Padma Lakshmi

20th October 2020

Padma Lakshmi is a model, actress and the host of Top Chef on Bravo. She’s the person telling everyone to pack their knives and go home. Her latest television series is Taste the Nation With Padma Lakshmi on Hulu. Each episode, Padma travels to a different part of the United States to highlight an immigrant community. The show celebrates different cultures and their place in American cuisine. The results of the conversations she has often reveal stories that challenge notions of identity, and what it means to be American. We’re revisiting our conversation with Padma from 2016. When she joined us she discussed cultural differences she had to reckon with growing up between India and the United States, and her role on Top Chef.

Episode notes

(Photo: Stephen Lovekin / Getty Images)

Padma Lakshmi on her childhood in India, Top Chef, and The Encyclopedia of Herbs & Spices
Padma Lakshmi is a model, actress and the host of Top Chef on Bravo. She’s the person telling everyone to pack their knives and go home.

Her latest television series is Taste the Nation With Padma Lakshmi on Hulu.

Each episode, Padma travels to a different part of the United States to highlight an immigrant community. She breaks bread with folks across the nation to discuss the relationships between history and food.

The show celebrates different cultures and their place in American cuisine. The results of the conversations she has often reveal stories that challenge notions of identity, and what it means to be American.

Padma’s also written several cookbooks, and a memoir. When Jesse spoke to Padma in 2016, she’d just written The Encyclopedia of Spices and Herbs. Jesse and Padma discussed cultural differences she had to reckon with growing up between India and the United States, and her role on Top Chef.

In this episode...

Senior Producer
Producer
Maximum Fun Producer
Maximum Fun Production Fellow

Guests

  • Padma Lakshmi

About the show

Bullseye is a celebration of the best of arts and culture in public radio form. Host Jesse Thorn sifts the wheat from the chaff to bring you in-depth interviews with the most revered and revolutionary minds in our culture.

Bullseye has been featured in Time, The New York Times, GQ and McSweeney’s, which called it “the kind of show people listen to in a more perfect world.” Since April 2013, the show has been distributed by NPR.

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Senior Producer

Producer

Maximum Fun Producer

Maximum Fun Production Fellow

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