Padma Lakshmi The culinary television star on centering immigrant stories, taking inspiration from activism, and writing her latest cookbook

You often speak about food through the lens of family. Why is that important to you?

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Because you can't cook for people you don't care about. You can't cook for people you don't see as human. I don't believe your food will be good. Cooking for another person-family, a friend, or a colleague-is such a simple, basic act of nurturing.

Taste the Nation, your Hulu docu-series highlighting the cuisines of immigrant and Indigenous communities in the U.S., was inspired, in part, by your history of advocacy work. Are you surprised by how topical the show is five years after it premiered?

It’s saddening to me. When young people ask me, “How do I get involved? What do I do? I don’t know where to start,” I always say, pick one issue that you have a personal connection to, because that way you can speak to it from a deeper level. I started doing Taste the Nation because I wanted to bridge my advocacy and my creative work as a TV professional. I felt this was a positive way of saying, “Why don’t we just get together and eat? Why don’t you walk across the street and get to know your neighbor?”