Diane and Kristianne were in the final two for ABC’s The Taste.

This past week, Khristianne Uy took home the grand prize and bragging rights as the first season winner of The Taste, ABC’s new cooking reality competition. The Filipina American chef (who has worked as a personal chef to actor Charlie Sheen, producer Simon Cowell, drummer Tommy Lee, and the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia) beat out fellow contestant Diane “Cruella” DiMeo (who is also Persian-Korean) when guest judge Jose Andres favored her three dishes (Peking duck with chive pancake, seafood bouillabaisse and a braised short rib), which incorporated Portugese and Filipino flavors. In addition to the The Taste trophy, Uy went home $100,000 and a Ford hybrid.

A proud lesbian, Uy told Gay Star News that she had received a lot of bullying on the show: “There was not another gay person in the top 16 so there were some who thought they just kept me as the token lesbian.I got little comments from some competitors like, ‘YOU made it this far’ ‘You’re Charlie Sheen’s chef. Do you just make burgers and hot dogs?’ There was like a lot of bullying – men with big egos.”

She also commented she would trade in her prizes to make gay marriage legal and will donate a portion of her winnings to the Human Rights Campaign and LGBT causes.

Brian Malarkey (Top Chef Season 3 winner), was Uy’s mentor. Anthony Bourdain (DiMeo’s mentor), Nigella Lawson, and Ludo Lefebrve were also other mentors on the show.

Top Chef: Seattle winner Kristen Kish.

Congrats to Korean American adoptee Kristen Kish, who has taken top honors on Top Chef: Seattle. The show, hosted by Indian American model Padma Lakshmi, had its finale tonight, and Kristen killed it with her Snapper with Leeks, Little Gem Lettuce, Tarragon, Uni and Shellfish Nage. With her win, she is the second woman to win Top Chef. Yes, she’s gorgeous — she of the swan-like neck, tomboy ‘do and model-like limbs — but what made us love her even more is her determination to discover her roots. “In the very near future, a trip to Korea for me,” she said, teary-eyed.

This lady might be your mother, your aunt, or your homely friend that loves to cook and do household work. She bakes the best cookies, has the best dinner parties, and her house is spotless. She is the spitting image of Martha Stewart. Whomever it is, this is the perfect gift guide to help find that motherly woman in your life.

Gifts Under $50:

Dish Play Gloves, $12.

Dish Play Gloves: They’re cute, and they bring entertainment to cleaning the house. $12 at Urban Outfitters.

Wok Set, $49.95.

Wok Set: Perfect for cooking those Asian dishes. Good for stir-frying, sauteing, deep-frying, steaming, and parboiling. This set allows you to cook with chopsticks, a stainless steel tempura rack, bamboo/stainless turner, and ladle a wooden steam rack. Can be found at Crate & Barrel for only $49.95!

Asian Grandmother’s Cookbook, $20.24.

The Asian Grandmother’s Cookbook: Written by Pat Tanumihardja, this cookbook features the real recipes of grandmothers from all over Asia including China, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, and India. There are many various dishes in here including the Filipino Chicken Adobo, or the Japanese Oyako Donburi. Can be found at Barnes & Noble for $20.24.

Other Great Gift Ideas: 

5×7 Lace Medallion Rug, $89.

5×7 Lace Medallion Rug: Beautiful for any place in the house. $89 at Urban Outfitters.

Caterer’s Flatware Set, $119.

Caterer’s Flatware 3-Piece Box Set of 12: 12 each of forks, spoons, and knives. $119 at the Pottery Barn.

Classic Mixer, $229.99.

KitchenAid Classic Plus Stand Mixer: What would a Martha Stewart woman be without a mixer? Comes in 10 speeds and kneads, whups, mixes, blends, and beats. Includes flat beaters, recipe book, dough hooks, and mixing bowl. $229.99 at Target.

Ashbury Set, $99.

Crane & Canopy’s Ashbury Set: Beautiful bedding that starts at $99 from Crane & Canopy.

Zojirushi Rice Cooker, prices vary.

Zojirushi Rice Cooker: The new age rice cooker made from the Japanese company. Prices vary and can be found on Zojirushi.

Chilewich Gilt Rectangle Placemat, $40 (set of four)

Chilewich Gilt Rectangle Placemat: go for the gold when entertaining your guests this holiday season. Available at ShopHorne.

Here’s another great summer dish from my Nai Nai’s kitchen. This dish is cool and refreshing, and is perfect for those hot days when you don’t want to warm up the house with cooking heat. “Liang” means cool and “ban” means toss, and that describes this dish perfectly because the preparation is all cutting and assembling—easy and simple. This recipe uses a couple ingredients only found in Chinese super markets. Zha cai are pickled vegetables that add a great crunch to the dish. Century eggs are preserved duck eggs that look really funky, but taste great. This dish is a wonderful combination of flavors and textures and is also extremely healthy. The tofu and duck eggs make this dish almost entirely protein and will keep you going during the summer. Enjoy!

Photo courtesy of hungerhunger.blogspot.com.

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Butchering the chicken. (credit: Karen Datangel)

Culinary delights are sure things to be celebrated during Asian Pacific-American Heritage Month, and Bay Area foodies rejoiced at the opportunity to learn more about the art of Asian cooking (And satisfy their tastebuds too!) from a local celebrity chef.

As part of Macy’s series of Asian Pacific-American Heritage Month events, the Union Square store in San Francisco welcomed Michelin Star chef James Syhabout to the Cellar Kitchen on May 5th for a cooking demonstration and tasting. A Thailand native who grew up in Oakland, CA, he is the chef and owner of Commis Restaurant and proprietor of Hawker Fare Restaurant, which are also both located in Oakland. Hawker Fare is a Southeast Asian street food joint that Syhabout brought a piece of to his audience, by cooking one of their signature dishes Khao Mun Gai, or Thai-style chicken and rice.

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The Korea Blog had us drooling with an overview of some of the tastiest Korean cold noodles.

I picked my favorite–Naengmyeon–because it’s cold and refreshing and good for those who can’t handle too much spice. Sharing with you Seriously Asian’s Naengmyeon recipe.

Seriously Asian‘s Naengmyeon (Korean Cold Noodles)

1 package Korean cold noodles

Suggested additions to the broth
Gochujang (red chili paste)
Rice vinegar
Agave nectar

Suggested toppings
1 pear, preferably Asian, sliced thinly
1 cucumber, thinly slice
4 hard boiled eggs, sliced into 1/3-inch slices
Pickles of any sort—carrot, daikon, burdock, etc.
Kimchi
Marinated raw skate

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Follow the instructions on your packet of Korean cold noodles for the length of cooking.

While the water is boiling, assemble your choice of toppings.

Place the packets of broth flavoring into the bowls, along with icy cold water. Reserve a few ice cubes for when you serve the noodles.

When the noodles are done cooking, immediately drain and rinse them in running cold water. Divide them among the four bowls and use a pair of scissors to cut clumps of noodles into more manageable lengths.

What’s your favorite cold summer meal? Share with us in comments and we may just post about it!

There’s no better way to beat the summer heat than indulge in some delicious cold meals. Audrey is going to share some fab recipes with you to make in the comfort of your own home!

Intern Ann loves herself some sweet sweet shaved ice. Here’s her estimated recipe:

Ann’s Estimated Shaved Ice Recipe

Ice
Sno cone maker
Red bean
Fresh/canned fruit
Ice cream
Condensed milk
Your favorite sweet cereal
Any other sweets you enjoy

Shave the ice
Pile on the red bean from a can
Throw on some fresh/canned fruit
Add a scoop of your favorite ice cream
Drizzle on some condensed milk
And top it all off with your favorite sweet cereal. (Fruity Pebbles are a popular, colorful option.)
Don’t forget the spoon. (Or spoons, if you really feel like sharing)

What’s your favorite cold summer meal? Share with us in comments and we may just post about it!

There’s no better way to beat the summer heat than indulge in some delicious cold meals. Audrey is going to share some fab recipes with you to make in the comfort of your own home!

I always turn to my favorite summer dish–the cold sesame peanut noodles — when I want to chill out when dining in.

Here, I share the recipe with you! We’re even making these recipe cards so you can easily transfer the recipe (picture and all!) to friends and family. Thoughtful, huh?

Nina Simond‘s Cold Sesame Peanut Noodle

1/4 cup hoisin sauce
2 tbsp. smooth peanut butter
1 1/2 tsp tomato paste
1 tsp sugar
1/3 cup water
1 tsp. safflower or corn oil
1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp crushed red pepper

Mix the first 5 ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

Heat a small, heavy saucepan over high heat, add the oil and heat until hot (about 20 seconds). Then add the garlic and pepper and heat until fragrant (5 seconds or so). Then add the mixture and cook until warmed through, about 3-4 minutes.

What’s your favorite cold summer meal? Share with us in comments and we may just post about it!

“I prefer to be in the middle of the action and to actually see the ingredients and touch them. Hand-to-mouth, I think, really just turns me on a lot more.” – Kelly Choi

ISSUE: Winter 2010

Hot in the Kitchen

In every kitchen she enters, Kelly Choi turns up the heat. She subjects chefs to the glare of the spotlight on shows like Eat Out NY on NYC TV, scrutinizing them as she sautés over a hot stove. And if she can torment world-class culinary artists as host of Bravo TV’s Top Chef Masters, with challenges like preparing a dish using in- gredients from a gas station store, well, she relishes that, too. “It was a riot,” she says with a laugh. “Seeing the expressions on [the chef’s] faces was priceless.”
Yet the angst Choi put her own par- ents through could be considered far worse, especially by those in their peer group: Korean immigrants. For one, there was going to grad school for — gasp — journalism. But before that, when she was around 8, after she and her family had set- tled in Virginia and her parents began running a grocery store, Choi wanted to make “American” meals for her folks. “I didn’t know anything about cooking American food, but I knew that I wanted to quote-unquote cook. So I would open up all these cans of stuff and then heat up beans and get mashed potato flakes,” says Choi. “My parents were like, ‘Uh-uh, we don’t like this American food. We’re going to eat Korean.’”
Her skill with processed meats (“Lots of pork and beans, lots of Spam — best things ever,” laughs Choi) didn’t exactly compel her parents to encourage a culinary education. However, they would end up helping to prepare Choi, who’s also worked as a model and a VJ for MTV Korea, for her meteoric rise in the world of television just by being at the dinner table. There, she had to preside over one of the most notorious of all critics: a Korean father. “My dad was always [telling] my mom what was wrong with the food and what was good,” Choi remembers fondly.
If only her late father could see how far her cooking has come, especially with the techniques she’s picked up spending every workday with chefs. “I can’t get enough of it,” says Choi. “It’s great to be around that sort of energy.”
In fact, for Choi, it can be an occupa- tional hazard. “Now I’m so used to going to the back of the house with the chef that going to restaurants [to just dine] makes me antsy,” she says. “I prefer to be in the middle of the action and to actually see the ingredients and touch them. Hand-to-mouth, I think, really just turns me on a lot more.” — Jimmy Lee

More stories from Audrey Magazine’s Archives here.

The Next Food Network Star season 6 winner, Aarti Sequeira

Time spent with Aarti really is a party. The season six champion of Food Network’s number one series, The Next Food Network Star is full of life; from her cascading waterfall of dark curls to her lyrical British accent. Aarti Sequeira was born in Bombay, India and grew up in her mother’s kitchen. Though her mom’s flavorful Indian spices had always surrounded her childhood, Aarti didn’t try her hand at cooking until she got married and moved to LA. Instead, the TV personality worked as a journalist for many years, producing for CNN in Chicago and New York. After taking some classes at a local cooking school, Aarti knew that she wanted to make food her career. But how to go about it? Aarti decided to combine her love of journalism and food together- creating an online cooking variety show and blog called Aarti Paarti. The show caught Food Network’s attention and the rest is history. Or just starting. After winning the reality show, Aarti’s show Aarti Party premiered on August 22 for six episodes that ran through the end of Sept. to great audience feedback. 13 more episodes for a new season are currently in production. From conjuring up the perfect summer picnic to warming up a cold rainy day, Aarti brushes up classic American dishes with a touch of her Indian heritage. Audrey caught up with the next food network star in Culver City, CA, fresh from shooting her first season.

Audrey: So Aarti, you started as a journalist, what made you switch career paths?

I started working at CNN a week after I graduated from university. I loved working there. There’s so much integrity and intelligence there but when I moved to LA, I really had to hustle for freelance jobs. I realized that I’m not a lazy person but I don’t really have that drive anymore for journalism in that form. A couple of years after I moved here, I worked with a Peabody award winning director on a documentary about Darfur that ended up being bought by HBO. That made me feel like, “okay, this is what I was supposed to be doing.” The same journalistic ideals and we’re going deep, deep, deep into it figuring out what is going on. But right around that time, the economy was starting to tank and no one wanted to make docs about Africa anymore. So that was when I started cooking it became the highlight of my day. It really helped me realized that no matter what was happening in my life, when I was in the kitchen, that was my safe place, that was my quiet place. That’s where I could control things.

Aarti and her husband Brendan

Audrey: How did your online cooking show and blog catch the attention of Food Network?

Food Network started doing their casting for The Next Food Network Star and people popped up randomly telling me to audition for this show. I was really hesitant. I didn’t think I had the culinary chops to compete with these people and the challenges that were requiring you to cook in 15 minutes or something. But my husband said to me, “listen, we’re going to make a video, we’re going to send it in and we’re going to see what happens. You have nothing to lose. And so we did and that was it.

Audrey: It seems like your husband is very supportive of you.

My husband has always been my champion. We’ve been together 14 years and he’s always seen so much in me that I don’t see in myself. When I happened upon this cooking show idea, he hopped on it. He’s an actor-director and he understands forging your own way and trying to do what you want to do until someone comes knocking on your door and says, “I like what you’re doing and I want to pay you to do it.”

Audrey: As artists, did you guys ever struggle financially? How did that reflect in your cooking?

Aarti spices up her dishes

Brendan and I have definitely struggled. A year ago, I wasn’t even sure if we could make rent so we’ve really had to make a lot of sacrifices. But it’s been entirely worth it. So that kind of thinking is always going to pop up in my show anyway. Even in the competition, they would give us a budget and I would always spend the least money out of everyone (laughs). Even though I was making these things that were- for lack of a better word-exotic, I always came up really under budget. That’s just the way I cook. With Indian food, at least the kind that I grew up eating, there are so many vegetables, lentils, beans and things in the cuisine- it’s really a budget friendly way of cooking.

Audrey: Speaking of Indian spices. How does your Indian heritage influence your cooking?

I think what I’m trying to do is open the door for Indian cuisine for America. There are people out there who have been championing Indian cuisine for years. What I’m trying to do is take those traditional Indian flavors and wrap them around some classic American dishes so they’re not that intimidating. Here is a whole new way to enjoy Indian spices without overextending yourself. I try to use the spices that you can find at the regular supermarket- tamarack, cumin, and oleander-all those things. I’ve been kind of astonished actually by how many people have run out, bought the spices, come home, made what I made and would upload pictures. I’ve just been floored by that.

Tandoori Chicken from aartipaarti.com

Audrey: If you get a season 2, where do you think you will take your food to?

I’m always on my Facebook page. So I post on there, “what do you guys want to learn how to make?” I got 300 comments within a couple of hours and people are asking how to make these really traditional Indian dishes. They weren’t asking for fusion, they were asking me for the authentic stuff. That was so encouraging to me, I was like, okay, after this season, god willing if I get season 2, there’s an appetite out there. People are willing to order the ingredients online. Or they’re willing to hunt them down in Indian stores.

Audrey: Being a cooking show host is partially about the food but partially about the host’s on-camera personality. Have you always been this telegenic?

My husband is an actor and he would take these improv classes. I would go to his shows every week and I was floored that there were so many things about improv that was affecting his personality in a really helpful way. The great thing about improv is that there are so many things you can completely carry over into real life. Focusing on other people more than yourself or just making a decision and trusting your gut. So I took these classes and it really gave me a sense of confidence. It helped me realize I really do have good instincts and I just have to trust them. That helped in being willing to improvise in the kitchen and trusting my palate. It really helped with my personality because it pulled me out of my shell and it made me feel like I was worthy of being heard, I guess.

Judging from the positive reviews the show has been receiving, it would seem like the rest of America feels like she’s worthy of being heard as well.

Check out Aarti Party Sundays at 12PM ET/PT on the Food Network. You can also read more about Aarti at www.aartipaarti.com