Padma Lakshmi

00:00:00
Speaker 1: The Quest Loft Show is a production of iHeartRadio.

00:00:20
Speaker 2: Good People, Good People. Welcome to the Quest Love Show.

00:00:24
Speaker 1: I'm Questlove your host, so for nineteen seasons strong on the Emmy nominated Top Chef and the Excellent Taste of the Nation. Our guest today has basically changed the culture and the conversation around food. She is a host, a producer, an author, an activist. She is Time one hundreds most Influential People, and she reframed the American food as an immigrant story as the creator and host of a brand new show, an excellent show called America's Culinary Cup. She raises culinary competition to new heights. I'm very jealous of that kitchen set by the way beyond the screen. She's a New York Times best selling author, cultural bridge builder, and a person who understands that food encompasses memory, migration, and politics. Welcome to the Quest Love Show. Papa locksmy my good friend. I'm acting like weird. We don't know each other. It's weird.

00:01:22
Speaker 3: Well, it's weird to hear you say all that stuff. But thank you, and yes we are friends. A dear old friends.

00:01:28
Speaker 1: Sometimes your friends also have to ring your bell to remind you that you know you're the shit, So thank you, thank you. So I'm going to do a mixture of rapid fire questions because I feel like we know of you what we don't know you per se. So my first question to you is, what is the first thing that you did this morning?

00:01:46
Speaker 3: The first thing I did this morning was try on some leather pants because I needed them for later tonight for a party, and I haven't had time to figure.

00:01:55
Speaker 4: Out what I'm wearing.

00:01:56
Speaker 2: Okay.

00:01:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I got up earlier than I wanted to, but not early enough to go to the gym before pilates. So I just decided I would have a little fitting with myself.

00:02:06
Speaker 2: What time do you normally wake up in the morning?

00:02:08
Speaker 3: About seven thirty, okay, And so this morning I woke up at I want to say, six thirty.

00:02:13
Speaker 1: Well, I was going to ask what time do you go to sleep?

00:02:15
Speaker 3: Sometimes I'd like to go to sleep earlier, but often I am only going to sleep about twelve thirty or one am, and you still get up at seven seven thirty.

00:02:26
Speaker 2: Okay.

00:02:26
Speaker 1: So I'm probably not going to ask a lot of beauty routine questions, but I'm certain that people will kill me if I don't because I mean, you know, you're this stunning figure in the world and people I would naturally assume that you get ten to twelve hours of sleep or whatever, but you just I would like, basically just wake up like this every day.

00:02:47
Speaker 3: Well, I had hair and makeup today, But you know you've see me when I haven't. You've seen me in every state possible.

00:02:52
Speaker 1: I'll still look like, thank you.

00:02:54
Speaker 3: I do like more sleep, and I would like to. I can sleep late, but I can't go to sleep early. I am a night owl by nature. I always have been since I was a little kid. And I keep trying to go to sleep earlier. So I do get more sleep because I do like to have a good eight hour sleep. I just don't get it done.

00:03:15
Speaker 2: Gotcha? Same?

00:03:17
Speaker 1: Also same, What is your most treasured childhood memory? Like before ten, what's a fuzzy memory from your childhood?

00:03:26
Speaker 3: My most treasured memories from childhood are of skating in New York City, and I'm talking about quads, you know, not blades. And when I was little, I was a latchkey kid and my mom worked as a nurse at Sloan Kettering, and I would skate up and down East End Avenue, and I know all the avenues. For instance, Lexington Avenue is really steep, so do not skate down Lexington Avenue.

00:03:53
Speaker 2: You found out there are way?

00:03:54
Speaker 3: Yes, I did. In fact, I still have really really bad drunk girl legs because of my brothers as a child. Okay, but I loved it. I think kids who grow up in the city are really sophisticated and self reliant. And I know a lot of people are afraid to raise the family in the city, but I was raised by a single mom here. I'm raising my daughter here, and I loved having that sense of freedom and mobility at a very young age.

00:04:23
Speaker 2: What part of New York did you grow up in.

00:04:25
Speaker 3: I grew up in Queens, in Elmhurst, and then I also grew up on the Upper East Side because at that time Sloan Kettering had subsidized housing for their staff. So if you made it, you know, she was just a nurse. We lived in Queens, she made it the head nurse we moved into the city.

00:04:42
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask a question only because you mentioned Queens and shout out to my friend Money grip Manier. I'm asking this for you. Of the five boroughs, would you say that Queen's is the better food epicenter. Will you get trouble in expressing a preference for a borough of culinary choice.

00:05:02
Speaker 3: No, But I also will say that this opinion is based on the fact that I know Queens much better than I know the Bronx. And by the way, I have to be honest and come clean and say, you know, my knowledge of Queens is also from way back when, so I don't know what it is now. But you know, I have a very dear friend who teaches a class at NYU, is a great writer named Sukaitu Meta, and he took me on a food tour recently of Queens and I tried literally ten different ethnicities in one afternoon, and so he would know. And I think Queens is still the most ethnically diverse. But I think, you know, anywhere you grow up in this city, I don't know what Stephn Island is like, but you know, anywhere you grow up, you're going to be bumping up next to a lot of cultures. And I think that's the beauty of living in New York.

00:05:57
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:05:57
Speaker 1: You know, when I first got interested in the culinary world, of course, I went straight to you know, everyone is blinded by Miss Lindis and James Beard Debt. And then Bourdain kind of pulled me to the side and it's like, Okay, don't get caught up, like, you know, search for He put it in a way where I understood it, where he's like, when I go record shopping, I'm looking for the most obscure record that nobody like. Don't buy the album that everyone has, like you know, Whitney Houston's over there, but also know that over here is you know, Galt McDermott or some obscureity. So he told me to look out for that. So I've taken a few tours of Queens and I'm still discovering it. I don't know it like I normally like I should. I will say though, for the Bronx. Though the Bronx says the best food for after eleven pm, Oh yeah, they do. The best fish sandwich is the best seafood. You know the size of my arms.

00:06:50
Speaker 3: Jamaican food Swinny Foods.

00:06:53
Speaker 1: There's a twenty four hour Jamaican spot in Queen's right now that just I went there and it's it's a problem. I'm glad it's in Queen so you know, because but.

00:07:03
Speaker 3: I mean even in Manhattan. If you're driving around Manhattan, you ever see a black food truck called jam Rock Jerk, please stop. Really, those guys are my friends. I want to give them a little love. They're great. They're a nice young Jamaican couple who were the first ones to get a license by the city to actually have an open grill and a drum like like jerk is done. And so they drive that around and now their business. I've seen their business bloom only because of how many of their trucks I see around. So they're clearly doing well.

00:07:39
Speaker 1: Mister softy of I think, I think so.

00:07:43
Speaker 3: I haven't talked around a bit. Yeah, jam Rock Jerk.

00:07:46
Speaker 2: All right, I'm investigating that. Do you collect anything? What do you collect?

00:07:51
Speaker 3: Jewelry?

00:07:52
Speaker 2: Okay?

00:07:53
Speaker 3: Art? I mean you know, I think jewelry as.

00:07:56
Speaker 2: In like well, I mean real jewelry or like crystals.

00:07:59
Speaker 3: Or no, not crystals. My daughter collects crystals, but no, I don't really. I mean, I collect jewelry happily, but it's not something I go out and seek. But I used to have a jewelry company years ago, like a fine jewelry company, and so I'm very interested in different movements and periods of jewelry. It's not something people know about me these days too much. But I can spot from what period a Cardia piece is based somehow it looks like is it a Shindai period? Is it another period? You know? So so I love that, But that's also a very rarefied thing.

00:08:34
Speaker 1: You know.

00:08:35
Speaker 3: That's not something I'm doing every day. I don't. I like to think I collect people. That's what I'm most interested in now. Every time, you know, I do a big project or something that I have a little chunk of change, I will buy myself a piece of art, right And you know, now, I don't have any wall space, and I'm not a no and I'm not an investor, so I'm not tying art to make a profit and then put it in storage. You know, That's not me. But I do like to collect people. My most coveted activity is to bring a room of six, ten, fifty sixty people together who I think are interesting and may not know each other from totally different walks of life, and put them in a room and see what happens, just to facilitate that. Mostly because I'm a really curious person and I think I've always been a lifelong learner, so I'm always trying to learn, and the best way to learn is to find the most interesting, knowledgeable people you know, and try to squeeze all the info out of them.

00:09:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, I gotta say, I'm one of the lucky recipients of your Wili celebration invitations. And I love the idea of having a live band in the living room. And you know, well, now I considered, I mean, this is like maybe the third or fourth one I went to, so now I know these you know the deal?

00:09:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, so loved doing those parties.

00:10:01
Speaker 1: So in your formative years, who was the best cook in your family?

00:10:07
Speaker 3: My grandma? Okay, my grandma, And my grandma was not a cuddly person. You know, when you think of a sweet grandma baking company and stuff, right now, that's not an Indian grandma. That wasn't my Indian grandma. Let me say that she was a very practical woman. She came from a family of seventeen children. She was one of the oldest, so she had to take care of a lot of her younger siblings. Oh and there were eight or ten people living in my grandparents' house at any time in a two room flat in South India and Chennai, and she only had two burners, two stow burners, and she didn't really get a fridge until her thirties, so she didn't know what to do with it, and she just really used it for ice water because it's hot in South India, right, So she was cooking all the time, all the time, and so I learned really at her side. I also learned a lot about life that way, because, like I said, she was super procded.

00:11:01
Speaker 1: Wow, I'm still trying to figure out the food preservation part of nofrigerator in the house.

00:11:08
Speaker 3: Well, everything gets eaten, there is no preservation needed. And also it's a vegetarian household, so you're not worried about meat spoiling. Okay, but it's so hot there and we certainly didn't have air conditioning. We only got air conditioning in one room when I brought my ex husband there as all, I was like, I don't think he's gonna be able to go, So I put air conditioning in one of the you know, in the back room that wasn't my grandparents room. But so, you know, things do spoil still because of the heat. But like I said, nothing lasted that long enough, gota.

00:11:41
Speaker 2: How do you rate your culinary skills? One to ten?

00:11:44
Speaker 3: I know too much. I know too much about what I don't know, so I would say a seven.

00:11:49
Speaker 1: Okay, So from one to ten? How would your daughter rate your culinary skills?

00:11:54
Speaker 3: In eight and a half.

00:11:55
Speaker 1: She's hot, she loves you, she's tough, but she gives you a higher rating than you would give you.

00:12:00
Speaker 2: High rating.

00:12:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, because she doesn't know enough to give me a lower rating.

00:12:06
Speaker 2: I got that all right.

00:12:07
Speaker 3: She would give me a zero in singing capability though.

00:12:11
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm gonna ask about the glitter. You know, I'm gonna ask about glitter. What snack is your kryptonite? You know you're gonna pay for it in the gym if you take it, but you do it anyway. What snack is your kryptonite?

00:12:23
Speaker 3: A lot of snacks, spiced cashoes, masala cashoes, or chips. Potato chips. That's a tough one, especially the halapeno potato chips from Cape Cod. I can take down a whole bag, a big bag, without blinking.

00:12:40
Speaker 1: I didn't realize how strong the potato chip addiction was in the roots thread. Around January, we start you know, everyone starts the conversation.

00:12:48
Speaker 2: Of like, okay, what you're going to clean up or whatever, and.

00:12:50
Speaker 1: The challenge, Like for people, the challenge was no more potato chips. And I didn't realize how much I eat them until I went to the tonight show. Like it's almost like breathing because they're everywhere.

00:13:03
Speaker 3: Oh, I know, it's a nightmare. It's like you can't get away from it. I mean, I'm looking forward to my daughter going to college because then I can get rid of a lot of so she brings the snacks in and well, I mean, I want my daughter to be able to eat all kinds of foods. I don't want her body not to know what it's like to process a variety of things all the way on one end of the spectrum.

00:13:26
Speaker 1: So I want to know, what's the worst thing in your fridge right now? Lunchibles?

00:13:30
Speaker 3: No? Hell no, hey, don't y No. I mean the worst thing in my fridge right now is probably protein shakes because that's not real food. But it's a necessary evil for me because I just don't get enough protein, got it. But I mean I want her to enjoy and be able to process her body, able to process everything from taco bell, which she eats too often all the way to nothing but fruits and vegetables.

00:13:56
Speaker 1: But well, she's also teenagers eventually, yeah, she's sophistication.

00:14:03
Speaker 2: Comes in and that stuff and she'll but.

00:14:05
Speaker 3: You know, we make it a point to eat fifty percent fruits and vegetables on every plate if I'm cooking or she's eating at home. Okay, you know, so I just want to make sure she gets enough nutrition and healthy food and all that. Then I just want her to be a regular teenager. But when she leaves, all that stuff is gonna go. But the other addiction I have, which is really bad is dark chocolate.

00:14:30
Speaker 1: Really yeah, I want to get into it so bad, but to me, it's still like I'd rather have the unhealthy chocolate. But what is it about dark chocolate that the fact that we can have much more of it and not pay for it?

00:14:44
Speaker 3: I will? I mean, there have been weeks where four or five nights out of seven I have finished a whole Hue chocolate bar, the salty one or the crunchy mint one. Okay, and I have a little dorm fridge in my bedroom.

00:15:00
Speaker 2: Did you not supposed to have with this?

00:15:01
Speaker 3: Next? Exactly tucked into, you know, a little closet, and I went to the Tin Building and Sean George gave me a tour and there he's got this obnoxiously beautiful candy store in there, and he just loaded me up with all this chocolate because he knows. And so now I am armed to the teeth with my own vice.

00:15:21
Speaker 1: I have a question about food rules. Okay, so twice in my life I've been ridiculed, not even ridiculed, only twice.

00:15:31
Speaker 2: No messages with me.

00:15:33
Speaker 1: No, But I didn't know Chicago's relationship with ketchup.

00:15:37
Speaker 3: I what is the ketchup?

00:15:39
Speaker 2: Okay? So I have a theory about it.

00:15:41
Speaker 1: No one's verified it, but like, you get no respect in Chicago if you put ketchup on your hot dog.

00:15:49
Speaker 3: Oh yes, I know about this. Jimmy asked me about this, and.

00:15:52
Speaker 1: They kick you out and they kick you out of it. I got kicked out of the establishment because I wanted to see what would happen. And I pulled out my pack and they were like you got to go, Like seriously, I don't know why I believe that. My theory is that because the Hines families in Pittsburgh, Oh, that it's some kind and there's some rival, yes between well, you know, I also know that the various businesses that Capone had somewhere food establishments that well as well. I know that there was a point in the forties I believe like some Hines products couldn't even get into certain establishments. Oh but in general, now it's just like yick the other one of one?

00:16:32
Speaker 3: Or do they put on their hot dog anything anything?

00:16:35
Speaker 1: But no ketchup is allowed on a hot dog, like just mustard relish onions. But it's absolute sin to put ketchup on a hot dog.

00:16:43
Speaker 3: I also think it's because there are a lot of Polish immigrants that settled in Chicago, and so sausage is really big in Chicago, so they might think of hot dogs as sort of a you know, descendant of the sausage. And no one wants to put ketchup on an actual kilbosa.

00:17:02
Speaker 2: Got it? Okay? I will though anyway.

00:17:05
Speaker 1: The other thing, of course, is with black twitter. Some people have revealed that they'll take their grits also with butter and sugar. Now here's oh the way you're you just scouted at me.

00:17:19
Speaker 3: It's not the butter is the sugar, Okay?

00:17:22
Speaker 1: So listen, have you ever had cream of wheat?

00:17:25
Speaker 3: Yeah?

00:17:26
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, I mean yeah, I mean.

00:17:28
Speaker 3: Look, it's like, look, I'm not a big oatmeal fan, but people put maple syrup on that, so I guess the sugar is a version of a sweetener, like a syrup, Right, So I can get with that, But no Southern person.

00:17:42
Speaker 1: Look, ninety five percent of the time I will eat grits savory as they should be, but sometimes I'll have like I'm not a I'm not a still cut oatmeal fan, but if there's a grit option, I will somehow program my brain to okay this, I'll make this like cream of wheat. But my whole thing was, is there a food rule that you've abided by that you also break? Like, is there another tradition that's not supposed to happen.

00:18:15
Speaker 3: I'm not that steadfast with rules like that.

00:18:19
Speaker 2: Okay.

00:18:19
Speaker 3: I don't generally have sweet breakfasts unless I'm having like a big bowl of yogurt, which is some maple syrup and cinnamon.

00:18:27
Speaker 2: Got it.

00:18:27
Speaker 3: My breakfast tend to be very minimal or.

00:18:31
Speaker 1: Savory, gotcha.

00:18:33
Speaker 3: Like even cottage cheese to me, is a savory thing.

00:18:36
Speaker 2: I always thought it savor.

00:18:38
Speaker 3: Some people put weird stuff in it, like pineapple, and I mean I put pomegranate teeses on it. I still think it's savory.

00:18:44
Speaker 1: I gotta try that. Yeah, I never try that. What is the most idiot proof that a person could make and never lose? Even the worst chef in the world can make this end? Absolutely?

00:19:06
Speaker 3: I mean I think everybody should be able to scramble some eggs and make some toast.

00:19:11
Speaker 2: Got it? Okay? So that's basic one on one level.

00:19:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like I had a rule when Krishna was young that I wasn't going to be a short order cook. So whatever I made for dinner, that's what was for dinner. She didn't want to eat that, she could either have leftovers if there were any, or she could have a scrambled egg wrapped in a tortilla with some raw veggies like celery, bell, pepper's carrots, whatever, because that way, at least she would get some protein, some veggies and some starch, got it. And even she could make that as of about you know, she can cook.

00:19:43
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, So for those that are in the if you've seen in one competition show, you've seen them all back sell me on the not the difference between Top Chef and America's Culinary Cup. But what is it that we will see on this sho show that we didn't see on Top Show.

00:20:02
Speaker 3: Well, I want to say first, I am not comparing this show. I know everyone naturally will because I used to host that other show. I don't see my competition as my old house. I see my competition as every other food show, you know, every other competition show, from Gordon Ramsey to whoever's on the Food Network, to Netflix and stuff. So that's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking more globally. But I'll tell you the big difference. There's a few. One is the million dollars. Okay, that's a big difference. That's double what has been on any food show ever. I think there's one food show that's offering half a million on Netflix. I don't remember the name of the show, but this is more than any other prize in culinary competition history. So that's it. One million dollars. The other thing is we do not have a format. There's no levels that you rise to, there's no mystery box of ingredients, there's no first we're doing a little thing, then we're doing a big there's none of that. Our show is governed by ten culinary commandments that we think are essential to master in order to be a world class chef. And every week we test for one of those principles of cooking and whatever is the best way to test for that principle or culinary commandment, that's what we do. So I mean, in one show, there could be one long challenge. In another show, there could be two. In a third episode, there could be a series of small ones. So it's always different every time.

00:21:34
Speaker 1: So when you speak of the commandments, is this a bible that you guys have written or is this a general culinary world. These are the general principles of what we abide by for what food should be.

00:21:48
Speaker 3: When I was developing the show, because I am not a chef, I'm a food writer, I took a lot of counsel and guidance and actively sought out people really admire, you know, like Danielle, like Jean George, like Eric repair a lot of people you know a lot of women too, And I ask them what they think the most important qualities are. And you know, there are a couple that it's hard to test for in the confines of a game like this, for instance, leadership. You know, leadership is really hard because they're competing against each other. But there are universal things that you need to master, like mastering the art of meat, both butchering it and cooking it, and understanding what the cuts are, how to portion them so they're even sized and weight you know it's a lot. And then there's you know, mastery of vegetable cookery. Then there's innovation, science and technology. There's consistency. There's sustainability because your food costs, never mind the planet and the environment, your food cost are gravely affected by how sustainable your business is.

00:23:04
Speaker 1: So things like that, Like in film, I know what I want to see editing wise, but I don't have to learn how to d I'm going to be wise if I knew how to edit or do my lights or sound or do everything.

00:23:17
Speaker 2: But I mean, is that required?

00:23:19
Speaker 1: Like is Daniel whom required to know every aspect of the levels of his kitchen from prepping and like is that required to head a kitchen to know all levels of production?

00:23:35
Speaker 3: I don't think what I'm about to say is Germaine only to being a chef or to a professional kitchen. It is my belief that while you may not need to know every granular detail of every aspect of the job, you will be a better leader if you know what you're talking about and you can at least communicate what you want. And I think the best leaders of any shit are the ones who thoroughly can articulate their vision. People want to know how to deliver the best and if you're clear with them. You know, for instance, when I created Tastination or even America's Culinary Cup, I don't know what lens to use on that camera. Right when they're saying give me a sixty, you give me a two hundred, I don't know what that means. But my next goal before I create any other show is to go and shadow my GP somewhere, you know, just put on my sneakers baseball cap, disappear behind him and learn that, because then I can effectuate the result I want.

00:24:45
Speaker 2: Got it?

00:24:46
Speaker 3: So that will take me a long time, you know what I'm saying, I don't understand. Like what I did with the America's Culinary Cup is that I hired the best people I could, you know, But I only hired like the head of the department got you, and then I let them hire everyone working under them because they know. But before when I hired them, I made sure they knew what I was looking for, and that was the most clear. In the culinary department, we have a great culinary producer named Mary. You know, she worked under Joel Robischon for a long time. She also went to UC Berkeley, very learned and skilled and as persnickety as I am. And she did that work. I did not do that work. But then I checked her work, and I went through that pantry like a fine toothed comb.

00:25:34
Speaker 2: You're a micromanagement.

00:25:35
Speaker 3: I like to think of myself as detail oriented. Okay, I'm a classic Ago if there ever was one. Okay, but you know the same with my set designer. My set designer is a very very.

00:25:50
Speaker 2: I'm very impressed with that set.

00:25:51
Speaker 3: Thank you.

00:25:52
Speaker 1: First of all, is that a real place? Yes?

00:25:55
Speaker 2: Okay? So where?

00:25:57
Speaker 3: No? No, it's not a real place. We built it in a warehouse.

00:26:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you know.

00:26:02
Speaker 3: It's meant to look like a real place.

00:26:04
Speaker 1: I'm on year six of building my farm, and yet I was like, did you just build this within seconds?

00:26:11
Speaker 3: And I mean not seconds, but here's the thing.

00:26:14
Speaker 2: Again, and does it break down everything?

00:26:16
Speaker 3: It break down, it breaks down. It's now in storage and big pieces. But let me tell you, this set is the thing that I paid the most attention to. Here's why I was trying to refresh the genre. I knew I was gonna get compared to all these other shows out there, whether I had hosted them or not. And I have a lot of fully formed opinions having done this for so many years. I did not want that set to look like a TV set. I didn't want that set to look like a shiny floor game show or even any other culinary show you've seen. And most sets are either proscenium stage or rectilinear. Yes, kitchens are, but there's a lot of research that shows that people are more focused and more creative in non rectilinear spaces. And that's why they're always encouraging writers to get out in nature, because rounder, softer spaces create an environment where your brain has to just think differently for whatever reason. And so I wanted something that felt like an arena, but most importantly felt like an actual high end kitchen. So that is not my kitchen on that show is no different than the kitchen that you would see if you walked into French laundry right, or Jean George or Daniel Hum's kitchen. It's bigger, It's a lot bigger, and it's oval. There are no corners in the acc kitchen, and so that was very purposeful. Another thing that I did is I didn't want you know what it looks like. You spent a lot of time at Rock Center. So there's no neon lights, there's no you know, velvet walls and jeweled to there's nothing that There's no chochki's on the walls because I want these chefs to have a pristine and high end focused laboratory. That's why it's specifically very minimal. It almost looks Japanese in a way.

00:28:16
Speaker 1: But white was also a risky choice because if you're making food, then everything you said, I'm glad you said. I'm glad I asked this question because even when I was watching it, I was like, I can't pinpoint it. But there's something really engaging and hypnotic about this set that it has me watching and studying every detail of it. Well, because it's the supermarket you guys built.

00:28:38
Speaker 3: I didn't want there to be anything to distract our chefs. I wanted a culinary cathedral.

00:28:46
Speaker 1: I did you built it?

00:28:48
Speaker 3: And I wanted the highest end restaurant grade equipment. I mean that kitchen has more comby ovens, blast chillers, salamanders, you know, anything you could want, and it has enough for everybody. So you know, on other game shows or other food shows, you see the chefs competing to get some equipment and someone always winds up with a bum oven or whatever, and I didn't want that. So every chef has a six foot by three foot counter. Every chef has six burners and an oven and place to put all the equipment that they use the most, all of it.

00:29:25
Speaker 1: Okay, So I don't know how it is on other shows, but I was wondering, did you have it spaced out so much so that there is no possibility of a sabotage situation?

00:29:37
Speaker 2: I mean, I didn't know how deep in.

00:29:39
Speaker 1: The competition level of but an amateur like me would automatically think, like put vinegar inside there, anila astrak or whatever.

00:29:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, there is, but I don't think any First of all, we have about twenty five cameras running, so you would be a fool to do that, let alone do it on national television.

00:29:56
Speaker 1: Tell that to Tanya Harding.

00:30:01
Speaker 3: But you know what I wanted. I don't think the chefs that we have on our show would want to win because they sabotage anyone. They have too much honor and pride in their own work. So I wanted to see you say you're the best. All right, come to this arena. Let me give you every toy, every ingredient, every piece of weaponry you need to create at the highest level.

00:30:26
Speaker 2: Gotcha.

00:30:27
Speaker 3: And you know, if you're going to ask Venus Williams to come play at Wimbledon, are you going to give her a crappy racket. You're going to manicure that court and make sure it's great, because that's what a goat like that deserves. And I wanted to treat our chefs exactly the same.

00:30:43
Speaker 1: Now, you know, we're professionals, and once you get to a certain level and certain plateau, there's comfort, and then you change your lifestyle and then next thing, you know, safety is your thing. How hard was it leaving such an institution like Top Chef, in which you were nineteen seasons strong. I mean, yeah, the Susan Lucci of it all, with the Emmy nominations, But to knock that Jinga down and start all over again. Like if you can talk about the straw that broke the camels back in terms of you wanting to pivot and start all over again and rebuild.

00:31:20
Speaker 3: I can't talk about the straw that broke the cables back, but I.

00:31:24
Speaker 1: Will sort of feeling after the day after you finalized it, what did you feel the day after?

00:31:29
Speaker 3: It was very scary, you know, it was I'm not gonna lie, it was. It was very vulnerable making to leave a house that I helped build and a legacy that I'm very proud of. And by the way, ninety seven percent of the people on stage I really love and consider family on Top Chef, and I'm still rooting for them, you know. And I didn't knock that Jenga down. Kristin Kish, who is someone I've known for ten years, you know, took my place, and I thought that was a great way to leave. I wanted to leave for a while, and there were many reasons that had to do with my leaving, so it was not a rash decision. It was still a scary decision. And you know, one day I'll be able to talk about all the reasons. But I do think I was ready for a new intellectual challenge. You know, everything I had wanted to do or been able to do on that show. Given the confines of how it was created and formed.

00:32:37
Speaker 1: You never had the final word there, whereas here, I mean here you have a stronger suggestion there.

00:32:42
Speaker 2: Maybe.

00:32:43
Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean I was an executive producer and yes, but I mean I didn't create that show. You know, I was involved in the development, but I didn't even do it first for season. If we remember, this is Different, you know, this is really a brainchild of all of the experience that I've gained over my career, and so it's just a different animal. You know, we're not looking to throw obstacles in the chef's way. We're not looking to have them use retail ingredients that you know, people using their homes. We're not making them fight for any you know what I mean. It's just like the ethos of our show, I believe Is Different is completely opposing most culinary shows. Most culinary shows are trying to trip them up. I'm not. I'm trying to support these people who I really believe are scientists and artists and journeymen. Also because we forget but cooking is manual labor. At the end of the day, it has to do with endurance, and it's a physical job, not only from your senses and your palate, but just like without ruining anything. You will see that in the second episode it is difficult physically for some of the people to do what we're asking them because of their brute strength.

00:34:04
Speaker 2: Gotcha. So okay.

00:34:06
Speaker 1: In competition shows and some reality shows, being the bad guy, the difficult person is required for success. How uncomfortable is it air quote breaking hearts or delivering bad news sending someone home? Like, how do you not get your heart involved? Because even with this show, Like I'm already interested in you know, the woman who gave up her wedding to be here, which at first, when she first said that, I was like, hmmm, that's slyly manipulative, because you know, I'm going to be invested in the story, Like she gave a wedding day for this.

00:34:43
Speaker 3: I didn't know that until you saw. Yeah. Because also I approved a large pool of contestants that was about sixty or eighty people. You know, we had a casting director. You could only come by invitation to our competition. You could not apply, gotcha? By invitation only, so when they're in those golden envelopes at the beginning, they're really getting notified. But I picked a large pool. I chucked some people out that she thought might be good. I added some people that she thought may not, you know, hadn't thought of necessarily. And after I picked that pool, I stepped away my producers, my showrunner, my producing partnerses In Rovner, and my very skilled CBS executives who have also been in charge of, you know, other big shows. There was a group of people that came together and picked the final sixteen contestants. I did not know who made that cut until I got in the kitchen on the first day. I didn't want to know. I gave them very, very you know, specific parameters. I want diversity. I want as many women as there are men. I want to make sure they're coming from all parts of America. So it really is America's culinary cup, not just coastal cup. You know. But I didn't want to know.

00:35:59
Speaker 1: Do show those of this nature make people better cooks necessarily? Or is this more or less a test to how do you solve problems with the clock running out?

00:36:10
Speaker 3: It's both, Okay, it's really both because you know, you have to of course be a great cook and a great chef and think on your feet and be able to see ahead to not only what you can accomplish, but what you can accomplish within the parameters of that timeframe. But it's also a show that really really has to do with strategy. It's a lot of strategy, and in that way it is and it isn't like being a real chef, you know, because you have more time to think about things and you can hire the people you want. But in this show, other than certain times when we're asking you to work in Paris, it's just too much for one person to do. You're really on your own. Most chefs walk in they've got their whole meson plas already done for them. They've got everything chopped.

00:36:57
Speaker 1: You know.

00:36:57
Speaker 3: One guy's assaucier and the other guys work in the grill, and other woman is doing the garmnge right here. You are doing everything yourself, and a lot of these chefs nowadays don't do that for themselves, you know. Like especially that came clear when we saw like the Mastering the Art of Meat, because a lot of these chefs who are younger they don't know how to break down a whole animal because they haven't had to do it. They're just getting cuts that are already parsed out.

00:37:27
Speaker 2: Got you got it?

00:37:28
Speaker 3: Er?

00:37:29
Speaker 2: Okay?

00:37:31
Speaker 1: Isn't there a squeamish level of or do you just have to work through that as a chef?

00:37:36
Speaker 3: I mean there was for me just observing it because I grew up a vegetarian, But it is if you are going to serve meat, you should know where it comes from and you should be prepared to look at that with clear open eyes. You otherwise you shouldn't be serving me.

00:37:55
Speaker 5: You know, I got it? Okay.

00:38:09
Speaker 1: So when I entered the food space, like around two thousand and nine twenty ten, the one thing that I wasn't aware of when going to these various restaurants was like, oh, I don't see any women heading up. You know, I rarely see chefs, and you know, once I started interviewing and investigating a lot of it was like, well, you know, when you choose this world, this comes first. Like the way Daniel told me that eleven Madison is run. It's twenty four hour operation. Yeah, the last person leaves at one and they got to clean up prepare for the next day, and that doesn't allow you to be a parent or a partner that sort of thing. So has much changed have we made? Even if it's slow as molasses strides now they we're in twenty twenty six, or.

00:38:53
Speaker 3: Is there still There's still a lot to be done. And I believe that both women and men should be present for their children. So you know, a lot of that work, domestic work has often fallen on the shoulders of women, regardless of whatever profession we're talking about. There is no industry safe for maybe the military that is more male dominated than the restaurant industry.

00:39:19
Speaker 2: So weird because when we grow up, mom's supposed.

00:39:22
Speaker 5: To do it.

00:39:25
Speaker 3: Most of the food in the world is made by women. Most of the money from professionally selling food is made by men. But you know, I mean, this is a whole nother tangent. But it's not just the food industry, is just patriarchy in general. But there are also a lot of reasons that you know, you're on your feet again. It's manual labor. The hours are terrible, you're never home for lunch or dinner, right, But there are chefs who are designing schedules for their kitchen step and for themselves that are much more humane and much fairer. You know, a lot of them, Like I know at once Cosme even had an all female kitchen and they were able to do it. I know that a few years back, Danny Meyer gave maternity leave or you know, parental leave. And so there are people who are trying to better the system, and it will continue to be better and more equitable when more women land in, you know, positions of power, because not only do you not see a lot of women up there, you don't see a lot of black and brown folk up there. You don't, which is crazy because.

00:40:36
Speaker 1: That's what built this country.

00:40:37
Speaker 3: Also, yeah, you know, when you open the door to the back of the house, the kitchen, all the faces you see are black and brown faces. But then when you get to the head chef, the executive chef, all of a sudden, it's a white dude.

00:40:51
Speaker 2: Got you all right, We're going to do rapid fire. I let you go.

00:40:54
Speaker 1: Best be to New York Stretch Stretch.

00:40:58
Speaker 3: Where's that stretches on Park and twenty fourth. It is Wiley Dufrain's Pizzeria.

00:41:04
Speaker 2: Is it Molecular Pizza?

00:41:05
Speaker 3: Just it's just yummy. I can try it. But there's lots of good pizza. There's Una Pizza Napolitana down you know, in the Lower East Side. I happen to like a group of restaurants that are called Grupo vetso spunto at the end of it.

00:41:22
Speaker 1: I guess.

00:41:22
Speaker 3: So they're cute. They're like brick lined. You can get beer and wine there, and that is if like a Roman Pizza and a New York Slice had a baby, and so that's pretty good too.

00:41:33
Speaker 1: Okay, do you sleep in silence or do you have to have music or TV or something on in the background.

00:41:40
Speaker 3: I sleep with a podcast.

00:41:43
Speaker 2: What do you listen to Hidden Brain?

00:41:46
Speaker 5: Ah?

00:41:47
Speaker 2: Okay, I listened to audio books.

00:41:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, same Princeville. I will listen to audio books too. There's a great book that's based on Youngian dream theory. It's not by Carl Jung, but it's by doctors who practice that called dream Wise. Was recommended to me by a friend of mine named Channy, and that I enjoyed. But what's great about Falling Asleep to Steph is that I will listen to one episode six times because I fall asleep, you know, And I mean I'm friends with Iragas, and he says he hates when people tell him that they listen to this American life well, because it's like, that's not a compliment, and I wish I totally get. But again, I'm a learner, so I love. And I'm also a very auditory person more than a visual person. I'm an auditory person, so I learn that way. And I love books on tape. I love you know, podcasts and all that stuff.

00:42:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, got you, all right? So what establishment are you?

00:42:44
Speaker 1: Slightly embarrassed to admit that you frequent for Valentine's Day? White Castle is very hard to get into.

00:42:52
Speaker 3: Really.

00:42:52
Speaker 1: Oh they transform it into a missilin level like step and repeat sexy lighting. They come and serve you once a year. White Castle goes all out. You can't get like I had to go up in the Bronx to take a date there.

00:43:07
Speaker 2: No, it's a real thing.

00:43:08
Speaker 3: That's kind of sweet. I love that. That makes me like White Castle.

00:43:11
Speaker 1: They did it as the irony thing, but then it became popular. So what establishment are you?

00:43:17
Speaker 3: It sounds like you're asking me about what my guilty pleasure is. And I don't feel any guilt in taking pleasure in any area.

00:43:24
Speaker 2: So you're in the zero fox stage of your life right now.

00:43:27
Speaker 3: I am. It feels really good too.

00:43:29
Speaker 2: Okay, what is the greatest cereal of all time?

00:43:32
Speaker 3: Golden Grams?

00:43:34
Speaker 2: Smart damn pama I you.

00:43:39
Speaker 1: What's the one occurrence in your life that changed everything? What's the moment that was a paradigm shift of your life?

00:43:46
Speaker 3: When I gave birth to Krishna. It helped me so much as a human being and also in my career. Yes, you know, because all of a sudden I was much more productive and I stop navel gazing, and you know, I was able to make decisions really quick, and I was very decisive, and everybody around me benefited SR sharp.

00:44:06
Speaker 2: Focus and all that.

00:44:08
Speaker 1: Okay, Japanese restaurants are my litmus tests for people. Everything I want to know about a person I can find out in forty five minutes of how do you use food as a means to find out who your personal circle will be? No, so, if you go to dinner and someone to ask for ketchup to put on their wagon steak, you're not being like I'm not You're not.

00:44:29
Speaker 3: Not at all. I mean, one of the people that I was really in love with, it didn't work out. Was a person who had the eating habits of a six year old, and it.

00:44:41
Speaker 1: Was oh with the no yo, that's the game, danger yo.

00:44:45
Speaker 3: It was very hard, it really was, and you know everybody would be like, I can't believe you're with this person and you are eating you know this four times a week. But he didn't have a very good sense of smell, and so that affects your tastes a lot. But you know, there were other redeeming qualities that made him a genius.

00:45:07
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, what year do you have the most fondest memories of? Like what is your when you think of nineteen da da da da da or two thousand da da da da, Like what is the.

00:45:20
Speaker 2: I missed that time?

00:45:22
Speaker 3: Nineteen ninety seven that was the year. Yeah, I mean I started my television career in Italy co hosting a live show with no five second tape delay. And I was on that show for half a season and then an agent cast me or asked me to be part of a cast of a mini series that was shooting in Cuba, and then I went to Cuba and I spent four months in Cuba. That was my first film as an actor, and it was the best four months of my life. I loved Cuba, Dame.

00:45:56
Speaker 1: I love it to death. All Right, this is the last two questions I have for you. All Right, you were in Glitter.

00:46:02
Speaker 3: I knew I wasn't gonna We had hung out so many times. Why are you waiting for this one?

00:46:08
Speaker 1: I waited so long I wanted to ask you that first. No, because I have a different relationship with Glitter only because you know it came out nine to eleven. Yeah, and there was only two movies to watch, what Blue Steel, Zoolander in Glitter. So I remember one day I just hung out at the movie theater and seen both films like twice in a row because there was nothing to do. And when you started singing, that's a guts though.

00:46:37
Speaker 3: Like they asked me to sing badly. I tried to sing as badly as I could.

00:46:42
Speaker 2: Is that your real voice?

00:46:43
Speaker 3: I mean, it's my voice when I'm trying to sing badly. I'm not again, Can you sing sing? I used to be inquired, but I really can't sing. I got you. I can't sing because I think also I used to be able to sing, but somewhere around there the nineties, really my voice up. We don't have time in this PG show to go through why but yeah, okay, let me just say I was a model in the nineties in Milan and Paris.

00:47:10
Speaker 2: I I already know what you're going all right.

00:47:13
Speaker 1: My last question, what is the best compliment you've ever received?

00:47:18
Speaker 3: That I am the funniest person in the room.

00:47:21
Speaker 2: Actually you are.

00:47:22
Speaker 3: Thank you.

00:47:23
Speaker 2: You're the greatest wingman I have.

00:47:25
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that makes me happy.

00:47:27
Speaker 2: No, I'm that serious.

00:47:28
Speaker 1: Like of there's maybe three people that other people are really impressed. I know you came to my very first game night, very late, and when you walked in the amount of times my phone started buzzing, like, holy shit, you know her?

00:47:45
Speaker 2: Like literally, it's you.

00:47:47
Speaker 3: Know, will you introduced me to Taylor Swift?

00:47:50
Speaker 1: Yes, both of y'all came, but you were the star that night. Oh my god, she's snuck in unnoticed. You came in like and.

00:47:58
Speaker 3: Literally, oh that's very kind.

00:48:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, you're You're the best wingman I've ever had. I thank you for doing this.

00:48:06
Speaker 3: I love you so much.

00:48:08
Speaker 1: I'm very happy that you are pushing forward, getting your ideas out there, trying to change the culture, trying to change how we see food as a social adhesive. And you're doing the Lord's work. And I thank you for doing this.

00:48:20
Speaker 3: Thank you right back, got you.

00:48:22
Speaker 1: Pad Malaxmy on the Quest Left Show.

00:48:24
Speaker 2: I'll see you guys on the next go round.

00:48:26
Speaker 3: Bye bye.

00:48:31
Speaker 1: Quest Loft Show is hosted by Me Mir Quest Love Thompson. The executive producers are Sean g Brian Calhoun and Me.

00:48:41
Speaker 4: Produced by Britney Benjamin and Jake Payne. Produced for iHeart by Noel Brown, Edited by Alex Knoy. iHeart Video support by Mark Canton, Logos graphics and animation by Nick Blowe.

00:49:00
Speaker 1: Additional support by Lance Coleman. Special thanks to Kathy Brown. Special thanks to Sugar Steve Mandel. Please subscribe, break, review, and share The Quest Loft Show wherever you stream your podcast, and make sure you follow us on socials That's at QLs. Check out hundreds and hundreds of QLs episodes, including the Quest Love Supreme Shows and our podcast archives. Quest Loom Show is a production of iHeartRadio,