Padma Lakshmi’s Latest Cookbook is a 'Love Letter' to Immigrants

Padma Lakshmi, a fixture of American culinary television since the early aughts, knows that many people are used to hearing her speak in one language: food. So when she felt called to action in the wake of the 2016 election, frustrated by anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies, she channeled her desire for change into a new TV show—one that highlighted the cuisines of immigrant and Indigenous communities across the U.S.  Taste the Nation, a Hulu docu-series that premiered in 2020, followed Lakshmi—an immigrant herself, having moved to the U.S. from India as a child—as she traversed the country in an effort to learn more about the cultures that have shaped American food for decades. The aptly-named series saw the former host of Top Chef sample Mexican cuisine in Texas, Thai dishes in Nevada, and Greek eats in Florida. It was her “Trojan horse,” a show that used food as a way to make people curious about America, its people, and its history.  Though it was announced in April that Taste the Nation would not be returning for another season, its legacy will live on in the creator’s third and newest cookbook, Padma’s All American: Tales, Travels, and Recipes from Taste the Nation and Beyond, which hits shelves on Nov. 4. Amid a second Trump Administration that has ordered sweeping mass deportations and ICE raids in major American cities, she has called it a “love letter” to immigrants.“I hope that the book will be a positive way to counteract all the hate,” Lakshmi, an artist ambassador for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said in a recent phone interview. By expanding our palates, she hopes that “we’ll be more amenable to getting to know our neighbors,” and more likely to bridge the ever-growing “divide between Americans of all types.” TIME spoke with Lakshmi about centering immigrant stories, how she approached writing Padma’s All American, and what we can expect from her upcoming cooking competition show, America’s Culinary Cup, premiering on CBS on Wednesday, March 4. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. TIME: Taste the Nation was inspired, in part, by your work with the ACLU on immigrants’ and women’s rights. Are you surprised by how topical the show is five years after it premiered?  Lakshmi: It’s saddening to me. When young people ask me, “How do I get involved? What do I do? I don’t know where to start,” I always say, pick one issue that you have a personal connection to, because that way you can speak to it from a deeper level. I started doing Taste the Nation because I wanted to bridge my advocacy and my creative work as a TV professional. I felt this was a positive way of saying, “Why don’t we just get together and eat? Why don’t you walk across the street and get to know your neighbor?” Padma’s All American comes out very soon. How are you feeling? I’m excited for it to finally be out in the world, but I’m also a little nervous because while I know that this food is definitely thriving in many communities, it’s also food that a lot of Americans may not be familiar with because they haven’t ventured into those immigrant enclaves. There’s not a lot of technique involved in many of these recipes, but they may have some ingredients that Americans may feel a little intimidated by. What would you say to people who feel that way? Make it an activity of discovery for you and your family. On a Saturday or Sunday, go out to a neighborhood you are not familiar with. Go to a Latin market, go to an Asian market, and then make a dish at home with a buddy for the first time. I want to broaden people’s culinary horizons, and I think one way to do that is to discover all the glorious food that exists right in our country, brought here by generations of immigrants. You often speak about food through the lens of family. Why is that important to you? Because you can’t cook for people you don’t care about. You can’t cook for people you don’t see as human. I don’t believe your food will be good. Cooking for another person—family, a friend, or a colleague—is such a simple, basic act of nurturing. There are photos and stories of your daughter, Krishna, peppered throughout the book. What does it mean to you to be able to share your love of food with her? The truth is many nights I’m busy working. My nanny will cook something beautiful, and then [Krishna] will come down and be like, “Oh, I just ordered Taco Bell.” She’s a normal American teenager. But it was very moving, when we were selecting the photographs for this book, to see how much she’s grown. Having a child makes you aware of time in a way that I certainly was never aware of before being a mother. There are over 100 recipes in the book. How did you decide which ones to include? I really wanted to make this for the home cook, because that’s how I grew up. I’m not a chef. I don’t want to be a chef. I was really trying to think about average American people—nurses, school teachers, accountants, florists—who wanted to maybe make something special to impress their friends, or do something different for their Fourth of July barbecues. None of [the recipes] require you to have any kind of expertise. Also included are profiles of people first featured on Taste the Nation: among them, a Gullah Geechee chef in South Carolina, a Peruvian dance teacher in New Jersey, and an Iranian restaurant owner in Los Angeles. What drew you to their stories? I wanted to give a good cross section of the people that I met on the road. When you travel this country by road and you embed yourself—which is not always easy to do; I had the privilege of doing that with a TV show—you learn so much more. Not only about that community, but about our country. You have a new cooking competition show, America’s Culinary Cup, premiering next year. What are you excited for viewers to see? I’m really excited for people to find out about the challenges, and also see what world-class chefs we have [competing]. Giving away a million dollars brings a lot of people out of the woodwork.