Lakshmi’s cross-cultural journey

Padma Lakshmi believes that food should be a cultural melting pot, said E. Alex Jung in New York magazine. A former model and now host of TV’s Top Chef, Lakshmi entered the culinary world in 1999 with the cookbook Easy Exotic, which sought to popularize “global” food. She says she’s delighted that ingredients from her native India such as ginger and turmeric have been “gentrified and hipsterized” in the U.S. “I don’t care about cultural appropriation,” she says. “If it opens Americans to new flavors and ingredients that are more natural and healthy, that’s fine.” Lakshmi, 48, has spent her life shuttling between cultures. Born in Delhi, she moved to New York City at age 4 to live with her mom, a nurse. When she was 7 years old, Lakshmi was sexually abused by a relative. She told her mother, but her stepfather refused to believe the accusation. So a few days later, Lakshmi was sent to India to live with her grandparents. She returned a year later—after her mom’s marriage had dissolved. Lakshmi says she now understands that “my mom did the best thing she could. She sent me to somewhere she thought was safe.” But at the time, Lakshmi felt like an unloved outcast. “It really marks you as a young child, and you can never get that confidence back.”