Padma (Photo: John Shearer/Getty Images)

Padma Lakshmi navigates the culinary industry with a distinct eye and understanding of the importance of diversity. As an Emmy-nominated food expert, author, television host, and producer, the Top Chef judge and Taste the Nation host is calling out the difficulties people of color face entering the industry. Chefs and the food industry have seen a complicated expansion during the pandemic, but also an extreme amount of loss with line cooks who have the highest risk of mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic — even more than healthcare workers. 

Lakshmi is The Cut’s May cover star and is referenced as a “steadfast and guiding force in the food world.” Culinary creative and chef Sohla El-Waylly sat down with Lakshmi discussing the larger aspects of culinary reality shows and the growth in knowledge surrounding different food cultures. As the executive producer and host of the Emmy Award-winning cooking show Top Chef since 2006, Lakshmi has spent a lot of time focused on diversifying the popular competition show. “Regarding Top Chef, this is something that we’ve been working on steadily for several years now,” she says. “I think we’ve done well with gender, and I think we have more to go with ethnicities and being inclusive holistically. But the problem is that you want people who can compete on the show. Otherwise, it does no good for us to create this cast, and then they just get knocked out right away. You can tell when somebody has had the mentorship, the experience, and the skill, the training they need to compete on the show. I would never go on Top Chef; I would rather die than be a contestant. It’s a hard thing, and it is harder than it looks on TV.”

Sohla suggested the reason there is a lack of diversity is due to chefs of color not being afforded the same level of mentorship as their white counterparts, nor do they have access to the same level of support. Within the show, Lakshmi has put a lot of effort into expanding the types of dishes featured on the show. Even more so the importance of normalizing cuisine that isn’t just of European and American cultures. “The casting is more diverse than ever, and I enjoyed how the challenges were as well. There was a Pan-African challenge, like right off the bat, and Indigenous foods,” Sohla says. “It’s nice to see Indigenous food represented outside of Thanksgiving, and that’s also why people love Taste the Nation so much because you see the breadth of culture represented in food.”

For ages, the culinary field has been dominated by white men. Among chefs in the US, 25.8% of them are women, while 70.3 percent are men. The most common race among chefs is white, which makes up 57.3% of all chefs. Padma Lakshmi works closely within Top Chef to expand the food cultures included in the show, which in return pushes the industry as a whole in the right direction. “It’s about understanding how different communities do that when they’re not allowed to celebrate often or haven’t traditionally been allowed. It’s looking at it from that end, of being an outsider. But I hope that new people in food get to bubble up, get their chance at that,” she says. “I hope that more women get to helm restaurants. I think the restaurant model needs to change; I think it’s a complicated business to succeed in.”