Second season of Hulu Taste of the nationorganized Padma Lakshmi, is an exciting culinary journey through different cultures and communities scattered across America. By spending time with various immigrant groups and learning how their traditions are represented in the food they eat, Lakshmi shares her knowledge, experience and passion through a human connection so pure that the viewer can’t help but be touched and inspired.
During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Lakshmi spoke about the embarrassment of wealth that Taste of the nation talks about the influence of different cultures on American cuisine, how touching and meaningful small human moments are, how she came to a career related to food, and how the World All-Stars season Best Chef great companion to the series.
Collider: After having to spend a shortened holiday season due to COVID, did you have too many places you wanted to visit this season? Was it even harder to narrow the circle for this?
Padma Lakshmi: Because it is the embarrassment of being rich. I don’t think people realize how regional American food is, and that’s not even counting all the ethnic groups that make up American cuisine. For example, this season Taste of the nation, we’re going to Dearborn, Michigan, which was on my list before Season 1 because there’s a huge Arab enclave. People don’t realize that the American auto industry is actually built by Arabs. There is a very cool story about this and about Henry Ford, who we also talked about. Whenever I return to visit my family in India, I always have a mental list of everything I’m going to eat. And now, with Taste of the nationI have a long list of places I want to go and I hope this season will be the same as the first season. I just wish Hulu would give me another season because I haven’t finished eating or walking down the road yet.
When it comes to something like this, is it about specific moments or everything that you are most proud of?
LAKSMI: It’s more than I could ask for, but it’s made up of these little moments. I owe a huge debt to all of our members who trust me and expose me to such deep personal issues in every episode, who let me into their homes, who tell me about holding their baby in their arms in the jungle when they starved to death. when they fled from the Khmer Rouge, or this young beautiful woman who, like me, was a TV presenter and journalist who had to flee Afghanistan in those big cargo planes that we all saw. She was still shell-shocked from this when I interviewed her, and her whole life was turned upside down. Every story is different. I am still learning at work. Before Taste of the nation, I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of people I interviewed, and it was mostly at a literature festival or a food festival. It was not on such a large, international scale. I’m just grateful that people trust me because that’s what Taste of the nation really about. It’s about bringing my platform to people who don’t usually see themselves in the mainstream media as top of the line so they can tell their stories the way they see fit. I write the show, I produce the show, and I edit the show, but I actually take my lines from them. This is their story, which they must tell as they see fit, not mine.
In some episodes, the people you talk to are crying. In other episodes, you talk about how you cry. They’re strangers when you’re all together, and yet there’s something so beautiful about that food connection that makes you feel like you’ve known all these people their entire lives.
LAKSMI: It’s incredible. It was very unexpected and a revelation for me, especially in the first season. We shot a Persian episode, it was my first day of work, and I was talking to a guy who had so many things happen to him, and he even killed a man. We didn’t even have time to show it in the episode because I had so many things and it had nothing to do with what we were talking about. This is a huge guy named Hamid and he has a great restaurant in Westwood, California called Shamshiri Grill. He burst into tears, and then the next day it happened, and the next day it happened. I think everyone has a meaningful, interesting story to tell. They just didn’t get a chance to talk about it and you just have to listen.
I’m not a food adventurer like you, but I’ve been dancing since I was four years old and it has always made me curious about the dance style of each culture. I have always been interested in traditional dance and its influence on other styles. I relate to your connection to food in this way. Why did you decide to make a career in food? When you walked this path, could you imagine that it would lead to all that it has?
LAKSMI: Not at all. Not in a million years. I went to drama school. I’m an actor. This is how I made my living. And I also wrote. I wrote a syndicated column for New York Times it was about food and fashion because of my modeling career. And I had a style column in Harper’s Bazaar. To be honest, I just got into the food career because I love to cook. I wrote a cookbook after my first film because I needed to gain weight for the film. I didn’t get paid very much. I have never tried to lose weight before. I still made a living as a model, and that’s how the first book appeared. Actually it was just a marketing ploy. Everyone wanted to know what the model was eating, but no one thought it would be good. And then he received this prize at Versailles at the Gourmand Awards. It happened, and I am very grateful that I can do what I love. This is the greatest privilege. I mentor two or three young women in the food industry and I always tell them, “Try to make a living doing what you love, because no matter what, there is a point in your life when your job is going to really suck, and that’s not this way”. it will be hard, and you will spend more hours in your life on work than on anything else. So if you can do something that you’re really interested in, you’re free at home.” This is the best blessing for any person.
In all these episodes, we get food, but we also get music, songs and dances, clothes, and all these different aspects.
LAKSMI: There are a lot of dances this season. There are Greek dances. There is such a beautiful Cambodian classical dance. I learned flat feet even with two left feet. I love world music. That’s what’s great Taste of the nation. I learn something new every single day at work. I am a history buff. I love the local culture. I love the little things and all that general knowledge. The show really consists of all my idiosyncratic interests.
I love how this season Best Chefbecause it’s all the stars of the world, feels like an addition to the view Try a nationn. It was fun to watch how different chefs influence each other and how they all take bits and pieces of what they learn from different cultures back into their food.
LAKSMI: Yes. It was really exciting. Cooking is like writing: you must do what you know because it will be the most valuable thing you can do. It’s not that you can’t learn how to cook other cuisines. I cook all kinds of food. None of my cookbooks contain only Indian cuisine. But I was very excited about it, because it allowed us to see how chefs all over the world work and to prove ourselves in competitions. IN Best Chef, we have worked very hard to develop and be more diverse, but usually it is always African American or Chinese American. The people we have this season are actually Thais, Jordanians or Brazilians. There is nothing American about them, because they work in different countries. And I think it’s also great for the competition, because he really is the best chef in the world. You had to either make it to the finals or win your own franchise. Best Chefwas it Best Chef in Mexico or The best chef in Franceor something else.
I love watching both shows and I’m definitely rooting for more Taste of the nation.
LAKSMI: Thank you very much. From your lips to your Hulu ears. I just want another season. I really hope everyone gives this show the chance and recognition that my team and I want and deserve because we work so hard.
Taste of the nation available for streaming on Hulu.
Source: Collider
I have worked as a journalist for over 7 years and have written for many different publications. I currently work as an author at Daily News Hack, where I mostly cover entertainment news. I have a great deal of experience in the industry and am always looking to learn more. I am a highly motivated individual who is always looking to improve my skills. I am also a very friendly and personable person, which makes me easy to work with.
