How Food Network’s Aarti Sequeira Seeks God Through Cooking
By Movieguide® Contributor
Cook and author Aarti Sequeira recently spoke about how she connects with God in the kitchen.
“I think sometimes we overlook the fact that God is a creator,” she said during a conversation on the “Revelation Wellness” podcast. “We are children of a maker, of an artist, and so we have that in us, and so it comes out in different ways.
Sequeira continued, “For me, it comes out in the kitchen. I think because all of us have to — or, get to — go in the kitchen…we then get to join in that act of creation.”
Faith has always been a part of Sequeria’s cooking process.
During a time of career upheaval, she found refuge in the kitchen.
“The thing that really changed the game was starting to pray before I cooked,” she said in an interview with Jesus Calling. “And it usually started with a prayer like, ‘Oh, God, please make this good.’ But then it became, ‘God, I’m walking in here with a burden,’ ‘God, I’m walking in here discouraged, I’m walking in here hopeless, and I just need you to meet me in this place.’ And it just took the mundane drudgery of that moment, that thing that we do every day, and turned it into something sacred, and it turned that sticky kitchen floor into holy ground.”
She explained, “God would teach me and meet me in the slicing of the vegetables, the sizzling of the garlic and those things. He would just remind me, ‘I am Creator, and you are made in my image, and so when you are cooking, this is you acting out of me.’”
Sequeira combines her faith and passion for cooking in her latest book, “Unwind: A Devotional for the Harried and Hungry.”
“50 devotions with 50 accompanying recipes, some simple, some a little complex, some meant to draw you into the relaxed cooking of the weekend…all inspired by the One who created the bounty before us and the taste buds on our palate to savor it,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “This cookbook is for you, my friends. I hope you love it because this book is our victory.”
Movieguide® previously reported on Sequeira’s career:
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.”
