Everybody at the Good Bite office is so excited that our very own host Aarti Sequeira won the sixth season of The Next Food Network Star last night. Aarti has been a part of Good Bite for nine months, shooting copius home-grown cooking videos from her Aarti-fied hot dogs to peanut noodles and many more in between. So, where can you catch Aarti next? She has a show launching on the Food Network called Aarti Party featuring classic American recipes with a Indian touch. Make sure to tune in Sundays at noon starting August 22. 

1. Congratulations on winning TNFNS!!! Where did you watch the final episode?

I watched it at this great gastropub called the Village Idiot in LA -- not only is it gorgeous (massive windows that open out onto the oh-so-LA Melrose Ave., exposed brick interior, huge chalkboard with the menu and the best deer-print wallpaper I've ever seen), but I adore the cocktails and the food.  It's the kind of place you wanna hang in for hours.  And I have!

2. How did you celebrate?

I invited a very small group of family and friends to watch with me.  I would have had them over at my house, but we don't have cable ha!  I didn't want a big to-do.  Doreen and Das came!  That says so much about them, doesnt it?  I love them.

3. Before being cast on TNFNS, did you watch the show?

I had watched a couple of episodes, but the caliber of cooking and the amount of pressure the contestants were under gave me heart palpitations!  The first time I watched it, my old friend from college said, You need to be on this show.  I told her she was nuts. 

4. Was this your first time auditioning?

Yes, I had never auditioned before.  Rather than go to the casting call, I just sent in a video, and the rest is history!

5. What was your favorite memory from being on TNFNS? 

Standing before the iron chefs and hearing them lavish praise on my food.  I will never get over it, and in fact, I'm still waiting for that to sink into my body.  It still feels to me like a surreal moment, where they were tasting someone else's food.  Never in my life did I think a panel of judges of this caliber would lose their minds over my food like that.  Nutso.

6. What can we expect from your Food Network show?

More of the same without the whining!  Ha!  No, in all seriousness, I see myself continuing to ease people into the Indian kitchen using classic, familiar American dishes as a vehicle.  I'm so excited to share some of the recipes I've been coming up with, like Sloppy Bombay Joes, and an Indian Shrimp Po' Boy.  I've received so many comments and messages from people from all over the country (from South Dakota to Florida!) who have tried Indian food for the very first time because of me.  That is an honour and a responsibility I don't take lightly.  I just want to keep bringing the joy that I feel in my heart to the camera, so that people don't watch just to learn a new dish, but also to spend a little time with me!

7. Would you ever open your own restaurant?

Oh gosh.  Yes.  And no.  I mean, I interned at one of the best restaurants in the country (Suzanne Goin's Lucques) and I saw how hard Suzanne works at it.  Not that I'm shy about working -- I'm not.  But watching her run that restaurant made me realise how much of a vocation it is, how much of your life revolves around the restaurant.  If that is your baby, your highest joy, your passion, then great!  But if it isn't, then it's not going to be something you can handle long-term.  Chef-owners really are warriors to me.  So while I'd love to come up with an outlet for people to taste my food, I don't think I could be there every day.  Does that make sense?

 8. Sure. What is one kitchen gadget you can't live without?

My knife.  I used to be all about my Wusthof chef's knife, and I still am for the big jobs.  But my Uncle Dan and Aunt Jean got me a Kyocera ceramic knife for my birthday one year (and then a replacement after I broke it, at the premiere party)... and I just can't use anything else anymore.  First off, it has a pink handle.  Come ON!  And second off, it's so sharp, so thin... you can even thinly slice a tomato with that thing.  It's magic.

9. Favorite meal to cook a date/boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife? 
My giddyup flank steak with yee-haw compote and parsnip chips.  I rub the flank steak with coffee, brown sugar, and a bunch of smoky spices.  Then I cook down some onions until they're almost jam-like, add some dates and some balsamic vinegar -- BOOM!  And roast off some parsnip spears for some starch.  It's a meat and potatoes kind of dish... with a little something extra.

10. Who inspired your love for food? 

My family is definitely a food family.  Birthdays were always marked with a special meal, and whenever we accomplished anything, we would celebrate with good food.  Plus, my mum loves to cook, and cooked for hours every day.  Indians are very, very attached to their food.  I bet if you talk to an Indian person, they'll say that their mum is the best cook.  It's a huge source of pride in our culture!           

11. First kitchen memory?

I'll steal my mum's because I don't remember it.  I was a chubby little baby (with pierced ears!  woohoo!), and my mum was making dinner.  She plopped me down on the counter before her, and sliced up the onions, garlic and ginger to start whatever it was she was making.  She looked away for a second, and when she looked back, she saw me grabbing a thing slice of raw onion, and slipping it into my mouth with a smile.  I still snack so much while I cook!  Guess it started when I was a babe!

12. If you could meet any chef alive or dead, who would it be?

I'd love to meet my grandmother.  She died when my mum was in her early 20s, and Mum says that she was a brave, resourceful and talented cook.  She even figured out how to bake a cake on her stove because she didn't have an oven.  Back then, India was on a ration system (they were warring with China I believe), so she managed to feed her family of 5 kids on those rations.  Anyone who can do that is someone I want to meet.       

13. If you were to describe the whole TNFNS experience in one word what would that be?

Ban-onkers.  (bananas and bonkers put together).  Oh, you want a grown-up word? 
Hmmm.  Surreal.