Podcast Summary: Critics at Large Live — Padma Lakshmi’s Expansive Taste

Podcast: Critics at Large | The New Yorker
Episode: Critics at Large Live: Padma Lakshmi’s Expansive Taste
Date: November 6, 2025
Hosts: Vinson Cunningham (C), Alexandra Schwartz (D), Nomi Fry (A)
Guest: Padma Lakshmi (B)

Main Theme

This special live episode brings acclaimed producer, writer, and television host Padma Lakshmi to the Critics at Large stage at the New Yorker Festival. The central theme is a deep, engaging exploration of "taste" — in food, culture, art, and criticism — through the lens of Lakshmi’s experiences as a child immigrant, model, culinary authority, and now burgeoning comedian. The hosts and Lakshmi debate how taste defines individuals and communities, what it means to have "good taste," and how exposure, curiosity, and judgment play into both personal and cultural evolution.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Padma Lakshmi’s Cultural Journey and the Roots of Taste

• Padma's earliest memories of taste: Recounts being encouraged by her grandmother to try bold flavors—spicy foods, pickles, chilies—as a child in India.
• Exposure to color and design: Describes textile shopping for saris in Chennai and learning to distinguish subtle hues — linking visual discernment to broader aesthetic taste.

  “I learned, you know, sort of at the hem of my grandmother's sari, so to speak.” (B, 08:15)

• Immigrant experience and New York: Describes arriving in America at age four on Halloween, being delighted and bewildered by the festive, rule-breaking spirit—imprinting early on freedom of expression and, tangentially, taste.

  “America, this magical land where all you have to do is put some weird clothes on and people give you candy.” (B, 09:17)

2. Taste vs. Pickiness

• Defining good taste: Padma frames good taste as knowing “good from bad, pleasurable versus punishing,” rooted in willing exposure and open-mindedness.

  “A person who has taste has it because they’re willing to try many things. And a person who's picky has no taste because they don't want to try anything.” (B, 14:34)

• Collective resonance: Hosts remark that taste both distinguishes individuals and creates collective ties, especially in an atomized age.

  “Taste... gives these two connecting points between your individuality and then a bigger collective that you're part of.” (D, 04:12)

3. Travel as Taste Education

• Lakshmi credits travel—her years in Italy, France, and Europe, first via modeling work—with expanding and deepening her taste, especially as an immigrant straddling multiple cultures.

  “The best thing that happened to me was all that travel... The more expansive your taste becomes, your sense of taste. But also, hopefully, the better it becomes.” (B, 12:01)

• Describes learning about fine dining and classic European cuisines only as an adult, stressing the importance of being open and curious.

4. Taste in Criticism — Judgment and Kindness

• The hosts and Lakshmi discuss the ethics of public criticism and “tasteful” judgment:
  • Lakshmi draws on her experience with Top Chef and coming show America’s Culinary Cup, emphasizing that criticism should be constructive, face-to-face, and aimed at helping others improve.

  “I always try to be constructive in my criticism. I don't ever say I don't like this... I say, what could make it better, what I don't think worked, and what it felt like to eat it.” (B, 19:06)

  • She also highlights the responsibility of critics to communicate vividly and honestly when the audience cannot directly experience the thing being judged (i.e., food on TV).
• Alexandra Schwartz connects this to the role of good criticism in making things better—not just venting negativity.

  “That really is the root of good negative criticism. It’s, I want this to be better, and it could be.” (D, 20:23)

5. From Judge to Explorer: Taste the Nation

• Lakshmi contrasts her role as a judge on Top Chef with her approach on Taste the Nation and her new book Padma’s All American, where the work is “more about sharing, exploring, and building community.”

  “It’s sort of the last seven years of my life in food... and really finding what I thought was important to bring to a larger audience... It was just a way to build community between Americans in a positive way.” (B, 22:01)

• The show and book, while ostensibly focusing on food, serve as vehicles for cultural and political exploration, using food’s specificity and emotional resonance to foster understanding.

6. Pride, Memory, and the Emotional Science of Taste

• The conversation turns to why food elicits deep personal and cultural pride.
  • Lakshmi references the neurological link between taste, smell, and emotional memory, explaining how food can instantly transport people back to formative places or relationships.

  “Where your sense of taste, well, your sense of smell, your olfactory sense is a lot of your sense of taste. And where that is housed in your brain is very, very close to where emotional memory is also stored.” (B, 24:28)

7. Comedy as a New Arena for Taste

• Lakshmi discusses venturing into stand-up comedy, which she finds both “exhilarating and terrifying,” especially as a well-known figure.

  “When you are well known, you don’t get to fail in private... I say things in my standup that I would never say in an interview in the New Yorker...” (B, 28:14)

• She reflects on her taste in comedy as "crass and really dirty," citing early Richard Pryor as an influence, and appreciates the immediacy and visceral feedback of performing live.

8. Advice for Cultivating Taste

• Padma encourages developing taste by exposing oneself relentlessly to new experiences—especially through eating and travel—not by following rigid lessons or rules.

  “Develop your palate by eating, by traveling, by exposure and proximity to the thing that you want to learn.” (B, 31:43)

9. AI Slop, Transgression, and the Moving Window of Taste

• An audience question sparks lively debate: Can bad or “abhorrent” AI-generated content actually become good or tasteful through repetition or ironic appreciation?
  • The group agrees on the importance of maintaining boundaries and self-awareness, half-jokingly referencing doom-scrolling as a shared human weakness.

  “It's fascinating. Like a car crash, except we’re in the car, right?” — (A, 34:54)

10. End-of-Show Taste Recommendations

• Padma: Frankenstein (film) for its costumes and performances:

  “It's just a masterclass in filmmaking. It's a different kind of AI. It's actual intelligence.” (B, 36:30)

• Vinson: Baby by Dijon (album):

  “If you haven’t heard this album, it’s the best. Go get it.” (C, 35:43)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On taste vs. pickiness:

  “A person who has taste has it because they're willing to try many things. And a person who's picky has no taste because they don't want to try anything.” (B, 14:34)

• On the emotional power of food:

  “There's so much emotion and history and personal narrative in that one little cookie or chicken leg or, you know, tamale, whatever.” (B, 24:28)

• On public criticism:

  “It's not so much what you say, but how you say it. And I think it's very important to look someone in the eye when you're critiquing them because it shows that you stand by your opinion.” (B, 18:09)

• On comedy:

  “It turns out my taste in comedy is really crass and really dirty.” (B, 29:04)

• On advice for cultivating taste:

  “Develop your palate by eating, by traveling, by exposure and proximity to the thing that you want to learn.” (B, 31:43)

• On AI content:

  “It's fascinating. Like a car crash, except we’re in the car, right?... I don't know that I can say that it's actually good. Like, it's something else.” (A, 34:54)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Padma on Defining Good Taste: 06:25
• Early Influences — Childhood and India: 07:14
• First Impressions of New York, Halloween: 08:57
• The Difference Between Taste and Pickiness: 14:14
• Criticism Philosophy and Top Chef: 17:03
• Transition to Documentary-style Storytelling: 21:55
• Food as Memory & Identity: 24:28
• Discussion of AI Content and Taste: 32:28
• Audience Taste Recommendations: 35:32
• Padma’s Film Recommendation: 35:54

Conclusion

This episode weaves personal anecdote, thoughtful critique, and lively audience participation into an insightful meditation on taste — artistic, culinary, personal, and communal. Padma Lakshmi emerges as a figure whose journey—across continents and disciplines—demonstrates that true taste comes from curiosity, wide exposure, empathy, and a willingness to be both vulnerable and exacting. The Critics at Large hosts match her candor and wit, making for a rich, memorable conversation on the values, pleasures, and challenges of being a person of taste in a rapidly changing world.