Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi

I don't think that I've ever seen Padma Lakshmi before this show, but I had a general idea of who she was. Gotta say, this show has made me love her! She's super down to earth and very charming, and she has a good voice for narration. Also, gotta say, she's looking freaking awesome for a fifty year old. This is a woman who knows how to take very good care of herself and it shows.

I really appreciate that this isn't JUST a food show, but it also delves into the cultures and history of the people behind the food Padma gets to eat and learn about.

My only complaint is that I wish the show was an hour long instead of just half an hour so that Padma could spend more time with the people she talks to, and so that some of them don't take up a third or more of the running time of an episode.

Not your usual US cookery show and one that I grew increasingly fond of over the course of the first season. Padma is a charismatic host but always very wisely takes a backseat to whoever she's interviewing - the focus of each show is a different ethnic group in the enormous and sprawling United States. Refreshingly not confined to a whistle-stop tour of high-class fine dining but also a fairly admirably researched deep-dive into what these groups eat and a look at the history of their cultural identity via food.

The first episode caught me right away with a nuanced look at border states and Mexican cuisine and identity in the modern era. The whole series feels like a very strong reaction to anti-immigration rhetoric in a country made up of thousands of different diasporas and I genuinely felt like I learnt a great deal. The style of the show is a pleasant departure from US norms of nauseatingly fast editing and a general detached sense of embellishment and has the pleasingly elegant and granular texture of a documentary film.

What ties all this together is the effervescent Lakshmi - a person I'd never heard of before but is well-known for "Top Chef" in America. She's a tremendously strong and personable host and, much like the show itself, manages to mix the personal and the professional extraordinarily well. I'm oddly quite excited at the prospect of more of it and what else the format could go on to cover.

I am a big fan of Padma and I never skipped a single episode of Top Chef. This series is very different in many ways as it truly captures the culture and history behind the food. I believe food is the highway to someone's soul and Padma does a remarkable job in capturing the culture and story of the chef as well as the food.

I didn't know what to expect when I first started watching this series, but I have found each episode to be interesting, informative, and enlightening. It's above so many shows, whether cooking shows or those where people have gone around the world sampling different cultures, maybe because it is what is here-the melting pot of the world. I don't know if I expected to become so engrossed in what I was learning. It's not only the food but the histories of those who came to this country. I am so enjoying this series. I hope there will be another season.

Aside from the fact that Padma Lakshmi is gorgeous and i would watch her read the alphabet, this show has a mix that I have not seen before. Her role has expanded beyond the food - its history, its influence in American culture,the people that make the food American from original cultural roots. We as Americans are all immigrants with the exception of Native Americans and this show brings the melting pot into sharp focus and our roles in it. She is smart, has an offhanded comic streak, and is respectful and knowledgeable about the cuisines. I have only seen 2 episodes but I am hooked. Who has Preet Baharra as a guest? This show is perfect in the current climate of immigration fear. Anyone who says "Go back where you came from" - this country is empty.