Aarti Sequeira facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Aarti Sequeira

Born	Aarti Lucica Sequeira (1978-08-19) 19 August 1978 (age 46) Mumbai, India
Cooking style	Indian cuisine
Education	Northwestern University
Spouse	Brendan "Bren" McNamara
Television show(s) Aarti Party Guy's Grocery Games, Taste in Translation The Next Food Network Star

Aarti Lucica Sequeira (born August 19, 1978) is an Indian American cook and television star. She is famous for winning the sixth season of Food Network's TV show, The Next Food Network Star. After winning in 2010, her own cooking show, Aarti Party, started on the network. Later, she hosted Taste in Translation on Cooking Channel. On this show, she explored popular dishes from all over the world. Before becoming a TV chef, Aarti worked as a news producer for CNN. In 2008, she also started her own online cooking show called Aarti Paarti.

Early Life and Learning

Aarti Sequeira was born in Mumbai, India, on August 19, 1978. Her family came from Mangalore. She grew up in a traditional Indian Catholic home with two sisters. When she was a baby, her family moved to Dubai because her father found better job chances there.

Aarti went to an Indian school in Dubai until she was seven. Then, she moved to a British school. This was hard at first because she felt different. She loved music and sang in the choir and played the piano at school.

Food and Family

Aarti says cooking was a big part of her family's life. She learned a lot about cooking from her Indian culture and her mother. She remembers her grandmother as an "incredible cook." Aarti's mother started a recipe journal after her own mother passed away. This inspired Aarti to start her own recipe journal when she was 10.

She loved watching her father buy fresh fish and vegetables every week. She also enjoyed her mother's daily cooking. Aarti tried foods from other countries too. She ate homemade pasta at her Italian friend's house. Her family also enjoyed Arabian shawarmas every Friday. As a child, Aarti sometimes pretended to host a cooking show. People even called her "Showcase" because she loved to dance and perform. She moved to the United States in 1996.

Becoming a Journalist

Aarti wanted to be a journalist after watching CNN news about the Gulf War as a child. She dreamed of working at CNN, just like journalist Christiane Amanpour. Aarti went to Northwestern University and finished in 2000. She earned a degree in Broadcast Journalism.

She worked at the school's radio and TV stations. She also spent some time in Washington, D.C., covering the United States Congress. Aarti said her university was tough, but it made her feel stronger and ready for challenges.

Starting Her Career

Two weeks after graduating, Aarti started working at CNN in Chicago. A year later, she moved to CNN's office in New York City. There, she worked as a producer. She helped cover the September 11 attacks while her show was on air. She produced stories about firefighters and economic news. She was later promoted to segment producer.

Aarti worked for CNN until 2003. In 2004, she moved to Los Angeles, California. She wanted to be closer to her husband, Brendan McNamara, who was an actor. She did some freelance work for CNN and other entertainment companies. But she found it hard to find steady work. She started to want a different career path than journalism.

Discovering a New Path

Aarti felt a bit lost during this time. But she found comfort in cooking. She received the Joy of Cooking cookbook as a wedding gift. Her cousin also gave her a gift certificate for a cooking program. Her husband then signed her up for classes at the New School of Cooking in Culver City.

She took professional cooking classes and worked as an intern for chef Suzanne Goin. This was at the Lucques restaurant in West Hollywood. After this, Aarti realized she didn't want to own a restaurant. She earned a professional certificate from the school in 2007.

Aarti Paarti Online Show

A friend suggested Aarti start a cooking show on YouTube. At first, she wasn't sure about the idea. But in 2008, she launched her online cooking show, Aarti Paarti. She also started a food blog called AartiPaarti.com. The name "Aarti Paarti" came from her husband. He thought it would be easy for people to remember her name.

She filmed the first episode by herself. After that, her husband helped her record episodes in their small apartment kitchen. Aarti felt comfortable in front of the camera. She thought cooking segments were less stressful than news stories.

Aarti cooked Indian and Middle Eastern dishes on her show. She also added funny skits and variety acts. She would play the ukulele, belly dance, or juggling. She said these skits helped attract different viewers, including teenage boys. Aarti also hosted cooking segments for GoodBite.com for about a year.

She sometimes wondered if cooking was a "serious" enough career. But a friend at NBC News encouraged her. Her friend said a cooking show could inspire and inform people just like a good news story. Aarti sometimes felt like she wasn't good enough because she didn't go to culinary school for long. She also felt she wasn't "your typical Indian" because she didn't grow up in India. She shared her self-doubts on her blog, which helped her gain more followers.

The Next Food Network Star

With encouragement from her husband, Aarti tried out for The Next Food Network Star. This Food Network show gives the winner their own cooking show. In 2010, Aarti became one of 12 contestants on the sixth season. They competed in cooking and on-camera challenges. The Houston Chronicle said she was a "fan favorite" early on.

Aarti thought her online show experience would help with camera challenges. But she found them very hard. Judges liked her cheerful personality, humor, and strong cooking. They often noted her lack of self-confidence. Aarti faced 18 challenges over 10 weeks. She was almost eliminated twice but stayed in the competition. A judge told her she was a "frontrunner," which made her work even harder.

Winning the Competition

Aarti won several weekly challenges. She won an Iron Chef-style cooking competition in the second-to-last episode. This earned her high praise from famous chefs like Cat Cora and Bobby Flay. In June 2010, before the finale aired, Aarti's name appeared on the Food Network website. This made people guess she would win.

In the finale on August 15, Aarti had to film a pilot episode for her possible TV show. Her pilot was called Aarti Party, based on her online show. She felt more confident filming the pilot because there were no time limits or celebrity judges. Entertainment Weekly called her pilot "engaging and informative." Aarti Sequeira won The Next Food Network Star, beating finalists Tom Pizzica and Herb Mesa.

A Food Network executive said Aarti has a rare mix of being a "passionate food expert who is warm, radiant, fun, and relatable."

Food Network Career

One week after her win, Food Network launched Aarti's six-episode cooking show, Aarti Party, on August 22, 2010. The show taught easy ways to add Indian flavors to American dishes. She was also featured in Food Network Magazine. The show was filmed at Culver Studios in Culver City. Aarti had to create 40 recipes in one month, which was challenging but helped her think creatively. She used recipes from her blog.

Aarti Party was renewed for a second and then a third season. However, it was canceled after about a year.

Other Shows and Appearances

In September 2012, Aarti was a main guest at a food festival in San Luis Obispo County, California. She hosted Taste in Translation and co-hosted Drop 5lbs with Good Housekeeping. Both shows started in January 2013 on the Cooking Channel. Aarti also hosted Hidden Eats, a travel series.

She competed on Cutthroat Kitchen All-Stars and Chopped All-Stars, winning both. She is often a judge on cooking game shows like Guy's Grocery Games, hosted by Guy Fieri. Guy Fieri calls her "the spice queen" because she loves spices. She has appeared on many other Food Network and Cooking Channel shows. These include The Best Thing I Ever Ate and Guilty Pleasures.

In November 2020, Aarti appeared on a special Thanksgiving episode of the Selena Gomez-hosted show Selena + Chef on HBO Max. In the episode, "Selena + Aarti: Friendsgiving", Aarti helped Selena Gomez cook a Thanksgiving turkey for the first time. Since 2021, Aarti has been a judge on holiday cooking shows like Holiday Wars and Halloween Wars.

Cookbooks and More

Aarti published a cookbook called Aarti Paarti: An American Kitchen with an Indian Soul in 2014. It became a top 10 Indian cookbook on Amazon. She said the book was like an extension of her Aarti Party show and her family's recipe books. She hoped it would help people discover Indian food. Her favorite recipe from the book is keema, a ground beef dish she makes often for her family.

Los Angeles Times food writer Russ Parsons praised the book's fun approach to cooking. Aarti was working on a new cookbook as of August 2022. She also released My Family Recipe Journal: With Prayers and Scriptures. This book was inspired by her own and her mother's recipe journals. It helps others write down their family recipes. The book is color-coded and has 10 sections, with space for eight recipes in each.

Aarti has been a guest on several talk shows. These include The Today Show and The Talk.

Personal Life

Aarti Sequeira married actor Brendan "Bren" McNamara in 2003. They met while studying at Northwestern University. They lived in Mid City, Los Angeles in 2013. The family moved to Raleigh, North Carolina in 2020.

Aarti and her husband have two daughters, Eliyah and Moses Marigold. Aarti faced challenges after giving birth to Eliyah. This led her to support women who experience similar feelings after having a baby. She works with an organization called Postpartum Support International.

Aarti is a Catholic and is very religious. Besides cooking, she enjoys improvisational theatre and has taken classes. She says this helped her feel brave enough to post her first cooking videos online. She also loves music, Middle Eastern dance, and visiting art galleries. She is active on Instagram.

Filmography