Cookbook Author or Restaurant Chef? (with Padma Lakshmi)

Television host and cookbook author Padma Lakshmi joins Sam to talk about her new show, America’s Culinary Cup and how she’s a triple threat on it serving as creator, executive producer, and host. She reveals if she brought anyone from Top Chef with her, why it is important to set the contestants up for success, and why we crave shows where we can witness expertise. Padma talks about ten years of working with the ACLU, why her book is the antidote to Stephen Miller, and what it will take for food consumers to understand the effects of immigration raids on the food ecosystem. They commiserate on the problems of food waste and “day old” food laws, the newly inverted food pyramid, and engaging in estrogen wars with your teenage daughters. Plus they delve into why Padma really doesn’t think of herself as a chef, her comedy career and why there’s nothing better than a live audience. Keep up with Samantha Bee @realsambee on Instagram and X. And stay up to date with us @LemonadaMedia on X, Facebook, and Instagram. For a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this and every other Lemonada show, go to lemonadamedia.com/sponsors.

You can listen to Cookbook Author or Restaurant Chef? (with Padma Lakshmi) online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Cookbook Author or Restaurant Chef? (with Padma Lakshmi) is an episode from Full Release with Samantha Bee by Lemonada Media.

This episode is 57:35 long.

This episode was published on Mar 5, 2026.

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