Padma Lakshmi (‘Taste the Nation’) was surprised to learn about the Cambodian community near her hometown [Exclusive Video Interview]
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Even with all the foods Padma Lakshmi gets to eat “Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi,” there have still been very distinctive cuisines that really left an impression on the host. “The Cambodian episode for me was an eye-opener because I loved Thai food and I’ve had the ocean food but I’ve never had Cambodian food,” she tells Gold Derby during our Meet the Experts: TV Documentary panel (watch the exclusive video interview above). But what made it even more memorable was it exposed her to community that she did not know was near where she grew up in Massachusetts. “I did not know that there was this community of refugees and asylum seekers that revitalized this tiny New England town which had fallen on some hard times.”
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“Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi” aims to view the way that immigrant communities throughout the country have become a foundational part of American life using food as the entry point. Among the communities Lakshmi explores in the second season are the Nigerian areas in Houston, the Afghani residents of Washington, DC and the Filipino people in San Francisco. The series is nominated for Best Hosted Nonfiction Program at this year’s Emmys and Lakshmi also has noms for Best Reality Host and Best Reality-Competition Program for “Top Chef.” She’s also received 14 past nominations for hosting and producing “Top Chef.”
Lakshmi aims to have each episode be about more than just a community and their food. “I want to look at a specific aspect of this whole immigration puzzle by using a community.” She illustrates this using her Puerto Rican episode as an example and learning about sovereignty and food sovereignty. But getting to do a show like this allowed her to go even deeper. “We had to go research the Jones Act, which is the shipping law from a hundred years ago, and why that affects them and why that’s changed their agricultural landscape in such a detrimental way.”
While the first season of the program turned out very well for Lakshmi, she did find it challenging to get people to participate without a proof of concept. “In the second season, we had the first season to show our participants so it was easier and I think just a lighter lift to get people to open up.” The show also allowed her to practice her interviewing skills, which she had very limited experience with. “Before ‘Taste the Nation,’ I could count on one hand the amount of times I’d interviewed people and it was always for a literary festival or a food festival, so I’m very blessed that I get to do this whole new phase of my career.”
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