The host of Top Chef, Padma Lakshmi eats better (and more adventurously) than even the most avid gourmet. the model-turned-author and self-proclaimed ‘culinary spelunker’ opens up about how she got there.
I am who I am because I travelled.
I was four when I took my first big voyage—that’s when I came to America. I was travelling alone from Madras (now called Chennai) in South India to New York to meet my mother, who’d moved there two years ago. We couldn’t afford a direct flight, so the route was New Delhi-Cairo-Rome-London-New York. I was all by my-self, but I wasn’t scared. I was excited.
Helping my mother when I was little is how I learned to cook.
In India, I always hung around the kitchen while my grandmother and my aunts cooked—that’s where all the action was. Once I was settled in America, my mother didn’t want me to lose my sense of Indian culture, so the minute school was out I was on a plane to see my grandparents. I spent every summer with them.
Wherever I go, I’m hunting and gathering.
This story is from the October 2016 edition of VOGUE India.
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This story is from the October 2016 edition of VOGUE India.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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