Lotus loses the tart
Easy Exotic wasn’t just Padma Lakshmi’s first book title, it was also a mating call for brown women in America. The cover had her posing in a little black dress with a come-hither look next to a virtual banana tree, and one of its taglines mentioned her modeling past. With such breathless double-entendre Orientalism under her belt, the new title is mildly disappointing. It describes samosa chutneys, a Zune-like double shot of brown and green. A photo of her mother, extra-virgin olive oil, chopsticks, and restrained décolletage — simple, classy, clean.
Lakshmi waxes Proustian about Top Chef, a program whose artificial drama and poofty dissection of flavors is probably the gayest thing on TV (not that there’s anything wrong with that):
… I go through every day watching these people slave over these hot stoves, have little sleep and work their tails off… I’m the only one on the show who tastes every single thing that’s prepared, from quick fire to elimination. And so, in a way, I’m getting the song of each of these people’s lives. José Andrés talks about a recipe being a box of memories, olfactory memories that trigger all these responses in you from your past, from where you’ve been, from what you’ve loved along the way. So I get very attached… [Link]
Here’s Padma on the show, at -2:02:
on Thursday, November 8th, 2007, 12:06 am in Food, Literature, Padma Lakshmi, Photographs, TV, Video clips › 
Email this
› 
Facebook this
› 
Reddit this
› Link
› Reader links
that’s not a banana tree dude - or may be i’m taking you too literally - in chennai and all they sell bananas literally off the branch. The whole sheaf hangs from the rafters and the guy uses a curvy edged knife to rip out your dozen. better than have them getting bruised sitting on a counter.
And just WHAT’s with all these gongs going off in that show in the video. This deserves to be a Mike Myers movie in the future. :-)
I meant it as metonym, but clarified, thanks.
I find the whole show hilarious, but change the channel to ESPN if anyone at the gym catches me watching ;)
Groan.
For most of us, it’s not a mating call we choose to implement.
Honestly, what makes Padma any authority on cooking? She’s not a professional. Yes, she has written two cookbooks, but she is selling sex more than cuisine.
Manish,
Dumb question : but the first book cover in this article is photoshopped right?
I mean its too much to expect that the juxtaposition of “tart” and Padma Lakshmi was serendipity
Meeeow!
Padma’s a good cook. She won the 1999 Versailles World Cookbook Fair award for best cookbook by a first-time writer. She great as a hostess of Top Chef too. She was asked to come back for Season 3. The original host on Season 1 sucks and she wasn’t half as hot as Padma… Anyway, why are you people being so critical of Padma? It isn’t like Aishwarya can act. Padma is the first desi beauty to be known in internationally as a top model. She is the first one in the US for sure.
Unlike the Bollywood tartlets, at least she hasn’t succumbed to breast implants and plastic surgery. Must be those amazing South Indian genes.
So she won a two-bit “award” with a dodgy site that alternately claims to be based in France or in China, and only has press releases (with bad spelling) for the year 1999? And that makes her a serious chef? Has anyone actually tried the recipes from her books?
I think we need to acknowledge that food tv stars are more about presentation/eye candy/entertainment/tricks than good recipes. As a foodie and cook I’ve always been disappointed by recipes from these tv stars, particularly Giada de Laurentis. You’d think that with all the recipes out there they (or their agents/publishers) would at least have the sense to come up with some decent adaptations of basic stuff to sell along with the babelicious presenter act.
Actually, I have her books, and I’ve tried several of her recipes. They are surprisingly good, easy-to-make and healthy too. I think the is a great marketer too. She has cleverly positioned her point of different - exotic food that’s healthy, easy to make and fit for a model. Her recipes are good, and they’ve been featured in magazines such as Gourmet, InStyle, Elle, Cosmo.
Don’t be such a hater.
There is a new chef on the scene, it seems like:
http://www.indiacurrents.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=76f8db0df72a494abf3dba691e9d3ddc&from=rss