
Ep 22 - Winner - Food Network Star - Season 6 - Aarti Sequeira - This Is Yu
06/11/20 • 39 min
Welcome to Episode 22 of This Is Yu Podcast.
This Is Scott Stewart and Carole Yu
Today we welcome Aarti Paarti, the winner of Season Six of The Next Food Network Star. Listen in as we speak about her childhood in Dubai, food critics, her beautiful cookbook, and imposter syndrome.
But, first, we’ve got 10 Random Food Facts that will make you Ridiculous at Trivial Pursuit!
Today, we welcome Aarti Sequeira the bubbly winner of Season 6 of The Next Food Network Star. Aarti is a global citizen. She was born in Mumbai, India, and raised in Dubai. In 2000 she graduated from the Northwestern Medill School of Journalism in Chicago, and went directly to work as a producer at CNN in NY.
After moving to Los Angeles, she landed in the Kingdom of Culver City, where I’m actually The King of Culver City and I’ve got a video to prove it - SEARCH King of Culver City on You Tube. She lived he for over a decade. During this time, she went back to Cooking school, and started her own online cooking show, Aarti Paarti.
It was this show that led to the next stage of her life. She won The Next Food Network star in 2010, and she’s never looked back. She’s competed and won many shows on Food network, like Guys’ Grocery Games, Cutthroat Kitchen, and Chopped All Stars.
Aarti now lives in Raleigh, NC, with two beautiful daughters and actor husband, Brendan McNamara.
We’ve had several people comment on the This Is Yu hotline that they loved the kitchen hacks we talked about on our Christine Ha podcast. So, let’s give them what they want! Kitchen Hacks, Round 2.
So here’s our list of 14 Essential Chinese Pantry Ingredients
Thank you so much to Aarti for joining us in today’s conversation. Your warmth and passion for cooking and family is genuine and it shows!
Plus I loved to hear your great laugh, it’s so open and joyous!
As always, we really appreciate your thoughts and feedback about the show. You can reach us on Instagram or Facebook at [This Is Yu Official] or you can leave us an anonymous voicemail at [562-291-6037]. We listen to all the voicemails.
Home base is www.ThisIsYu.com
Let's connect on Instagram @ThisIsYuOfficial
Visit Aarti on her website: www.AartiSequeira.com
Aarti on Instagram @AartiPaartiPics
Thanks for listening to the show. Have a great week!
Thanks guys for letting us make your life more delicious.
Scott & Carole
Welcome to Episode 22 of This Is Yu Podcast.
This Is Scott Stewart and Carole Yu
Today we welcome Aarti Paarti, the winner of Season Six of The Next Food Network Star. Listen in as we speak about her childhood in Dubai, food critics, her beautiful cookbook, and imposter syndrome.
But, first, we’ve got 10 Random Food Facts that will make you Ridiculous at Trivial Pursuit!
Today, we welcome Aarti Sequeira the bubbly winner of Season 6 of The Next Food Network Star. Aarti is a global citizen. She was born in Mumbai, India, and raised in Dubai. In 2000 she graduated from the Northwestern Medill School of Journalism in Chicago, and went directly to work as a producer at CNN in NY.
After moving to Los Angeles, she landed in the Kingdom of Culver City, where I’m actually The King of Culver City and I’ve got a video to prove it - SEARCH King of Culver City on You Tube. She lived he for over a decade. During this time, she went back to Cooking school, and started her own online cooking show, Aarti Paarti.
It was this show that led to the next stage of her life. She won The Next Food Network star in 2010, and she’s never looked back. She’s competed and won many shows on Food network, like Guys’ Grocery Games, Cutthroat Kitchen, and Chopped All Stars.
Aarti now lives in Raleigh, NC, with two beautiful daughters and actor husband, Brendan McNamara.
We’ve had several people comment on the This Is Yu hotline that they loved the kitchen hacks we talked about on our Christine Ha podcast. So, let’s give them what they want! Kitchen Hacks, Round 2.
So here’s our list of 14 Essential Chinese Pantry Ingredients
Thank you so much to Aarti for joining us in today’s conversation. Your warmth and passion for cooking and family is genuine and it shows!
Plus I loved to hear your great laugh, it’s so open and joyous!
As always, we really appreciate your thoughts and feedback about the show. You can reach us on Instagram or Facebook at [This Is Yu Official] or you can leave us an anonymous voicemail at [562-291-6037]. We listen to all the voicemails.
Home base is www.ThisIsYu.com
Let's connect on Instagram @ThisIsYuOfficial
Visit Aarti on her website: www.AartiSequeira.com
Aarti on Instagram @AartiPaartiPics
Thanks for listening to the show. Have a great week!
Thanks guys for letting us make your life more delicious.
Scott & Carole
Previous Episode

Ep 21 - Tyler Florence - Celebrity Chef - Food Network Star - This Is Yu
Ep# 21 - Tyler Florence Celebrity Food Network Star
Welcome to Episode 21 of This Is Yu Podcast where we make Your life More delicious.
This Is Scott Stewart and Carole Yu
Today I was totally fan gurrling during our interview with Tyler Florence. I first noticed Tyler on Food Network twenty years ago on Food 911. I totally loved that show. Then, in 2012 I bought his cookbook, Tyler Florence Fresh, and I was so so hooked. He makes beautiful food that is clean and modern, relying on the terroir of the ingredients to shine through.
New Segment - First we’re going to taste and talk about a recipe that Carole made from that cookbook, Poached Salmon, Grains, Grapefruit, and Chile.
Make sure you listen to the whole podcast because after talking to Tyler, Scott will tell you about our This Is Yu website revamp he did this week, and then I’m going to explore a hidden gem on Netflix, “Midnight Diner:Tokyo Stories.”
Carole, why did you choose this recipe from Tyler Florence Fresh?
First off, it’s Corona time, so I had to see what protein and other ingredients we had in the house. We had salmon, grapefruit, grains and peppers and herbs. I also had purchased some lemon grass a few weeks ago to make our sticky Lollipop Chicken Wings Recipe, but I decided to pivot to make Tyler’s recipe with the lemongrass.
Were there any techniques that were new to you?
Often, I do a lot of one-pot cooking mostly to save time. Everything is prepared together, and then you just spoon it onto the plate. In this recipe, the different components are prepared individually. First, there’s a grapefruit mayo. Next, the grains are each cooked separately, Wheat berries, quinoa, and couscous. and finally, the salmon is poached by itself. I felt like a chef because I was then plating these different simple to prepare ingredients together into a composed dish. I love exploring food and combinations that wouldn’t be something that most people would pair together.
I also thought it was great to use the lemon grass stalks to rest the salmon fillets on when poaching them. If you haven’t used lemongrass before, it’s citrusy with a lemony and lemon mint flavor, and is also kind of gingery.
Tyler Florence Celebrity Food Network Star
Tyler Florence has built his career over the past 24 years of being on the Food Network. He has a true love for his fans, and it shows.
Tyler was born in Greenville, South Carolina, went to Johnson and Wales studying culinary arts and hotel restaurant management. He worked for years in New York, opening the restaurant “Cafeteria” when he was only 27. It’s still open to this day.
Twenty years later, he has restaurants on both coasts, home goods stores, is married with three kids, and lives in Mill Valley, CA North of San Francisco. He’s written numerous cookbooks and has his fingers in so many different areas of the food world. We talk about how to stay relevant, and his philosophy about keeping your passion alive.
New Segment - Netflix Review - Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories
Thank you so much to Tyler for joining us in today’s conversation. We’re really grateful for you joining our podcast and sharing your focus of food and life with us.
As always, we really appreciate your thoughts and feedback about the show. You can reach us on Instagram or Facebook at [This Is Yu Official] or you can leave us an anonymous voicemail at [562-291-6037]. We listen to all the voicemails.
www.TylerFlorence.com
@tylerflorence on all social media
www.ThisIsYu.com
@ThisIsYuOfficial
Thanks for listening to the show. Have a great week!
Bye, buy bye, buh bye.......
Next Episode

Ep 23 - Kristina Gill - Tasting Rome - This Is Yu
Welcome to Episode 23 of This Is Yu Podcast.
This Is Carole Yu and Scott Stewart
Those were sounds of Rome where I had the pleasure of living with my family back in 2000. And where our guest, Kristina Gill lives today. We speak with Kristina about her former life at Design Sponge, the menagerie that lives in her backyard in Rome, how she gets inspiration and her beautiful cookbook.
But, first, we continue our ever popular kitchen hacks segment.
Today, we welcome Kristina Gill, former food and drinks editor at Design Sponge, cookbook author and International traveler.
Kristina grew up in Tennessee, earned her BA from Stanford, and her MA from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She transferred to Rome in 1999 and has lived there since. She connected with Grace Bonney online, and became the food and drinks editor for DesignSponge.
Her column in the late 2000’s till last year” In the Kitchen With” expanded the reach of the magazine into food in cooperation with design and lifestyle. She is also a food and travel photographer, having traveled extensively in south east asia. She also works as a humanitarian advisor managing a portfolio of assistance that responds to emergency situations in the fight against hunger.
This is our Rome episode. Carole, tell our listeners why you lived in Rome.
I love Rome, the sounds, the experience, and as Kristina also mentioned, all the smells of Mama’s home cooking wafting from small kitchens to fill the bellies of all they love.
Thank you for visiting Rome with us today.
Thank you so much to Kristina for joining us in today’s conversation. We loved to hear about your life in the countryside in Rome, you brought back many visions of Rome and Italy that we could appreciate during this time when all we want to do it travel further than our front driveway.
As always, we really appreciate your thoughts and feedback about the show. You can reach us on Instagram or Facebook at [This Is Yu Official] or you can leave us an anonymous voicemail at [562-291-6037]. We listen to all the voicemails.
Home base is www.ThisIsYu.com
Thanks for listening to the show. Have a great week!
Thanks for listening and letting us make your life more delicious.
Scott & Carole
A special thank you to Kristina. Please reach out to her here:
https://www.kristinagill.com/
https://www.instagram.com/kristinagillfood/
The book stores Kristina recommended:
https://www.booklarder.com/
https://www.strandbooks.com/
https://kramers.com/
https://www.parnassusbooks.net/
Kristina's book is called:
Tasting Rome: Fresh Flavors and Forgotten Recipes from an Ancient City: A Cookbook
- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: Clarkson Potter (March 29, 2016)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0804187185
- ISBN-13: 978-0804187183
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/this-is-yu-podcast-303444/ep-22-winner-food-network-star-season-6-aarti-sequeira-this-is-yu-42575047"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to ep 22 - winner - food network star - season 6 - aarti sequeira - this is yu on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy