How Food Network’s Aarti Sequeira Seeks God Through Cooking

Posted: November 20, 2023

How Food Network’s Aarti Sequeira Seeks God Through Cooking

By Movieguide® Contributor

Cook and author Artie Sequeira recently talked about connecting with God in the kitchen.

“I think sometimes we overlook the fact that God is a creator,” she said said during a conversation on the Revelation Wellness podcast. “We are children of a creator, of an artist, and that is why we have this in us, and that is why it manifests itself in different ways.

Sequeira continued, “For me, it comes out in the kitchen. I think that since we all have to – or get to – go to the kitchen … then we have to join in this act of creation.

Faith has always been a part of Sequeria’s cooking process.

During career upheavals, she found refuge in the kitchen.

“The thing that really changed the game was that I started praying 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 come in here with a burden,’ ‘God, I come in here discouraged, I come in hopeless, and I just need you to meet me at this place. ‘ And it just took the mundane work of that moment, this thing that we do every day, and turned it into something sacred, and turned that sticky kitchen floor into holy ground.

She explained, “God will teach me and meet me in chopping the vegetables and sizzling the garlic and those things. He would just remind me, ‘I am the Creator and you are made in my image, so when you cook, you act like me.'”

Sequeira combines her faith and passion for cooking in her latest book, Unwind: A Devotional for the Harried and Hungry.

“50 stories with 50 accompanying recipes, some simple, some a little complicated, some designed to get you into relaxed weekend cooking…all inspired by the One who created the abundance before us and the taste buds on our palates to taste it,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “This cookbook is for you, my friends. I hope you enjoy it, because this book is our victory.”

Movieguide® earlier reported on Sequeira’s career:

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

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

“I remember reading it and just sobbing that you can communicate so much by just inviting someone to sit at the table with you,” she added. “The important thing is that David said, ‘Come on, 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 that just by eating with him.