Chef Priyanka Naik is a self-taught vegan cook, Food Network champion, social media influencer, and author of the cookbook, The Modern Tiffin. In this episode, host Kevin Burke talks to Priyanka about her New York story. How did growing up on the South Shore of Staten Island as the daughter of immigrant parents shape her senses—and her sense of home and the world. What about being a kid on Staten Island drew Priyanka closer to her roots in India? What sparked her passion for taking her family’s traditional recipes and putting her own modern spin on them? And what is the deeper source of her creativity, drive, and sense of daring to put herself “out there” in print and on camera as a virtual one-woman show?

Your Hometown is a show where the local is the epic. Visit yourhometown.org to subscribe to the podcast and our various social media channels.

Our co-presenter this season is the Museum of the City of New York. For more, including information on live events, check out our NYC series page at mcny.org/yourhometown-podcast.

Archival

Clip of Chef Priyanka Naik from her website

https://www.chefpriyanka.com/receiving-the-1st-copy-of-my-debut-cookbook-the-modern-tiffin/

Clip of Chef Priyanka Naik from Instagram https://www.instagram.com/reel/CSZZscsDDa7/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Clip of Chef Priyanka Naik from Instagram https://www.instagram.com/reel/CSQWMGOj5gn/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Clip from CNN broadcast announcement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuHfSo5YI_M

Clip from Throwdown with Bobby Flay (2020)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVp9QteuveQ

CNN coverage from September 11, 2001
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VveRmJpFW6o

Music

Billy Joel, “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” – The Stranger (1977)

Illustration

Nick Gregg

Poem

Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself,” Part 52, Leaves of Grass (1855)

“I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.

“You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.

“Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.”

Recommended Reading

Priyanka Naik, The Modern Tiffin (Simon & Schuster, 2021)

Chef Priyanka’s website: https://www.chefpriyanka.com/