padma โฃLakshmi Discusses Discernment,โค Travel, and TV Judgement on Critics at Large Live Taping
NEW YORK, NY – Padmaโ Lakshmi, celebrated host of Top Chef โ and Taste โthe Nation, recently shared โคinsights into her evolving career and refined โpalate โduringโฃ a live recording of The New Yorker’s podcast, Critics at Large, at the New Yorker festival.The episode, featuring Newโ Yorker writers Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, โand Alexandraโ Schwartz, explored Lakshmi’s journey from fashion to food and now, stand-upโข comedy, offering a unique outlook on the natureโค of taste itself.
Lakshmi’s careerโ trajectory-spanning modeling, foodโ writing, โขtelevision hosting, and now comedy-demonstrates a consistent pursuit of understandingโฃ and articulating โคquality.โ The conversation delved into the distinction between discernment and pickiness, the broadening influence of travel on โคher culinary perspective, and her considered approachโข toโฃ critique as a โฃtelevision personality. With the podcast โขconsistently offering in-depth cultural analysis, this episode โขprovides listeners with a nuanced look at how expertiseโฃ is developed and applied across diverse fields, โขresonating with anyone interested in the creative process and the pursuit of excellence.
During the taping, Lakshmi articulatedโฃ her โฃphilosophy on offering constructive criticism, โstating, โค”I see my job as helping. I โขsee my job as being theโข person in theโค kitchen who’s saying, ‘does this need a littleโข salt?’ ” The episode also highlighted several works โขthat have shaped or been shaped by Lakshmi’s career, including Top Chef (2006-), Taste the Nation โ(2020-23), her cookbook Padma’s All American, โคand Helen Rosner’s โ New Yorker profile, “Padma Lakshmi Walks Into a Bar.”โค
Listeners can โฃfind new episodes ofโ Critics at Large everyโฃ Thursday, wherever they get their podcasts. Additionalโค recommendations discussed on the episode include RuPaul’s Drag Race (2009-), american Idol (2002-), project Runway (2004-), โข”Art in the โAge of Artificial Intelligence” (aโข New Yorker podcast episode), and Dijon‘s song “Baby.” The upcoming film Frankenstein (2025) โwas also mentioned.