Padma Lakshmi Just Celebrated A Triumph For Taste The Nation
Padma Lakshmi might be best known as a host and judge on Bravo's "Top Chef," but the television personality has a lot more than just one show to juggle in her busy life. When she's not entertaining her child Krishna – aka "Little Hands" – with a mother-daughter soup moment or dressing up her dog Divina in adorable outfits, she's also busy at the helm of her very own show, "Taste the Nation."
"Taste the Nation" premiered in July of 2020 to rave reviews, and its first season received a perfect 100% score from critics on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. Per Deadline, a second 10-episode season was ordered by Hulu in August of 2020, but due to difficulties resulting from the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, it was shortened to four holiday-centric episodes (via Variety). This might seem like it could have dealt a blow to the show's production, but Lakshmi recently shared on Instagram that the second season of "Taste The Nation" actually just won a prestigious award.
Taste the Nation won a James Beard award
Padma Lakshmi took to Instagram to share with fans, "I am absolutely elated!" A photo roll shows her and several colleagues with James Beard Foundation award medals around their necks, including fellow "Top Chef" alum Gregory Gourdet. "Taste the Nation: Holiday Edition" won a James Beard Foundation Broadcast Media Award for Visual Media — Long Form (via James Beard). In her Instagram celebratory caption, Lakshmi shared many of the feelings she's had during her journey in the food world that led her to win an award for "Taste the Nation" Season 2.
"I have always kind of felt like an outsider in my life," she shared. "Either I wasn't Indian enough or American enough, but I always had a deep love for food." However, after becoming successful she realized that she could now use her status to "give my platform to people who don't often have that opportunity and let them tell their stories as they see fit." Hopefully, by doing so, it will help create a world where no one feels like they're not worthy of being heard. She signed off with a very emotional statement about an inspirational figure in her life who died earlier this year. "I wish my grandmother could have been here to see this award. She taught me how to cook and taught me about life through food and she would have been so proud."