“Hello, Chefs.”
The words are met with mixed emotions each week during a Top Chef season. They hail the beginning of another exciting culinary adventure frought with tension and drama. They also indicate the presence of the popular TV show’s infamous hostess, Padma Lakshmi. Since taking the position for season 2 of Top Chef, Padma has been a controversial personality for a number of reasons. Her credentials to judge a cooking show have been called into question almost as often as her wardrobe has been ogled by members of the TV audience and the male contestants on the show. She’s had a whirwind career and a publicized personal life, and despite the show’s continuously climbing ratings, season 5 added more fuel to the fire of the Padma controversy. Let’s explore.
Padma majored in theatre arts at Clark University. She has had a successful career as a model spanning both Europe, India, and the US, something she is very proud of. She’s also made small forays into the world of TV and movies. She married the now knighted novelist Salman Rushdie in 2004 and divorced him in 2007, something many fans were fairly relieved about considering how much older he is than her and how much he resembles her father. (For more about Padma’s history and personal life, Wikipedia has a thoroughly referenced article.)
There’s no denying that Padma has a personality. She is often described by those who work with her as sweet and thoughtful, while making it clear she knows exactly what she wants. But being a pretty face and a sweet person doesn’t qualify you to host a nationally lauded cooking contest, does it?
Padma’s co-judges are Gail Simmons, Toby Young, and Tom Collichio. Gail’s sweet smile hides years of culinary training and apprenticeship at top restaurants. She’s been a food critic in the journalism world since the beginning of her career, and is currently in charge of special events at Food & Wine Magazine.
While Toby tried endlessly to make it in the world of high fashion and journalism, and is known mostly for his “obnoxious wit,” his understated career in the culinary world is actually fairly impressive. He had a long-running restaurant column in an English newspaper, has won the series “Come Dine with Me,” and been on several distinctive panels of food critics before joining the judge’s table at Top Chef.
Tom might seem like the Simon Cowell of Top Chef sometimes, but he knows what he’s talking about. He founded and ran Gramercy Tavern in New York for a while, which was voted Most Popular Restaurant in New York by Zagat twice. He’s received five James Beard Foundation medals for being such a great chef (this is apparently a really big deal). He’s also often in attendance at important white house functions, like the inauguration this year, where he saved someone’s life with the Heimlich Maneuver.
Padma’s co-judges are clearly eminently qualified. Padma, on the other hand, had no professional culinary experience before joining the show, although she had released a cookbook about exotic foods for models that won Best First Book at the 1999 World Cookbook Awards in Versailles. Padma herself has said that because she was a vegetarian into her teen years, she often gets squeamish trying new foods. She blogged about her first day on the job at Top Chef, saying, “That day I tasted frogs legs, chicken liver, and peanut butter, at times all in one bite, and also snails with American cheese. I’ve never been one to shy away from trying new foods, but I was a vegetarian until well into high school, this was testing my limits.” She said frog’s legs tasted like chicken, and seemed genuinely distressed by the thought of having to eat so many strange things.
Many people from the anti-Padma camp claim that she was hired simply for her looks and perhaps her acting experience, as the Vanna White of Top Chef. Which would be fine if she was simply the host, but should she be able to judge, as well? Is she the best person to decide if a dish is “pedestrian at best?” She has released two successful cookbooks, so she obviously knows something about food.
Perhaps Padma represents the common man’s approach to Top Chef- she’s picky, she likes to look good, and she likes to think she knows more than she does. The other judges have spent at least a decade each closed in the bubble of gourmet food and culinary accolades. Maybe they need a Padma around to remind them that not everyone enjoys eating amphibians, and that this is an important thing to consider at the judge’s table.