Vegan Chef Turns Food Network Title Into Championship Career

EMILY: I’m Emily Washcovick, Yelp’s Small Business Expert. Behind the Review features conversations with business owners and customers who wrote one of their Yelp reviews. In our discussions, we talk about lessons they’ve learned that can be used by other businesses to improve their own reviews…or their bottom line.

This week, I’m sitting down for a conversation with Priyanka Naik, a self-taught vegan and sustainable chef who is also a columnist, blogger, Food Network champion, and cookbook author. Priyanka might not have a brick-and-mortar restaurant, but she’s got a lot to teach us about being an entrepreneur, a social media influencer, and recipe developer. Let’s let her introduce herself, and listen to our conversation.

PRIYANKA: I’m Priyanka Naik. I am a self taught chef. Author, TV personality, world traveler, and advocate of eco living and sustainability. I should have mentioned that I’m a vegan and low-waste chef. I started fairly young, I would say. I became very obsessed with watching cooking shows like Food Network and Martha Stewart Living and all of those in middle school.

And this is when food shows were very instructional. It was just a chef in a kitchen cooking and talking about the food. And, there wasn’t any fancy competition shows. So I’m really aging myself now, it was just like simple cooking shows and I was very intrigued by it. Because the cooking that was displayed on TV was very different than what we did at home.

I’m first generation Indian. I grew up in New York City, specifically Staten Island, so food was an integral part of Us keeping in touch with our culture. My parents immigrated here in the late seventies from India. And so we were all born in New York City and language and food I would say we’re key to staying in touch with our roots and our family.

So that is what made me interested in food, but then what kind of piqued my interest in cooking is not only observing my parents and seeing how much thought and preparation goes into food and eating food that wasn’t widely available at all, but also just watching food media and seeing them cook things that were just very different from what we ate at home.

And so I considered going to culinary school when I was in high school. Turns out, there were a few reasons why I didn’t go. The first is, it costs as much as regular university. And all you learn is how to cook. You don’t learn any other pre professional courses. I have no idea if it’s changed, but at the time that I was looking at it, that was the situation.

And I felt that that was very risky, even as a 15, 16 year old looking into that. I was like, I don’t know if I want to go to culinary school, spend all this money and then have to cook and can’t do anything else. The second thing is I grew up vegetarian and we ate only vegetarian food. We cooked only vegetarian.

So I asked them, do I have to eat meat? And they were like, no, you have to butcher and cook and eat animals, and I’m like, yep, that is not happening. That goes against my philosophy and my ethos. And the third thing is, from what I researched, and I’m sure things have changed now before what I researched, they spent about a week on Asian cuisine, and I felt that that was outrageous, because I was like, okay, you probably can’t even learn my specific regional Indian cuisine in a week, so it just deterred me from going. I ended up going to traditional college. I went to Boston University. I was premed first because I’m indian. So it’s kind of a rite of passage. Then I was pre-law but I graduated with a degree in economics and a minor in bio and I went into consulting. I didn’t even go to law school. really making my parents proud.

But I ended up going into consulting but all the while I had been cooking, I had been teaching myself, I had been cooking for friends, I had always been hosting dinner parties, I had been watching shows and teaching myself techniques and dishes that I may not have learned, and most importantly, I was traveling.

I grew up very fortunate enough to travel, I then took myself traveling, I studied abroad in London. So I learned a lot about cooking and agriculture through that travel and all of that combined helped fuel my further interest into food and cooking. And I started a blog after college. And it wasn’t until I got on Food Network in 2017 and competed and became a Food Network champion did I start becoming credible in the culinary space. And then things really just took off from there in terms of my media presence, my expertise, my opportunities, all that kind of stuff. So here we are today.

EMILY: And something that I think is so cool about that journey is you were just figuring yourself out and this was very much a part of the process, but it was coming from this place that was very unique to how you were raised with food. Even just hearing you explain growing up vegetarian, I can see how that fuels right into the current vegan conversation, but you were so young to be thinking of that big picture, like the things I want to do almost seem limited by this path that you’re telling me I have to take to become a chef. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs can probably relate to that part of your journey where maybe they didn’t take the traditional route to become an owner of whatever kind of business. But there’s that passion I think that fueled you and just from researching more about you, there’s also this element of you want to help other people learn about what they’re putting in their body and just have a broader approach to how they eat. Can you talk about how that position of yours has evolved and why that’s so important in the work that you do?

PRIYANKA: I think with any creative field, I’m a true believer that there is no specific path or education you need to take.

Obviously, if you want to become a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer, anything science related like that, you need to go to those specific schools, right? You can’t become a doctor without going to medical school, but you can become an artist without going to art school. You can become a chef without going to culinary school.

I’m a true believer that if you have the innate talent and you have the passion, you can do it, there are ways to do it. So that was the first thing I wanted to say. The second thing is, yes, I truly believe that what you put into your body manifests itself in all sorts of ways on the outside.

Including not only affecting your physical health, but your mental health. But more importantly for me, I think everything we cook, eat, buy, do has an impact not only on us, but on the environment. So if I can do better for the environment, and also me at the same time, why wouldn’t I do it, right?

And I’m not saying oh, I’m going and eating processed vegan nuggets every day. No, that’s not what I’m saying. But what I am saying is I’m trying to be more thoughtful about where I get my food, how I get my food, eating more whole foods, cooking for myself. I think all of those Aspects of life and cooking have been pushed to the wayside with the rise of convenience.

And I also think it’s a lot more prominent in America than it is around the world. The sort of idea of being able to get anything you want anytime. I’ve obviously grown up in New York City. I have the luxury of convenience. I love convenience, but it’s not necessarily the best for us. And also more importantly, it’s not the best for the environment.

I believe that if I can showcase Hey, this is what I’m doing. This is how I’m doing it. It could potentially change someone’s mind or make them think about what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. And I’m not saying, oh, everyone should go become vegan overnight. No, I’m just saying, think about what you’re doing, and is there a better way you could be doing that thing?

EMILY: I’ve heard a lot of people who are vegan. It’s much more than just, I don’t want to eat animals. The sustainability element of being vegan, they almost go hand in hand for so many people. Can you just talk a little bit about that and what you do try to educate people on as it relates to sustainability, the foods you’re eating, and a vegan diet?

PRIYANKA: I think it goes without saying, and this is very mainstream now, whether people want to accept it or not, but cattle farming, factory farming, raising animals for consumption not only takes up landmass, but it uses a tremendous amount of water. There’s also really inhumane labor practices around it.

There’s so many things about it that are just, besides it not being good for the environment, just not good for people. When people tell me like, oh, but you know, your almonds for your almond milk are using so much water. There’s no data supporting that an almond farm is using more landmass and water than it is to make your hamburger. And again, this is not to say I want everyone to stop eating hamburgers. I know culturally it’s just not possible in many countries, but what I am saying is do you need to be eating those things every day, regularly? And are you also thinking about where those ingredients and that meat and those items are being sourced from?

And I’m talking about the people who are fortunate enough to have the privilege and access to food and to make those choices.There’s many people around the world, especially in our own country, who live in food deserts, who don’t have access to food, and there’s also reasons for that, right?

A lot of it is because of the agricultural system. Which is a whole other conversation. So I think for me, it’s more about okay, I can’t change corporations and governments overnight. But what I can do is make individual changes, and that may move the needle.

So for me, it’s about okay, well, I can’t overhaul the government and corporations, but I can make a change, right? I’m going to try to get my produce that’s in season. I’m going to try to get it from local farmers markets. I’m going to try to compost and minimize waste in the landfill. Obviously I’m vegan, so it’s different but if I was eating meat, I would be like, I don’t need to be eating meat every day. Maybe I’ll minimize it two or three times a week. Maybe I’ll try meatless Mondays. Maybe I’ll try having vegetarian nights, whatever it may be. I think all of those changes, while they are small, do add up.

EMILY: Absolutely. Let’s talk about Food Network. I’d love it if you can share how that opportunity presented itself for you. I also think the show you were on is wild. I need to hear more about how that went. You should have seen me this weekend doing all of the little research. Every few minutes I kept saying to my fiancé, you’re never going to believe this.

This show, this is how it works, blah, blah. And we don’t watch Food Network, so I was digesting the whole thing. But I’m just envisioning you getting this opportunity and there’s no way you could have known what it was going to lead to, but you said yes. So just walk me through that part of the process. What was it like? What made you want to do it? And how did it go?

PRIYANKA: I think with Food Network, it was more of like, I grew up with Food Network, and that was the, at the time, and still is to a certain degree, it was the end all be all of celebrity chefs, right? If you’re on Food Network, you’ve made it, you are an authority in the food space and you are representing the food that you’re making, your culture potentially.

So for me, I was like, there’s no one on here that looks like me. There’s certainly no one on here that’s cooking like me. I had this mission of, why can’t I be on there? We’re making really cool food at home. We’re cooking in a manner that’s very different than most American households.

There’s no reason why I shouldn’t be on here. And funny enough, the opportunity did not come to me, I went to open casting calls, I auditioned, and I was rejected about two or three times before I made it on. And I think that’s an extremely important detail for people to understand, because people see the win, but they don’t see the struggle. Not to be all dramatic about this, it’s just getting on Food Network, I’m not going and saving someone’s life, but people don’t see those auditions, they don’t see those rejections. They don’t see all of that stuff. They just see the win. And the reason why I kept persisting is because I was like I have something really good to offer and I know I cook well, and I know I’m good on camera.

I know these things so I need to make it happen. So when I found the show Cooks versus Cons when they were casting for it, it was obviously a competition show. They don’t run it anymore. They might rebrand it. I have no idea but the concept was professional cooks versus con artists like amateur chefs.

Most people thought I was competing on a show that was Cooks versus convicts and they were like, did you go to jail? And I was like, no, I did not go to jail. No, this is con artists. So maybe they’re rebranding the show hopefully but your identity is hidden from the judges so they’re judging the food based on how it’s cooked, how it’s presented not if they’re professional or amateur chef. So I won that show cooking purely vegetarian food, and I became a Food Network Champion and for me it was a triumph because I was competing against executive chefs at top rated restaurants and stuff and I’m like, okay, I knew it.

I’m good. It was confirmation for myself, but then also to people out there, I’m making unusual stuff. There’s no meat in it. And now you should listen to me because clearly what I’m doing is good. Maybe you should actually stop to think for a second. There’s a lot of people who have become Food Network champions, but I think it’s what you do with that afterwards. I basically took that win and then I started promoting myself everywhere. At the time I used every social media platform available. I used my blog. I reached out to people that I knew and at brands, at industries, whatever. And I was just like, hey, I won and this is what I made.

And I created my own culinary resume with it, because it was important for me to now showcase not only the credibility, but okay, I’m a good cook, but I’m good on camera and I have a personality. And I recognized those facets of myself and just self promoting myself everywhere. So from there I got shortly after a literary agent.

She eventually helped me get my first book deal, helped me publish my first book. I went to compete on another show called Dismantled on Quibi which was a network that started during the pandemic, unfortunately, but my show still aired and I won that show. And so I started building myself and my brand through that win.

EMILY: And you led me right into my next question, which was, how did you snowball this? I guess the way I want to unpack it is to talk about this fuel that you had to keep going forward because I mean it was doing things on the today show. It wasn’t just oh, we’re gonna have you on once. You started doing some regular segments on the Today show. You started a column with the Washington Post. These are things that you were making commitments to have a presence in a variety of places, and that takes a lot of coordination, I think, and also emotional and physical energy to keep all of those plates spinning. How did you navigate that time? And also, how were you taking on these different opportunities and seeing if they were a good fit for you? I would imagine not everything that you did to promote yourself felt like it was worthwhile, but how did you navigate that time where you’re trying to take every opportunity and turn it into something to give you more visibility?

PRIYANKA: So I should mention that I was doing this all while having a career, a whole separate career in tech. At the time that I competed on Food Network, I was at Bloomberg and I was leading our data science team. Once the show was aired, I was actually at Conde Nast. And so I had this whole other separate career.

But the reason why I bring that up is because, I really didn’t have time because I wasn’t doing this full time. I was leveraging the hours of my day in a very effective manner. But I was also using my network very effectively. When I won, when that show aired, I not only blasted across my public social platforms and on my blog, but I blasted it out to my corporate world.

I worked at Conde Nast, I had worked at Bloomberg, I told all of my colleagues. For me, it was a proud moment, and I was like, okay, well I want them to watch it, why shouldn’t they see it? Everyone at work knew that I was obsessed with cooking. I initiated a lot of cooking centered programs at most of all of the companies that I worked at, so it wasn’t a surprise to them that I was doing this.

I blasted it out to people I knew, but also, no forum was too small. The way my literary agent found me is I actually informed my alma mater, Boston University, about my win and also what I was doing for work and I was kind of like, you know, I’m juggling all these things and I won this and they then added me to the annual magazine.

In the back of the magazine of class of 2010. This is what Priyanka Naik did. And it was in small print. And I was like, Oh, no, one’s going to read that, but whatever. It’s there. Lo and behold, my agent who was a BU alum was browsing the magazine, saw my name and was like, Oh, this person looks interesting and then took me on as a client.

There was no platform or forum that was too small for me. For me, it was just like, I’m getting it out there, if you are not your number one fan, then no one is going to be your fan. That’s truly how I feel. And even now, I do shameless self promotion everywhere. I think you’ve been mentioned to me, oh, I saw your FoodieCon thing on LinkedIn.

I’m like, yeah, because I posted it. I’m not waiting for someone else to post it. I’m going to post it. That was the lesson for me is that okay, no platforms too small and I’m going to just keep shouting from the rooftops until someone tells me to shut up.

EMILY: And so many entrepreneurs that I work with started like you, where they had a day job before they were doing their own thing. And I truly think sometimes people spend their time more wisely when they’re juggling like that. They’ve got the day job they have to get done, but they’re trying to grow this thing that they’re passionate about. How was your work life balance at that time? You were just full throttle, I’ll figure it out later, or how do you navigate that?

PRIYANKA: I mean, it was crazy. I obviously was responsible for a lot at work and I was a high achiever, like most people are and want to be. And so for me, it was like, okay, well, this is what I have to do at work. But all the other hours in the day, I focused on this and I sacrificed a lot. I sacrificed a lot from a personal relationship standpoint.

I sacrificed a lot from a social standpoint. I would forgo going out with friends or doing happy hour because I would go home and make a recipe and put it on my blog or go home and reach out to people or stay a little bit later at work because I’m just on the computer like emailing people for Chef Priyanka.

So there was definitely a lot of sacrifices made and still to this day, but to me it was a matter of okay, these are my goals. How am I going to achieve my goals? The only way you’re going to achieve it is if you put the work in. And there’s always, yes, work smarter, not harder, but, you always have to work hard, especially in the beginning, there’s nothing being handed to me, I don’t know anyone in the industry, I don’t come from a culinary background, a media background, my family are all physicians, so it’s not like I have anything to rely on in terms of getting my foot through the door, it was only me who was able to do it, so I used my hours and my day very effectively, I prioritized where I could and I did make sacrifices where I could.

EMILY: Let’s talk about this cookbook. That’s amazing. But it was also happening during the pandemic. What was that whole journey and experience like? And can I just say, I’m proud that you are still on the circuit doing signings. It’s very much still a living and breathing thing that is being put out into the world. So tell us about that journey and about the cookbook.

PRIYANKA: So my cookbook is called The Modern Tiffin. My agent who found me at the back of the Boston University magazine was my agent who helped me secure my book deal with Simon and Schuster. It was published on November 2nd, 2021, which was on World Vegan Day. And I didn’t have a normal quote unquote book tour because it was during the pandemic, which is why I still promote the hell out of it because cookbooks are evergreen. People have to cook, people have to eat. There’s no such thing as a recipe being not trendy and I also put a lot of work into it so might as well keep getting it out there. It’s basically a culmination of my upbringing as a first generation Indian American in New York City along with my travels.

So every chapter in the book focuses on a different part of the world that I’ve been to. So you’ll have the South Indian chapter, you’ll have a Mexican chapter, you’ll have an Australian chapter, so on and so forth. And all the recipes are these concepts or flavor profiles of that country, but then there’s some sort of Indian sprinkling into it.

Like in the Italian chapter, there’s a Meyer lemon risotto, but then it has tarragon on top, which is our tempered spices, so it’s just a fusion of flavors. And for me, it’s important that people understand that food is a connector, which is the kind of purpose behind showcasing that, but also the world is very small, in the food world, especially people claim red sauce is Italian.

Tomatoes, they don’t even originate in Italy, so you can’t claim that that’s yours. Same thing with green chilies, they don’t even originate in India, so it’s like, what can we actually quote unquote claim? And the book name, The Modern Tiffin, a tiffin is a steel stacked container set, which helps make food portable.

It’s widely used in India to carry lunch to work, to carry food for road trips. And I grew up taking my lunch every day to school. When I entered the corporate world, I took my lunch every day to work. So it was a concept that I wanted to instill in newer generations in the Western world that cooking for yourself and packing food for yourself can be fun and joyful and also much more economically friendly and healthy. So that’s the concept of the book. It’s obviously very colorful. It’s fun and if you read it and buy it, you should feel like I’m in the kitchen with you and I’m talking to you when you’re reading through the chapters.

EMILY: Let’s talk a little bit about your social presence. As I was getting ready for our conversation, I was looking at all the things. I just wanted to see where you were and what you were doing, and you’re everywhere.

And we’ve sort of talked about that already, just being present and taking the time yourself to promote yourself, which is work, but talk to me a little bit about content creation and consistency with it over a long period of time. 171 thousand people on Instagram. I know you thought you were a small fish at Foodie Con, but that’s some big community power there, so I know these people are attracted to what you’re doing and that comes from you being consistent, so can you just talk about that?

How do you think of your online presence? Do you think of different platforms differently? How do you motivate yourself to keep it all up?

 I think it’s important to leverage all the platforms that are available today, and I know it’s really hard to keep up, but many times the way I think about it is, the audience is different on every platform. I know plenty of people who are on IG that aren’t on TikTok and people on YouTube who aren’t on either of those, so I will share a lot of the similar videos across those platforms to help reach newer audiences. But for me, I want people to come and see my content to feel like they’re being entertained, to feel like they’re being educated on something new and feeling empowered that, okay I want to go make this at home.

And so I call that the three E’s, entertain, educate, empower. That’s how I lead with all of my content and just my content not only across social, but everywhere. I think it’s really important to not entertain because I like entertaining people. I think it’s fun. I want people to feel happy when they see my stuff.

But also people have a very short attention span nowadays, so it needs to be entertaining. But ultimately I am educating them on something like a new dish, a new way to use produce, a new way to compost, to repurpose leftovers, to use all of the produce, but I want to do it in a way that is empowering them, which is okay, she’s made me laugh, she showed me something new.

I want to go do this in my own house. And I think that’s what’s important for me is taking what I show you online and taking it to your own home and educating yourself. And I have an awesome community and I hope it continues to grow and I have a very international community likely because of my background and what I cook.

But also I do think America is a little bit lagging and a sustainability area. So I have a lot of international folks who follow me because they’re already doing it. So they’re interested to see more. But I think social is an amazing way to not only get your missing mission and message across, but to feel like you have a support group, essentially, that people want to learn from you and want to do the same as you.

And, I learned from my followers every day, even from a simple comment that they leave, they’ll be like, Oh, this is the way I cook okra or vice versa. And I think it’s really cool to be able to have that community.

EMILY: That’s so amazing, you just segued me into this engagement and connection that happens on these platforms. And I know a lot of what you’re doing is putting stuff out there to educate people and they’re consuming on their own. But there is this real feeling that they can connect with you, and you’re very engaging and responsive it looks like on your different platforms. It’s not like you just publish something and then, Goodbye until the next time you publish again. It really is a back and forth for you. Does that come naturally to you? Is that something that you do strategically? What’s that all about?

PRIYANKA: I think the way I see it is if someone takes time to watch and make a comment or like it, I think that’s very nice of them, most of the time, a lot of the times the comments aren’t nice, which is a whole other thing, but I think if someone takes the time to message something or say something, I like responding to them, because I’m like, oh, that’s really nice, they watched my content, or they made something of mine, or they took the time to actually acknowledge that this exists.

And to me, that’s really important. I don’t think it’s necessarily Oh, I’m going to comment because it’s going to boost my engagement. I generally comment because I actually want to. I also do comment to the negative ones too, because I’m like, Okay, I don’t see why you shouldn’t get the same time of day, because maybe you’re having a bad day, I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m only here to share a recipe or to educate you on something, so it’s weird to me that’s someone to take the time to write a negative comment, but that happens a lot in the food world. But a comment is a comment, so I will try my best to get back to everyone. But yeah, I think it goes both ways. I take a lot of time to put content out there as most content creators do.

And if they take, even if it’s 30 seconds out of their day to watch it and comment something, then I always try to acknowledge it.

EMILY: I think you gave me some really good answers about feedback just then when you were answering, but I do want to highlight the fact that the show in general is about reviews. And a lot of times at the end of the episodes, we’ll talk to different business owners and entrepreneurs about how they leverage feedback. And it’s different for every person,some of them read their reviews every day. Some of them have someone else do it.

It’s different across the board, but I would love if you can just speak at all to your experiences with feedback and you know it is a little different right when you’re sharing recipes and then they can try them on their own versus you cooking and someone eating your food every time but I think feedback in general, you deal with it more in your industry than a lot of others.

So you’ve got that skin I think probably for dealing with it. Just tell me in general — feedback? Has it been helpful before? Does it open your eyes to new things? Do you sometimes just ignore it because it’s not helpful?

PRIYANKA: I would say there’s three main areas that I actually get feedback in across my work. First is social. That’s the most obvious one. The second are reviews on my book and the third are reviews from my pop ups. Those are the three where I get feedback. And I think with social, that’s where you have to have thick skin because especially if something goes viral, it’s one ear and out the other. I’ve had so many things go viral and people are just commenting all crazy things left, right, and center.

And I’m just like, okay, this is crazy. I can’t message to everyone, but also you can’t please the world. And you just have to know that as being a public figure and online, I’m not here to please you. Just the other day I posted a recipe and I called it a potato stir fry because it was in an effort to explain to the Western world the Indian dish I was making without using the Indian word, because they’re not going to understand the Indian word.

And I got so many comments like, this is not a stir fry, blah, blah, blah. It’s all Indian people, and I’m like, well, You’re not necessarily the audience for this. The audience for this are people who are not Indian who I want them to understand what I’m making so then they can go make it at home.

So I think with social, it’s always in one ear, out the other. With book reviews, I have responded to all of them whenever I see them online because sometimes the negative ones will be, Oh, like this wasn’t good. No, there’s not pictures for every recipe. Well, that’s a conversation you have to have with my publisher because I was allotted X amount of pictures for my book.

People don’t understand the industry, so I will explain some of those things because I want people to understand how this works. With pop ups and menus that I’ve developed for restaurants and, many times I’ll get live feedback just as like an executive chef would at a restaurant.

I do in some regards take it in one ear and out the other, depending on what the comment is or the review. But sometimes I do heed people’s feedback. They’ll be like, Oh, the cauliflower was too soft right and they wanted more char and I’m like, that’s fair we could have probably kept it in the broiler for a little bit longer and the piece you got was probably a little bit more overcooked than it should have been and I think it’s really important especially as chefs when you’re in restaurants when people are live eating your food to make sure that they feel listened to, I think that’s extremely important.

But if someone’s like Oh, this is too spicy for me. This has too much flavor. I’m like, okay, then you just don’t like my food in general because I’m not the chef for you. And again, similar to soc ial, I’m not there to please the world. I clearly have a certain mission and cooking style and it’s not going to appeal to everyone.

So depending on what the feedback is, I will listen to it and actually act on it. But most of the time it’s one ear and out the other.

EMILY: That was a really good breakdown of the different kinds of feedback you get. Thank you so much for doing that. That was amazing.

EMILY: Give me a little update on what’s next for you. Do you have some goals you’re trying to tackle this year or maybe a little bit longer term? What’s on your agenda?

PRIYANKA: So as with most entrepreneurs and creative careers, there’s so many projects going on at once. This year I’m actually doing a few projects that are international. Some related to India, which I think is great. I’m in post production of a documentary that I self funded that I shot in 2022.

So more to come on that. I’m going to be a guest chef at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa in April, and I might be doing a few activations at Coachella, which I think is great. I think we need more South Asian presence and also just plant based presence. I’m signing with a new talent manager this week. So that’s exciting. And I am trying to work on my second book proposal, which has been very, very slow moving, but hopefully we can secure a book deal this year, which is going to be more sustainability focused. But yeah, that’s what’s going on right now.