LIVE Magazine- Issue #268, March 9, 2018

Aarti Sequeira
Author, Host of Aarti Party
and lead judge on
Guy’s Grocery Games
In August 2010 Aarti Sequeira competed
on and won Season 6 of Food Network’s
number-one series, Food Network Star,
landing the ultimate dream culinary job: her
very own Food Network show. A dedicated
foodie all her life and a journalist by education
and trade, Aarti successfully combines
these passions in her entertaining blog and
online cooking-variety show, Aarti Paarti.
Now she takes her food knowledge, love for
cooking, and enthusiasm for sharing information
to the masses in her Food Network
cooking series, Aarti Party. On this show she
surprises viewers with unexpected flavors
and techniques to expand their palates
and culinary repertoire by imparting her
knowledge of Indian cuisine and putting an
approachable spin on all-American classics.
Born in Bombay, India, and raised in Dubai,
UAE, Aarti’s lifelong appreciation for food
began at a young age and was inspired by
her faith, her mother, her cultural background
and her never-ending food experiments.
Growing up in a traditional Indian
Catholic family, Aarti spent Fridays dining
on fish and Sundays at church. Her fondest
food memories include her father’s weekly
trips to the market for fresh fish and produce,
her mother’s daily recipe creations, and
Aarti’s own pretending to host a cooking
show — an unexpected glimpse into her
future as a Food Network star.
After completing Dubai’s British system of
schooling, including many music-related
activities like piano and choir, Aarti moved
to Chicago in 1996 to attend Northwestern
University. In 2000, she earned a Bachelor
of Science in journalism at Northwestern’s
Medill School of Journalism with an adjunct
major in International Relations. While
pursuing her degree, Aarti gained valuable
media experience working at the school’s
student-run radio and television stations
and also spent a short time in Washington,
D.C., covering Capitol Hill for a local Fargo,
N.D., television station. Upon graduation
Aarti worked for about a year at CNN as
a production assistant in Chicago before
moving to New York in 2001 to work as a
CNN producer for two years. In 2003 she
married her college sweetheart, Brendan,
and moved from New York to Los Angeles to
start their life together.
In addition to working several freelance gigs
in the Los Angeles entertainment industry,
Aarti assisted a Peabody award-winning
director on Sand and Sorrow, a documentary
about Darfur in 2004. Feeling like
something was still missing, Aarti enrolled
in The New School of Cooking in Culver
City, Calif., where she earned her professional
cooking certificate in 2007. To further
explore her culinary calling, Aarti launched
her blog and online cooking-variety show,
Aarti Paarti in 2008.
In addition to cooking, Aarti enjoys improv
theater, music, Middle Eastern dance and
visiting art galleries. She currently resides
in Los Angeles with her husband, Brendan,
while her parents and youngest sister live in
Bangalore, India, and her middle sister lives
in Phoenix.
www.palmdesertfoodandwine.com