NEW YORK: Indian-American TV personality and food expert Padma Lakshmi voiced concern over the current “dark period” in the US and said she hopes her new book will encourage people from diverse communities to reach out and connect with each other during these times.
She also said that this period will probably “get darker” before the light finally comes back.
Lakshmi’s latest cookbook, Padma’s All American: Tales, Travels, and Recipes from Taste the Nation and Beyond, is a commemoration of America’s rich culinary and immigrant diversity. It is chronicled through personal stories and recipes brought together from a spectrum of immigrant and Indigenous communities.
The book’s chapters contain profiles of individuals from various backgrounds whom she met while traveling across the country.
At a time of growing anti-immigrant sentiment in the US and other parts of the world, Lakshmi voiced hope that her new book will ignite curiosity among people about other communities and enable them to reach out and connect with different cultures and compatriots.
“We’re in a very dark period in our country right now, and I’m afraid to say that it’s probably going to get darker before the light finally comes back,” Lakshmi said during a conversation hosted here last month at Asia Society, in partnership with The Culture Tree, which promotes South Asian culture through educational and enrichment programs and celebrations.
When asked what she wants people to take away from her new book, Lakshmi said she hopes it will make people “more curious about your fellow Americans — your Cambodian Americans, your Peruvian Americans, your Nigerian Americans.”
“We all live, especially in New York, in a very diverse country where people across the street may be speaking a different language, eating different kinds of foods, and praying to a different God, but oftentimes, because of those differences, we don’t walk across the street or get to know them.”
The Emmy-nominated food expert, television producer, and bestselling author said that through the diverse recipes and food chronicled in her book, “I’m enticing you with the food, and if you like the food, I hope you’ll be curious about the people from whom that recipe comes.”
“I hope you take the time to read all of the profiles because I met some extraordinary people — everyday people with extraordinary stories. And I want us to know each other more, so that we hopefully talk with each other more,” she said during the conversation moderated by Founder and CEO of The Culture Tree, Anu Sehgal.
At a time like this, Lakshmi said that if through her cookbook she can do anything “without wagging my finger at people or standing on my soapbox” to help “combat that darkness and bring us closer,” she would be satisfied.
“Because in the end, we all want the same things. We all want our children to flourish and be safe and healthy. We all want a roof over our family’s head where we can all thrive. Those aren’t Chinese values or Colombian values — they’re just human values,” she said, to a round of applause from the audience.