Chef profile · 1 win vs. Bobby Flay

Aarthi Sampath

Chicken Biryani
Opening first NYC restaurant in 2026; also restaurant consultant for Sigri NJ LLC, Bombay Curry Co, Baazi NYC
  • Drāvida Indian Diaspora · New York, NY
@aarthi_sampath

Biryani is the dish that takes longest to learn and longest to recover from when you get it wrong on television.

Aarthi Sampath spent years at Junoon, the Michelin-starred Indian room in New York, before going off to build Drāvida Indian Diaspora — her own NYC restaurant slated to open in 2026. Her biryani is built in the dum style: rice and curried chicken layered in a sealed pot, finished over coal so the steam carries the aromatics into the rice instead of out into the kitchen. It is a dish that rewards exactly the kind of patience the show does not give you time for.

She made time. Bobby made rice and chicken on a stove.

2 0
S15E11
Round 1
vs. Zoe Schor · advanced to face Bobby
W
S15E11
Round 2
beat Bobby with Chicken Biryani
W