Power Couples! Chef Floyd and Barkha Cardoz!
Episode originally aired February 6th, 2017
Barkha and Floyd Cardoz met at hospitality school in India and became close friends. Eight years later, after emigrating separately to New Jersey and New York, they met once again and started to explore romance.
Twenty-five years later, they're the owners of the New York restaurant Paowalla, where their Indian heritage is cooked up through Chef Floyd's modern American lens. Journey with us as they share how friendship evolved into love, and the sacrifice of every young cook into the success of one of New York's most beloved chefs.
This marks the fifth and final episode of our Power Couples series.
Listen to the episode below or on iTunes.
Image: Barkha and Floyd Cardoz at Tabla restaurant in New York City. Floyd is in his chef coat, squatting next to Barkha who sits at a table in a black dress, the table covered in half-eaten plates of food and cocktail glasses.
About Chef Floyd Cardoz
Chef Floyd Cardoz is a celebrated Indian-American chef in New York City, India, and throughout the world. Cardoz attended culinary school and began his career in his native Bombay, India, and after studying in Switzerland at Les Roches, he moved to New York City to work under Chef Gray Kunz at the venerable Lespinasse.
In 1997, Cardoz partnered with Union Square Hospitality Group’s Danny Meyer to open Tabla, a contemporary Indian restaurant celebrating his groundbreaking cuisine that expertly married the exotic flavors and spices of his native land with Western techniques. He later moved on to open North End Grill and White Street in downtown Manhattan and The Bombay Canteen in Mumbai, India. In the summer of 2016, Cardoz opened Paowalla, a casual modern Indian restaurant in Soho, NY, which celebrates his Goan-Indian Heritage and showcases his seamless integration of Indian flavors and techniques with local ingredients.
Cardoz’s first cookbook, One Spice, Two Spice (William Morrow, October 2006) includes his favorite recipes while demystifying Indian flavors, and his second cookbook, Floyd Cardoz: Flavorwalla (Artisan, April 2016), was published in spring 2016. Cardoz is a four-time James Beard Award nominee and regularly works with Share our Strength, City Harvest, C-CAP: Careers through Culinary Arts Program, and Madison Square Park Conservancy, among others. In 2012, Floyd won Season 3 of Bravo’s Top Chef Masters.
Find Floyd at FloydCardoz.com.
About Barkha Cardoz
Barkha Cardoz studied at the Institute of Hotel Management in Mumbai, India, where she met Floyd. After graduation, she taught cooking at the Institute and then emigrated to the United States in 1988, where she worked in the Garment District for 15 years. In 2012, Barkha co-founded the Young Scientist Foundation with Floyd after his Top Chef Masters win. Since then, she has served as their Vice President of Development and has been instrumental in organizing and implementing their annual fundraising Gala. Barkha now works alongside Floyd at their recently-opened modern-Indian restaurant, Paowalla, handling administrative work, human resources, and event planning.
Find Barka on Twitter.