Aug. 26, 2026, 8:50 a.m. ET
- Sequeira collaborated with local chefs and praised the quality of the region’s fresh produce.
- Aarti Sequeira is super impressed with the quality of life in Michigan, good food and good wine..
Food Network celebrity chef Aarti Sequeira was in northern Michigan last week for the Traverse City Food and Wine Festival, the second year for the event that celebrates the area’s agriculture, restaurant scene and wine region.
The event also draws top culinary talent with five days’ worth of events, from chef dinners to wine tastings. Throughout the week, Sequeira collaborated with local chefs for special dinners and took the stage for the grand tasting — the showcase of the event — on Aug. 22.
Sequeira collaborated with Sarah Bobier, executive chef at the Delamar Hotel’s Artisan restaurant, after her cooking demonstration. The multi-course Artisan dinner paired Sequeira’s Indian influences and Bobier’s flair for using local, fresh ingredients, including a spectacular dish of sweet-tasting heirloom tomatoes with peaches and burrata with an achaar-mint vinaigrette, and Bobier grilled tender octopus paired with spiced potato pave (sliced thin and stacked potatoes) and fresh local peas.
I caught up with Sequeira at the Aug. 21 dinner at Artisan and after her cooking demo on Aug. 22, where she wowed the crowd with Masala Elote as well as her cooking tips, charm and laughter.
Sequeira’s answers have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
Question: Is this your first time in Michigan?
Answer: No. And it’s funny. It’s my first time in Traverse City, but I forgot that actually my first prolonged presence in America was in Michigan. Before I moved here, I came up for a leadership camp for my dad’s job. We camped out in the woods somewhere. I flew in and out of Grand Rapids.
Q. What are your thoughts about Michigan?
A. It’s so wild. There is something about this part of the country that I don’t want anybody else to know about, because it’s so magical and I want to keep it just for me. But it’s so beautiful and so nice to be back.
Q. Traverse City is known for wine, known for its agriculture, and you got to work with fresh ingredients. What do you think of the area and like about your experience here?
A. I spent 20 years in Los Angeles, and my favorite thing about being in LA was the farmers market, because I love produce. I am a farmer’s daughter, farmer’s granddaughter, great-granddaughter, so it runs through my veins. I cannot believe the quality of produce you guys get to eat out here.
Q. Can you talk about a few of those fresh produce highlights you used this week?
A. I cooked with tomatoes yesterday that were so sweet and bursting with juice, and this corn that was so fresh, crunchy, and sweet, and green beans. There was a farmer out here who grew curry leaves just for me, which is insane because I don’t know how they did it because this is not curry leaf climate … so they figured it out.
Q. What else impressed you?
A. So, I am super impressed with just the quality of life out here. It’s like all the good things you know, like family, community, good food, good wine, great weather, being on the water, being outside together. It’s just everything I love.
Q. You have a lot of fans and followers. What’s next for you? What are you up to?
A. I think I’m just gonna … just keep trucking. This whole career has been such a dream that I didn’t ever dare to dream.
I started off as a journalist, and when that dream crumbled, I didn’t dare to think of anything else. And so, this idea of having to talk about food and share food that I grew up with has been such a blessing and such a privilege. I’m just going to keep going. I want to share the food that I grew up with, but I also want to share that gathering around the dinner table is sacred and it’s important, and we should not take it for granted. … It is the very glue that keeps us together. So, anything I can do to keep that going, whether it’s doing a live show and going on the road or I have a YouTube show called “Around the Table” that’s all about food and pop culture or continuing to do stuff on Food Network or thinking about writing another cookbook. I mean, there’s just a lot of options on the table, and I just have to figure out where to put my attention and energy next.
Contact Detroit Free Press food and restaurant writer Susan Selasky and send food and restaurant news and tips to: sselasky@freepress.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @SusanMariecooks. Subscribe to the Eat Drink Freep newsletter for insider scoops on food and dining in metro Detroit.
