Anokhi Fashion Lifestyle Entertaiment

You may have seen her in the catchy television spots for the American Express “Start Booming” campaign. A trained chef and wine enthusiast, and the face of Behind the Burner, Divya Gugnani just loves to eat and cook! So much so that she built a career on it. Gugnani started her career off in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and then moved on to FirstMark Capital. With a face that television just loves, Gugnani started appearing as a regular guest on MSNBC's Your Business a few years ago. She then launched Behind the Burner, packaging tips, tricks and techniques from culinary experts into articles, videos and blogs. Gugnani is also a regular contributor to The Huffington Post, PageDaily and MSN’s new site Glo. In September 2010, she launched a new fashion accessories website, Send The Trend (www.sendthetrend.com), with fashion designer Christian Siriano (of Project Runway fame) and industry veteran Mariah Chase. Hot off the presses, you can also read her first book, Sexy Women Eat, which was published by HarperCollins in December 2010.

Q&A

Zodiac sign: Virgo.

Relationship status: Married.

Best way to unwind: Cooking. (It's) the best form of relaxation and also brings smiles to those around you.

Fave Bollywood movie: Qurbani.

Favourite Hollywood movie: Wall Street.

Favourite book: Sexy Women Eat (I wrote it!)

Guilty pleasure: Dark chocolate.

If you could choose a superpower, what would it be and why? It would be healing because it pains me to see anyone suffer.

What is on your iPod? A mix of Hindi love songs, international dance beats, R&B songs for unwinding and hip hop for dancing.

Something quirky about you no one would know: I feel naked if I’m not wearing at least one ring.

Best personal feature and why: My energy, it’s contagious.

Best feature on the opposite sex: Muscles.

Celebrity crush: Andy Garcia.

If you had to choose, would it be romance or hot sex? Romance all the way.

Three things you can’t live without: My Blackberry, my husband’s hugs, and Nobu’s bento box.

Most memorable professional moment: Working on my laptop at home and looking up at the TV to see myself being featured in the “Booming is”American Express ad campaign and TV commercial. It was a true NYC entrepreneur moment.

Most valuable life lesson: When we are children we depend on our mothers for milk and sustenance. When we are teenagers we flaunt our independence. As mature adults, we realize interdependence is the best way to live.

Motto you live by: The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists to adapt the word to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

BY: TAMARA BALUJA / PUBLISHED: JANUARY 2011 / 8TH ANNIVERSARY SEXY & SUCCESSFUL ISSUE