That’s not the real name of the panel, but that’s about the gist of it. And we’ll be there live-blogging RIGHT HERE at 6pm EST. If you want to show up yourself, come to 480 Lexington Ave, NY NY 10167 for the panel hosted by The Economist & Vermilion.

Unconventional. Indian Women. Leading Culinary.

At Vermilion
January 12
Food has never been so fashionable. Meet the leading women behind different facets of cuisine and beverage, all of whom have made unconventional career choices given their backgrounds and Indian origins. Learn about the ins and outs of what’s behind the “foodie” wave we’re all swept in – behind the most successful food shows (Top Chef, Check Please!), the business of opening and operating restaurants, wines and the economics of a beverage program, the art of cooking and being a chef, and writing on food & wine. More info here.

Meet Your Panelists:

Padma Lakshmi: Emmy-nominated host of  TV show “Top Chef,” award winning author, actress, and model

Alpana Singh: Master Sommelier, host of the Emmy-winning TV show “Check, Please!” and author of Alpana Pours

Rohini Dey: Owner/Founder of Vermilion Restaurant, formerly of McKinsey & Co. and the World Bank

Maneet Chauhan: Vermilion Executive Chef

Moderator: Vijay Vaitheeswaran (award-winning Editor of The Economist, author of Zoom)

Okay, so my typing is pretty crap. But this should be a fun conversation between several very sassy women. Let’s go!

6:35: Panel starts at 7:30 I’m told. Alrighty then. Hang out with me people :) I’m scoping out Padma’s bodyguard as he scopes out the place.

6:45: So Padma and Co. will be on a raised dais while people eat at tables before them. A little dinner-theater conversation?

6:50: Vogue magazine is supposed to be covering this too. Wonder if they sent a photog for a party pic collage or something.

6:55: Hmm…bodyguard left about 10 minutes ago and hasn’t come back. Guests are mingling over cocktails in another loungy area. Maybe she’s here and he rushed off to guard her?  Must go see in the name of journalism!

7:15: Was there just in time to see Padma sweep in at almost 10 past. She’s wearing fishnets. It’s COLD out.

7:20 People sitting for dinner. Menu: pani puri, coriander butternut squash soup, coriander shrimp paella, patrani machali, shahi tukra.

7:44: Panel about to begin. Poor panelists don’t get to eat?

7:46: Rohini Dey has a doctorate in economics. She’s following the entrepenurial restuaranteur path. (Vijay is doing intros.)

7:47: Padma Lakshmi looks EXACTLY the same in real life. Dammit! Does she walk in her own lighting and photoshop? She’s also reaaally tall. Even when sitting down.

7:49: Btw, this restaurant focuses on Indian-Latin fusion food. The menu tonight looks pretty Indian to me, but this is an FYI in case they start talking about fusion.

7:50: Vijay’s on a cute story about his hardship job writing a 10 page story on spices for the Economist that involved travel to awesome places. Does the Economist need a liveblogger for travel adventures?

7:53: Question to Rohini — why this Indian-latin fusion combo? RD: if you said French- Indian no one questions the concept. I wanted something new and interesting and “intellectually provocative.”  North Indian cuisine influenced by Mughals (Persian, Middle Eastern, etc.), they influenced Spain. Voila! Also, Latin American vegetables etc. influenced Indian food after New World discovered.

Padma: Terrain is similr between these two regions…something about about sunshine…Granada named after pomegranates. Cumin. Cuisine/culture influenced by people who moved through it…Modern French food resembles what Italian food used to be before Columbus brought the tomato. We are mobile, nomadic. So I don’t want to call it fusion. Also this food works so well because Maneet (Exec. Chef) is so talented.

7:59: Question to Maneet: What did you prepare for your first conversation with Rohini?

Maneet: I’d just come from an Indian wedding. I’d lost my voice. I guess she thought I was soft spoken. Food is like life, like evolution. Every day is a learning process.

8:00: Q: is this experimentation something that comes to you? Is it a process?

Maneet: It’s a long process.

Rohini: A lot of research.

Vijay: I’d expect no less from a McKinsey woman.

Q to Alpana: What particular challenge does spicy food pose in matching with fine wine?

Alpana: Biggest problem is alcohol itself. Different kind of spices — chili leaves coating of chili oil on tongue. Cumin is wine friendly. I’m talking about heat. If it’s chili, it can be more difficult. Prosecco works really well — bubbles cleanse palate. Older whites work well.

8:04 Padma has Q for Alpana: If I had a serious, heavy red wine…what would be a good Indian dish to pair with it?

Alpana: A delicately spiced kabob, nothing complicated. Tandoori chicken. Subtle food to balance the special wine.

(story about going to Amsterdam with hubby and daring to eat a spicy dish that defeated her. lots of laughter. cant type that fast enough sorry!)

8:07 Q from audience: What research did you do for Indian-Latin restaurant?

Rohini: Partially stupidity, partially passion. Basically I love the food. Peruvian, Columbian, Brazilian…Latin and Indian have a familiar warmth, bold — nothing timid. I wanted to keep the vibrance of Indian cuisine.

Q to Maneet: How did you avoid going to the lowest common denominator with both cuisines?

Maneet: We wanted to go deeper, more regional. Everyone assumes Latin to be Mexican. There is so much more. Brazil’s Bahaian region, for example.

Rohini: Getting feedback from people — so many people are candid about “this will work” and “this will not.” We also get a lot of flack for bastardizing cuisines.

Padma: It might be a matter of refining your palate…if you take 90 yr old Mexican woman to India, she might say let’s use these lentils the way we’ve used pinto beans. [I lost the rest of this, which is annoying because it sounded interesting.]

8:13 Vijay: Maneet, can you tell us about the menu tonight?

Maneet: highlighting some of our new dishes, cilantro and coriander aspects. Flattened rice, a traditional indian ingredient, for the paella…and the desert is rich, something else!

Padma: This is my last meal!

[laughter]

Q: Rohini what was the business model? Challenges and risks? Unproven concept.

Rohini: I was hoping no one would ask!! ok, backtracking. When I was 12 my dream was to work in the world bank. Came to the US to work at the world back [lost this whole transition as waiters made me get out of the way. Le sigh.]

[Restaurants] are the only industry that commercial banks will not lend to. period. Used McKinsey training to break it down, plan. I convinced people that there was an unmet niche. I  had to go to 5 banks, but I walked them through it. McKinsey background really helped.

8:20 Question for Padma: how did you get into the food business you started at 19 as a model?

Padma: No, I was older! [laughter] I was older for a model, I was 21. Studying abroad in Spain. [Sorta like Rohini] I’m really glad I have that degree.

Q: And you wrote a bestselling cookbook. Isn’t that a weird for a model?

Padma: Models are pigs!

I shared a flat with 6-7 models. We are freaks of nature who can eat a lot and lay around in bed. But then when you get older…

I was a good cook who happened to be model and someone was smart enough — I’d been in a movie, had to gain weight then lose it, so I took recipes in my repertoire and too the fat out of them, the ghee, the oil, the sour cream…Everyone thought this was a marketing hook and I was lucky enough to get the one person who thought it would work…it snowballed, went on book tour. went on the food network to publicize the book. Was a lot of learning on the job.

I was offered a development deal “Padma’s Passport”…I’m a home cook. Not like Maneet. I sit at home and write. For me it IS inspiration. Was on a shoot for Elle and dreamed of lemons. Came back and got preserved lemons…I daydream a lot. Cooking is a like a food poem…I was very lucky to go from India to America every summer. When I first came here I was a vegetarian kid who didn’t eat–

Vijay: Wait! Didn’t I see you in an ad for Carl’s Junior burger ads!!

Pdma: Yes, that was then! [laughter] I had to eat like 40 burgers for that ad [laughter].

Anyway, so I got the food network show and had a thing on the travel channe(?)…we tell these stories about who we are through our food and that’s what a good chef does. That’s what we try to do on Top Chef.

[Audience question about medicine and the culinary arts]

Alpana: Well food IS medicine. If you read Michael Pollan, where our food comes from etc. Food is health and well being. There doesn’t need to be melding of food and medicine. It’s already there.

Padma: yeah, there are a lot of medical professionals going that path.

8:35: [I took a loo break for 5 minutes when a question regarding genetically modified foods was asked. Got back to hear Maneet talking about how she's wary of fat gram counting politics in NY can go too far so food doesn't taste good, and Alpana talking about how a fois gras ban in Chicago was eventually lifted. So this panel isn't on the side of stringent food restrictions! Yay!!! Wait...yay? Too much here to gloss over.]

8:40: Q from audience to Rohini: World over I’ve never found a place that serves Bengali home cooked food. You’re Bengali, why not bengali food?

[Me to myself: OMG lady shaddup!]

Rohini: yes I’m Bengali, but I think it would be a tough sell. Too niche. you’d lock yourself into a tight place.

[so indian-latin...]

Alpana: [talked about her show having a thing where people were asked their fav restaurants and asked to switch with someone else. In the sign-up questionnaire they are asked what they won't eat.] Things most not eaten — Indian and Sushi. I’ve asked my friends who don’t eat indian why, and they say they don’t understand it. I don’t know what it is specifically. I don’t know if it’s the texture, the spice…that’s nice thing about this Indian-Latin fusion..introduces people to it.

8:45: Padma: I think it’s a matter of it being good.  A lot of what people have been introduced to is NOT good Indian food. I’ve gone to where the taxi drivers go and my stomach is as tough as nails, but even I can’t take the richness and the random piece of meat floating around in an orange or yellow or brown sauce….You want to go to a nice restaurant and leave without your hair smelling like curry.

When I have people over, it’s hard becuaase people want me to cook Indian. I cook Italian really well! But they want my Indian cooking because it’s not the same as what they eat in restaurants…Indian cuisine doesn’t have the concept of a free-standing restaurant….came with globalization. So restaurant cuisine is very different from home cuisine. There’s a disconnect between the traditional healthy home food and what you get in restaurants.

8:50: Audience Q from someone who wants to work in food but is facing pressure to enter medicine

Alpana: Just do it and don’t explain! My mother thought being a sommelier was a medical speciality!  It is –the liver! I blame my parents for why I’m in food because she cooked so well!

[Cross-talk between panelists about uncles drinking Johnny Walker before slaughtering backyard chickens. Cute!]

Alpana: Do what you love and the rent will follow. I didn’t plan on any of this. I did what I wanted to do and it all followed.

Padma: But you [questioner] want to do what you want to do and get ahead right? You know what you want to do, you just want to know how to make it succesful, right? I get this Q a lot. You polish yourself — you rub up against the right people. If you want to be a chef, find the people you admire the most. Read their books, follow their blogs, write to them. Write to them that letter every week. Start at the bottom. Whoever it is who turns you on gastronomically — that’s who you want to be near, being a sponge.

8:57: Alpana: i worked in retail at a wine store and not a day goes by that I don’t use that knowledge. At the time I thought what am I doing here, but now?

Padma: Get close and use your eyes, your nose, your ears. why is this person (the boss) making that decision, why is he choosing that ingredient…

Vijay: Ah, Indian parents…I went to MIT, trained as an engineer then began writing for The Economist. As you know The Economist doesn’t have bylines — so my parents had no idea what I did. They’d get calls from me from Lima or Ecuador or tiny villages in Colombia…for a while my parents thought I was a drug dealer!

Alpana: yeah, my parents didn’t think I did anything important at all until India Abroad wrote about me!

[laughter]

Padma: My parents knew I was model but they didnt’ like to talk about that a lot. Until an article in The Hindu came out. For a long time there were the pictures my grandparents could see and the pictures they couldnt’ see…as you age you’ll care less about what authority figures say because you’ll realize you’re your own authority figure.

[holy crap. Padma has great advice!]

Padma: [missed the first part] Z punjabi (sp??), dabha food (ok, know this — Punjabi trucker food, roadside quick stops)…does anyone know this? oh you guys are too posh! i’d love to do a show about this.

9:03 Q from audience: Your baby — if it’s a boy what’s the name and if it’s a girl what would you name?

Padma: Um…wow! I have to go to the bathroom! [Laughter]

It’ll be an Indian name. classical sankskrit name. After someone in my family. don’t expect to see an anglicized name.

[I think the wine's kicking in. Alpana talks about she likes her name more than being called something like Annie, and Padma asked her if she didnt want to be called Twinkle. Giggles all around.]

9:08: A few boring audience questions, then this guy said something about being an Indian chauvanist — people were talking too loudly to catch the Q exactly. Alpana responds about how she’s waiting for those great wines from Hungary. Another audience member says something about how there are lots of Indian people in British cooking shows, winning everything and puts Padma on the defensive. Padma says there are only 3 million indians in US, give it some time, give us a break. It’s changing…Britain has a long history of colonization with India, there’s that exchange so of course there’s more cultural awareness there. We’re doing well in the US. Give it a chance.

9:12 Rohini chips in about how much she admires the Chinese for breaking into the mainstream. Mexican is breaking in…

[I dunno...isn't all this obvious? Taco Bell isn't exactly authentic, but it's certainly mass mexican. Isn't the US ok with trying ethnic food now? Even Indian food?]

9:14: Q from audience about various Indian cuisines — punjani, bengali, etc– so how do you keep the indian side consistant?

Maneet: Food is a science. Consistency is an issue. Standardizing recipes is important, and to make sure it’s executed…I scream a lot in the kitchen. So yeah, it’s hard.

[i might have missed something in that exchange, just FYI.]

9:18 Q from audience: why are we so scared about wine?

Alpana: Wine is intimidating. For most of us the natural tendency is to go by how much we like the label (the appearance of it). We stick to what we like, our faves. I’m a big advocate of trying new things…if you like cabs, try a malbec! You won’t grow if you don’t risk. Ask for tastes of things. Expand your horizons, expand your knowledge, makes it less intimidating.

9:21 Vijay: Alpana’s known as something of a loose canon in the wine community! So if you like her advice check out her blog!

9:22: Rohini talks about the wines at the restaurant, staying away from sweet wines and encouraging wines by the glas so people experiment more.

9:23 : Wrapping up. Thanks and spanks.

Awesome. My hands are killing me. But I did get to sneak bites of food in between (thanks Staff!) and it was all pretty good!

Lessons learned: Padma is going to be difficult to snark on in the future. She’s really impressive — smart, real, and cuts through to the heart of the matter. [DAMMIT!! Not fair!] Rohini’s a machine — that McKinsey background, I can haz it? Alpana — we did a separate Q&A with her and she put up with a lot of stupid Qs and gave awesome As, so we lurve her. Maneet — my mom cooks better than you but you’re really close. And you won’t yell at me as often unless I work for you. So there’s that.

Good times!