I'm an immigrant kid who came to America from India when I was very young and grew up in New York City with a single mom and really was influenced by all of those immigrant cultures bumping up against each other.

In a way that somebody else converts to Judaism or becomes a Hare Krishna, I belong to the church of fried chicken.

Where is it written that a smart woman can't also be stacked?

Whether I'm making a recipe or a piece of jewelry or a white-rose-and-jasmine tea or the perfume, I like to think of myself as a happy little sorceress, and if I could just have a little general store with all that stuff and give people a sense of my taste, that would be lovely.

I don't have any stigma attached to my body. When I'm in my own private space, I have very little on.

Jewelry should not upstage you. I pick one hot point on my body that I'm going to highlight. Let one area do the singing - you don't want to hear three songs at once.

Even the fried chicken is great cold.