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How Food Network Star Aarti Sequeira Teaches Her Children About Faith Through Cooking

Photo from Aarti Sequeira via Unsplash

How Food Network Star Aarti Sequeira Teaches Her Children About Faith Through Cooking

By Movieguide® Staff

Celebrity chef and Season 6 winner of THE NEXT FOOD NETWORK STAR, Aarti Sequeira, recently released her new book, “My Family Recipe Journal: With Prayers & Scriptures.”

In a recent conversation with Kirk Cameron on his TAKEAWAYS show, Sequeira talked about how food is an integral part of our lives and culture, past and present.

“I love exploring food from different cultures, “she said. “I’ve learned that, for example, an empanada is a stuffed dough that’s fried. In practically every culture in the world there’s a version of that: samosas, Cornish pasties, even a spring roll. To me that tells me that God said ‘Hey take that dough, stuff it and fry it, it’s good.’

“Our dad was like inspiring all the recipes that we’re doing so I love to put that into what we’re doing in the kitchen,” she said.

Sequeira, a mother of two, said that she teaches her children about God’s creation through cooking.

“I pull the girls in and I’m like feel it, look at what happens when you crack the egg, did you know there was a yolk in there? There’s so much magic and mystery and joy when we slow
Down,” she said. “When you’re cooking, whether it’s clams or carrots, God made those things, so we’re touching them, we’re feeling them, we’re experiencing them when we can give it a hundred percent of our attention.”

“It’s such a magical experience so I kind of pull them in that way and that has helped them understand that sometimes you eat for joy and sometimes you eat for function and they’re both really necessary in our lives,” she added.

Sequeira also pointed to the many stories in the bible that involve food and hospitality.

“One of the most touching stories to me in the Bible is when David invites Soul’s son who may have had like a physical handicap and thought that, ‘my father wanted to kill this man and now he’s the king, so I’m damned’ and David invites him to the table to sit with him,” she said. “It was this great leveling of the playing field and this great moment of forgiveness and clearing of all debt.

“I remember reading that and just sobbing, that you could communicate so much through just inviting someone to come sit at the table with you,” she added. “What mattered is that David said, ‘Come, I know everything, I know you’re scared, and I know you’re worried about your future, but I’m going to take care of you.’ And he said all of that through just eating with him.”

Sequeira recently released her recipe journal to help encourage families to come together over their food as well as God’s word.

“Recipe journals are really personal to me,” she explained. “My grandmother Lucia, I have her middle name, she was a tremendous cook. She died at an early age and she took all of the recipes with her. My mum was like that’s not happening to my children and so she’s kept a recipe journal as long as I can remember.

“When I was 10 I started keeping my own recipe journal and I still have it and you can see my handwriting change, you can see the kinds of recipes that I was into change [but] the cool thing for me is knowing that at some point when the Lord calls my mum home I will get her recipe journal and I will be able to cook from it run my hands along her handwriting and connect with her,” she continued. “But then also share it with my children and say this was your grandmother this is where she came from. That’s the idea here, is for us to connect across generations through something as simple as a recipe.”

 

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Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.