yet to create another Asian-based cooking show, considering the ever-expanding demographic, and the even faster growing interest in the diverse cuisines of Asia. I mean, who doesn’t like/know someone who likes sushi nowadays? Isn’t it high time that we started seeing more Asian Americans in food media? I suppose for us desi-Americans, our total domination of all spheres of television is reaching completion with the arrival of Aarti Sequiera. We now have someone to look up to for culinary guidance, and a teacher for our less-fortunate friends who weren’t brought up on roti, biryani, aloo gobi, idli, fish vindaloo, and jalebi.
“Aarti Party” will air August 22, at 12 PM, on the Food Network. I hope you will join me watching it!
Shes not an Indian American.
As America’s social and cognitive elites turn increasingly towards a Paleolithic, Atkins, and other low-carb diets, carb-heavy Desi cuisine is headed for low-status.
Andrew, I’m dating myself but Padma Lakshmi was on the Food Network around 9 years ago. According to IMDB she also had a show called Melting Pot: Padma’s Passport, I don’t remember if this was on Food Network or not. In any case, she was probably the first South Asian American (and Indian American) to fit the bill.
does “ethnic food” mean anything now anyhow?
and re: culinary diversity. not all cuisines are equally exportable or marketable. “italian” and “chinese” (quotes because what we know as italian or chinese is a) often from specific regions of italy or china, b) very different from their original form) cuisine is popular world wide because it seems to be able to sate a wide diversity of palettes. in contrast, who ever talks about german food? the cuisine that those who aren’t very good with spices seem to be able to handle in indian food is punjabi. that’s “indian food” for most people. a friend of mine just found out that bengali food has mustard oil, which he loves. so he’s cooking up those recipes. but of course this isn’t going to be marketable, and even other south asians think that mustard oil is a pretty noxious surprise from what i can gather.
I usually find The Next Food Network Star incredibly cheesy (no pun intended), but I’ve been cheering Aarti on this season because I’m a fan of her online videos. I haven’t tried any of her dishes yet (combination of I no longer have my own kitchen + I love my mom’s recipes), but she is very engaging to watch on screen, and like you, I wanted a desi to represent on screen. She has an interesting background. Contrary to some confusion, she IS Indian (she was born there) but she was raised in Dubai, so her food has a sort of Indian-Mediterranean/Middle-Eastern vibe going on.
Also of note, the Food Network started up another channel this year (the Cooking Channel) which aims to cater to a more sophisticated foodie audience (i.e. they are trying to reach the Top Chef junkies). I don’t have the channel myself, but I’ve seen a few shows at a friend’s place, and there seems to be more ethnic variety on that channel, including a few desis: Anjum Anand, Ching-He Huang, Daisy Martinez, Roger Mooking, Levi Roots, etc.
Hipster trend-whores don’t constitute “social and cognitive elites.” Beyond that, these fad-diets tend to last 5 or 6 years before being supplanted by the next fad. Actual elites look on in mild bemusement about these things and then write NYTimes trend-pieces about how they’re sweeping the nation about 5 months after they’re already on their way out. Carb heavy and fatty cuisine will always have a place partly because carb-heavy and fatty cuisine is delicious and partly because carbs are like any other food in that they’re only bad for you if you eat every meal like eating is going out of style.
Of course, actual Desi cuisine doesn’t necessarily have to be all that carb heavy because up until the green revolution real Desis didn’t eat all that much plain white rice outside of special occasions. The rices and idlis and such were for richer folks. Daily fare for the villager was coarse grains and super-duper-high-fiber half-dollar sized balls of ragi that will sit in your stomach like a rock and stave off hunger for 4 to 6 hours while being rich in vitamins and amino acids. High in carbs sure, but you don’t end up eating much of it and it’s the veggies, lentils, and (very very rarely on special occasions) meats on the side that are the main attraction.
Now if you want cultures that are really chow-hounds for rice you need to look at the Japanese. They love rice so much that they eat it plain. Not even a dollop of yogurt and pachadi! Blegh!
Thank goddess.
Plain white rice cooked polow style isn’t even all that bad glycemically speaking as pastas or breads from other cuisines can be. Now parathas, rotis, chaat…thems the killers. Hopefully Aarti will explore regional specialties and uniqueness and not pander to American ideas of what Indian food is.
So excited for Aarti Paarti….
Speaking of ethnic there is a new channel called Cooking Channel that has a ton of ethnic and incredibly different types of shows than the standard fare on Food boring Network.
I’ve really gotten hooked on Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam, Everyday Exotic with Roger Mooking & Spice Goddess with Bal Arneson.
I have to say though the channel also features Anjum Anand’s apparently “Indian Food Made Easy” and I find the show quite horrid and a disgrace to Indian food. It’s anything but easy, I don’t find any of her recipes authentic or inspiring and she keeps getting a lot of things wrong in terms of region, types of foods. As a desi I find it quite irritating especially if you are teaching someone non desi.
Congrats to Aarti! I loved her on The Next Food Network Star and look forward to her show.
The reason Food Network doesn’t highlight much ethnic food is b/c food is not the main focus of the network. My friend works for Food Network and this was what he told me when I asked why there wasn’t a vegetarian cooking show. He said the largest viewing demographic are males 18-34, and they prefer watching reality-based shows and typical American foods, hence why the network is so heavy on all those BBQ / grill shows and reality competitions. They started the Cooking Channel to focus more on actual food tutorials, and I believe more ethnic dishes are shown there.
@ennis: Padma did in fact have her own show on Food Network for a short while, but it was part of a larger and temporary series called “Melting Pot.” Several different types of cuisines were featured, though it was still pretty heavy on western-style food. So technically yes there has been a desi host/cooking show on the Food Network, but it wasn’t really her own show
&@razib: haha yeah, ethnic should mean Indian as much as it means Irish, but I guess it’s easier to lump together all non-western cultures under one descriptive label. And while I suppose it’s true that “Chinese” food has made rounds across the world while German cuisine remains infamous, there has yet to be a Chinese cooking show on the Food Network, unless there was some obscure one back in the day that I don’t know about. And while North Indian, meaning Punjabi/Mughlai I suppose, is the most widespread desi cuisine, there are plenty of popular Udipi restaurants that would attest to an interest in many styles of Indian foods.
Ennis is correct–PAdma L. did have a show called “Padma’s Passport”, part of the Melting Pot series. It only ran for the first set of episodes–something like 12–but Aarti is definitely a more interesting cook than Padma was.
Thank you for this post. While it is exciting to see Aarti part’s show, there are a few inaccuracies in this article. The Food Network has not traditionally focused on chefs of color in any kind of committed fashion, bar the Iron Chef variety, but Ming Tsai’s show started on the food network before he went to PBS. And that was around the same time Padma Lakshmi was part of a series called The Melting Pot which included shows hosted by Latinos as well as African Americans. It is true none of those shows have remained on The Food Network and that those hosts have never been positioned as iconic in the same way as Giada etc., but its not true to say the Neelys are the first etc., etc.. I think a more useful question might be to look at why these shows consistently seem to be on a kind of revolving doorand why all the stars are white, with pocs only getting a show for a season before they are forgotten. I think one might come to the same conclusions, but let’s celebrate Aarti for the right reasons and not by forgetting that there have been shows that the Food Network apparently invested in but failed to maintain any kind of real commitment to.
YogaFire, Once you remove meats/fish from a substantial role in the diet, as many desis do, for reasons both economic and religious, where are the calories going to come from–you’re already set up for a large dosage of carbs. In come the rotis and naans, the potatoes stuffed into breads, fried and served with rice. Since this is a diasporic blog, my point is I wouldn’t expect traditional desi diets to catch on with opinion-makers in America. We can disagree over whether it’s just a trend, or based on sound science, but please take the following challenge–stop in to a prole Italian restaurant and you will see people gorging on breads and pastas. Now, stop in an upscale Italian frequented by fit, middle-aged, upscale folk. At the latter it will viewed as nearly a sin to place bread on the table, and most diner’s plates will be heavy on meats, seafood, and veggies. Now ask yourself, is the latter crowd likely to soon “go out for an Indian?” Not everything desi is going to be as popular as yoga, Yoga Fire–stop fighting the facts. Yoga popular, food no (in America).
Lentils. . . obviously.
This is not how we ate when I grew up. Generally we would have like, 2 or 3 rotis. That’s like 30 to 40 grams of carbs for a dinner. That’s not that bad all things considered.
Hold the phone a minute city-boy. Consider how the other half (more like other 90%) lives. To whom, exactly, do you figure Food Network is targeted? Secondly, I don’t see anywhere it’s a sin to place bread on the table. Those diner’s plates are heavy on meats, seafood, and veggies because that’s the expensive part. That’s what they’re shelling out for. You spend less money you get things made from flour. You spend more you get tastier, more substantial things. This isn’t a nutritional choice, it’s an economic one. I guarantee you that if you give “the proles” the choice between surf and turf and Olive Garden fettuccine alfredo they’ll go with the former every time too.
This is in complete opposition to every empirical observation I have ever made. I have met maybe 4 or 5 non-Indians in my life who, upon trying good Indian food, did not like it. And in every case they had pretty bad taste in general and were not healthy eaters, preferring creamy, cheesy, and rather bland fare. Basically the type of stuff you’d find in a “prole” Italian restaurant. In fact, upon learning that I am an Indian man who cooks, one of the first things White girls talk to me about is how to make Indian food, where to get the ingredients, and if I have any recommendations for good “authentic” Indian restaurants. This happens almost every time.
Understand Paleo that while I am not a bad looking fellow, I am not so devastatingly handsome that women are likely to feign interest solely in order to hold a conversation with me. I have no reason to believe that the interest in Indian food among these health-conscious, organic food buying, yuppie girls is anything but genuine.
I think you’ve just got some good day-game routines, YogaFire! But, good for you, fellow member of the “seduction community”!
Lentils are mostly carbs, Yoga Fire. More than 2:1 compared to protein. That’s not going to go over well with the health-conscious.
Eww no. Indian food is not conducive to sexy-times (for obvious reasons). I don’t want anyone to labor under any illusions to the contrary. Stick to seafood and sandwiches if that’s your game. I’m in it for the culinary skillz man!
The health-conscious aren’t a monolithic entity. The Atkins folks don’t even comprise most of it and it’s actually a bad diet for your health (you might lose weight, but it’s murder on your liver and arteries.) It’s refined carbs that will give you diabetes. White flour and such. As a shorthand, things that are gritty or thick = fine. They burn slow and you have energy for a while. Things that are mushy or chewy = bad. They burn fast you get a sugar-rush -> sugar-crash problem.
But generally, yuppies buy organic food or food at a farmers market and call it a day. Which is probably the healthiest way to go about it. Eat what you want and enjoy what you eat. Just don’t eat too much and you’ll be fine.
Even complex carbs get digested down into sugars. Not as quickly, mind you, so mainlining glucose is worse than eating rice is worse than eating lentils–I’m with you that far. But what I’m seeing is serious carb-avoidance at the high end of America. You are correct to note that this is quite expensive to do–meats/seafoods/tree nuts and fresh veggies are pricey compared to carbs like breads, rice, corn and its associated derivatives, sugar, etc. So maybe not amongs the HB’s you’re playing your “Indian-cooking-routinge” on, who tend not to have as much disposable income, but look to fit, middle-aged, prosperous types and watch what they’re doing.
These are generally fit, young, prosperous types who supplement their already decent disposable income with a line of credit from the Bank of Mom & Dad. Boys and girls who were born on third base yet have somehow managed to convince themselves that they’ve been benched. This is the ideal market to peddle self-improvement routines, among which crash diets and “You’re ugly, look better!” hectoring tends to be a part.
The opinions of the highbrow elite folk are pretty irrelevant to this discussion. So what if most Indian food will never be considered Michelin-star worthy? So what if wealthy Stepford types shun carby dosas in favor of chicken salad drizzled with EVOO? That makes no difference to Food Network (or to the vast majority of America).
As an aside, I actually think Indian food is something that a lot of people like to indulge in, diets be damned. It’s absolutely delicious and so different than 95% of peoples’ daily diets. I very rarely meet people who dislike Indian food. But then again, I don’t hang out with the elites either, which is fine with me!
Hopefully hand-picked, organic EVOO. My point, Jes, is that unless the opinion–shapers, who are the elites, go for it in a big way, the masses aren’t going to have an incentive to shift from their current horrible but cheap high-carb diets (french fries, bread, sugary drinks, candy, etc.) to the horrible but cheap high-carb desi diet (rice, breads, lentils, sweets, potatoes).
Mangie/ Goan in the house! Hope Aarti spreads the gospel of PORK 🙂 Vindaloo with Chicken and Potatoes = horror.
I have a hunch, Brits too were thinking the same few decades ago.
Dude, not all carbs are the same; don’t lump your high-in-fiber lentils, beans and whole grains with donuts, because your much-vaunted elites sure as hell don’t.
Also, I don’t where these elites of yours live, but having been around more than a few “elite” universities for the last decade, and hung about these places (think natural food stores in the bay area, ny and dc), the only overall trends with grains I see these days are people switching to whole grains. In fact, there’s been quite a move into people baking traditional breads etc. at home, and buying them from artisanal bakeries etc. Indian food (along with lots of other ‘ethnic’ cuisines) remains as popular as ever, not to mention the rise of home-delivered indian tiffin dinners among non-indians in the bay area (yes, you read that right).
@ Darth Paul: Plain white rice cooked polow style isn’t even all that bad glycemically speaking as pastas or breads from other cuisines can be. Now parathas, rotis, chaat…thems the killers not true – pasta is consistently lower on the GI than regular white rice (basmati fares a bit better), and rotis made out of whole grains (even plain old whole wheat) have a lower GI than rice, which is why diabetics are warned against eating rice, in general.
i can’t wait to check out her show!
So a conversation about an Indian woman winning a reality TV show leads to debating the specifics of glycemic load among various foods. Is this some sort of consequence of us all having popped out of the womb with MDs?
This just proves that Aarti is a thoroughly auspicious name.
I am ashamed to admit I once, while drunk, introduced myself as “Aarti, as in party” to a boy at a party, sometime during my misspent youth.
Unless you’re making rotis only out of chickpea flour and barley, they are totally on par with average long grain rice; certain bangla rices actually are lower. Composite wheats are commonly used in the US. And I stand by chaat being the collective devil of desi foods.
Maybe Aarti will be daring and blasphemous and use short grained white rice or brown rice. I do that myself already.
Why is the SNL skit of “Debbie Downer” running thru my head? Maybe the health police can back off a little bit and let us celebrate the fact that Aarti won the competition.
For those of you who haven’t watched the show, Aarti received immense praise in an episode where her food was judged by 4 Iron Chefs. It’s not peanuts to receive such compliments from Cat Cora, Morimoto and Bobby Flay. Congrats to Aarti – looking forward to catching your show!
Does anyone else feel Aarti won in part because of her ethnicity and not solely on her cooking talent and ability to be a good cooking show host? I do not wish to tarnish Aarti’s accomplishment because she is talented, worked hard to get to the show and competed very well. But having seen the show I don’t know that she was so clearly the best chef of all the contestants. In any case, I hope she goes beyond “Indian cooking”, or as she says “adding a touch of the exotic to the ordinary” and becomes “good cooking”. Otherwise it’s a whole lot of cumin, coriander, ginger, green chili, curry powder/leaves, mustard, turmeric, garlic and mixes there of and there is so much more to cooking and food than traditional Indian spices.
ps: any tips for dissipating Indian cooking smells after aforementioned ingredients are fried/roasted for far too long?
You’re going to second-guess the judges who actually tasted the food based on what you saw on the show?
And it is for that reason that Food Network is an entire channel with a variety of cooking shows. There is a lot you can do with those traditional Indian spices. It’s why Indian cooking is so diverse.
Traditional Indian homes were build of stone and designed to facilitate the circulation of air so smells didn’t linger. Now Indians move into the US where homes are closed in, cabinetry is wooden, and floors are carpetted and wonder why smells linger so much.
Solution is to open your windows and turn on the hood when you cook while also ensuring that none of the rooms adjacent to or downwing of your kitchen are carpetted. I’m sorry there is no other way. We just don’t have the technology. Incense and candles help though.
Nope, just you. The top three where all good, and Aarti was the best of the three. The rest of the contestants sucked big time, either in cooking and/or personality stage presence.
Jackal, why is your ego so caught up in Americans liking desi food? That’s weird once you think about it, isn’t it? Glycemic index isn’t nothing, but I wouldn’t quibble over small differences–that’s because it’s calculated in isolation, ignoring the actual interactions with other parts of the meal. Kind of like calories measures how much burning the stuff heats wather, not how much energy we humans actually get out of it.
Again, so-called “complex” carbs get turned into sugar via digestion. Far better to cut all the carbs from stuff we humans didn’t eat until very recently–grains, legumes, dairy. I hope Aarti does a segment on Paleo diet–it’s tasty and satisfying.
cinnamon sticks might be of some help…my mom seems to add them to food to suppress smells.
The opinions of the highbrow elite folk are pretty irrelevant to this discussion. So what if most Indian food will never be considered Michelin-star worthy? So what if wealthy Stepford types shun carby dosas in favor of chicken salad drizzled with EVOO? That makes no difference to Food Network (or to the vast majority of America).
the food network is NOT the vast majority of america.
there are plenty of popular Udipi restaurants that would attest to an interest in many styles of Indian foods.
my impression is that those sort of restaurants have to market themselves distinctively from the typical ‘indian restaurant.’ that indicates what the ‘norm’ is food-wise. which is fine by me, many people on this weblog drop hindi-terms as if we should know them off the top of our head because of the cultural hegemony of punjabi-hindi culture in the diaspora. i’m only indicating here that we should perhaps not get too stuck on details of exact representation when the diaspora culture itself has evolved and transmuted in a way which leaves it very much a novel synthesis itself.
I didn’t say it was. I said the opinions of highbrow elites do not make a difference to the Food Network OR to most Americans.
A brewing pot of strong coffee can overpower all odors. But then you have to not mind your house smelling of coffee all the time.
Also, you have to really like coffee.
Boiling cinnamon sticks in water and then letting it simmer will help dissipate the smells.
Interview with Aarti on Entertainment Weekly
Excerpt:
nothing like this ever happens, because only one small stick is necessary. the stick is put with the tari when it’s being cooked, if i remember correctly.
It’s true most Indian food in the U.S. is actually Panjabi.. but I have high hopes that as more people come to know about the delicious diversity of food stuffs from all over India– things will branch out. I noticed that there are more South Indian restaurants in Boston these days… small steps..
@razib: You are definitely correct–looking at Chinese Americans proves a similar story. The majority of early Chinese immigrants were from southern China, and were Cantonese speaking, thus Cantonese culture is more widespread and well known throughout America today. More recent (meaning the last 50ish years?) waves of immigrants from Taiwan, then parts from all over mainland China has lead to a less homogeneous view of Chinese American culture. Nowadays Mandarin is the dominant Chinese language and even in food culture the sweeter flavors of southeast Chinese cooking are being mixed with spicy Siuchan cuisine, or the more Mongolian feel of north China. Chinese America has a much longer and expansive history than Indian America so perhaps fifty years down the road the dominance of Punjabi, Gujarati, and general North Indian culture will be replaced or at least reduced with say, South Indian culture. That would be a very interesting turn of events…
I said the opinions of highbrow elites do not make a difference to the Food Network OR to most Americans.
i think the food network is rather upper middle class in SES in its audience. so that’s why i was focusing on the disjunction.
andrew, yes, the chinese case is interesting. traditionally most overseas chinese have been from fujian, with a minority being hakka from other regions of south china, as well as cantonese groups. in southeast asia various groups from fujian are dominant (along with a minority of hakka, like the lee family in singapore). the USA had the cantonese. as for diversification, my understanding is that to a great extent it’s fujianification. here’s an article you might have seen on new york’s china town talking abut the transition from a specific canton-derived dialect, to cantonese proper, to mandarin:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/nyregion/22chinese.html?sq=fujian%20cantonese&st=cse&scp=2&pagewanted=print
(note that 90% of taiwanese are ethnic fujianese)
Chinese America has a much longer and expansive history than Indian America so perhaps fifty years down the road the dominance of Punjabi, Gujarati, and general North Indian culture will be replaced or at least reduced with say, South Indian culture. That would be a very interesting turn of events…
i think “first movers” have an advantage, and anyway, like i said there’s an implicit cultural hegemony of north indian punjabi-hindi-gujarati. that hegemony isn’t imposed, it’s just the common currency which the south asian diaspora accepts, even if their ancestors are south indian or bengali, and so may not be familiar with the details. some of the same is going on in india, as hindi is marginalizing the local dialects in the indian heartland, and i’ve heard that it’s even putting some pressure on bengali in the capital of west bengal.
anyway, interesting post. i’m a bit surprised that the discussion has remained really civil and no one has gone too far in personal insults. pleasantly surprised of course! 🙂
Where is Andrew’s bio ?
They also used to eat jowar balls, they were so tasty (When i was a kid they used to make it in my house for the workers/servants, we were not allowed to eat it since it was for workers. Once in a while I used to sneak into kitchen & steal one) Now most of the poor eat ration rice given by govt.
Am I the only person who is bothered by the fact that ‘Aarti’ and ‘party’ don’t rhyme? Or (heaven forbid) do they make them rhyme for the purpose of the show, so her name is pronounced like “Artie”?
Good question
@ARC- Aarti herself pronounced her name “Artie” throughout the show and I believe she always used that pronounciation on her online show as well.
Dude. With all the talk of lentils on this thread, I’m just happy that party was the rhyming word that was chosen.
@Ritu – thanks for that excerpt. Sounds like Aarti is going to produce more than standard Indian fare – that’s great to hear. Cinnamon, Shankar, Yoga Fire – thanks for the tips on cooking smells.
Btw, YogaFire, you ask “You’re going to second-guess the judges who actually tasted the food based on what you saw on the show?” Isn’t that the point of reality TV shows? If we all agreed with the judges in such shows it’d be a little dull don’t you think? Granted a cooking show isn’t like American Idol where you see the product completely but you seem to imply that the judges are beyond questioning.