'Top Chef' star Padma Lakshmi on TV diversity: 'We have been in rooms for so much of our lives where every face but ours is white'
Padma Lakshmi acknowledges that, like most TV shows, Top Chef needs to a better job when it comes to diversity.
“It’s something that everybody is struggling with and we’ve been struggling with it,” the cooking competition executive producer, host and judge tells Yahoo Entertainment. “I think we’ve done better in the last several years. It’s something that I talk about, as you can imagine, with my producers every year.”
Lakshmi notes that she can’t have direct input on who joins the cast, since she’s going to judge them later.
“But that’s not an excuse,” says Lakshmi, who’s Indian-American. “It doesn’t stop me from saying, ‘Hey, I really want to see more diversity. I really want to see more people of color. I really want to see more women.’”
She challenges the people behind all shows to cast more people of color by setting different goals.
“We have been in rooms for so much of our lives where every face but ours is white. So why don't you have an all-black crew? Why don’t you just say, let me see how many people of color I can get here, you know?”
Lakshmi points out that it isn’t enough to simply hire “cheftestants” of various backgrounds, either. The work has to start much earlier.
“We need to encourage those communities to send their sons and daughters to culinary school,” Lakshmi says. “We need to encourage the white male chefs to make sure that they’re not just mentoring white male sous chefs, that they’re, you know, making an effort to seek out those people. And because if you don’t get the instruction, then even if we put you on the cast list at Top Chef, you won’t make it very far.”
Lakshmi also addressed a controversial moment on this season’s Top Chef: All Stars L.A. in which a white contestant from Georgia, Kevin Gillespie, talked about making the theme of his eatery on the annual “Restaurant Wars” episode focused around food “influenced by the plantation South.” It didn’t go over well on social media.
“I don’t want to excuse it, but I know Kevin, and I know that that’s not what his intention was,” Lakshmi says. “He was trying to do a restaurant that was based on going to eat at his grandmother’s house. He was just trying to explain in the moment and say whatever he could to be descriptive. He misspoke.”
Gillespie and his knives were ultimately sent packing, though he returned on a later episode through the losers’ bracket, called “Last Chance Kitchen.” He was eliminated a second time on last week’s penultimate episode. When the finale airs Thursday, June 18, the audience will see Melissa King, Stephanie Cmar and Bryan Voltaggio competing to win the crown.
The Top Chef finale airs the same day Lakshmi’s new show, Taste the Nation With Padma Lakshmi, debuts on Hulu. That reality series spotlights different cultures and foods around the country. It’s definitely timely, arriving amid nationwide calls for more inclusiveness and an end to racial inequality.
The season finale of Top Chef: All-Stars L.A. airs Thursday, June 18 at 10 p.m. on Bravo; Taste the Nation With Padma Lakshmi premieres Thursday, June 18 on Hulu.
— Video produced by Becky Horvath
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