When Padma Lakshmi packed up her knives and left "Top Chef" after nearly two decades in 2023, she had no plans to return to television to compete in culinary competitions—but CBS offered her the opportunity again. However, according to the host, creator, and executive producer, "Cooking Cup America" is not actually a reality show.
«I don’t watch a lot of reality TV, even though I’ve spent my entire career doing it. Here’s the big difference… it’s not reality TV. It’s not reality, it’s a game show. If you look closely, there’s almost nothing «real» about it. There are a lot of differences that the viewer might not even notice, but they’re very important to the contestants and the crew,» Lakshmi told TheWrap. «For example, we don’t isolate our contestants. We treat them like normal people. They’re not locked in a house. They’re allowed to live their lives normally. If they want to go out to dinner, that’s great. If they want to have family over or stay with them, that’s fine too. If you want to stay up all night memorizing food rules after the competition is over, that’s your business.».
«"I was adamant that they shouldn't live like college students, in cramped quarters. While others are preparing food, they're in the arena too. They want to watch the game. I tried to make it as close to an elite, high-level sporting event as possible," she continued. "So, of course, we interview them about what they're thinking, feeling, and making decisions—but at any NBA game or tennis match at Wimbledon, you'll see interviews with the players. That's why I don't call it reality TV. It moves away from that.".
Lakshmi also serves as a judge alongside celebrity chefs Michael Cimarusti and Wylie Dufresne, pitting 16 world-renowned contestants against each other as they compete to master the show's 10 culinary commandments.
«"Here's another way this isn't a reality show: we don't have a format," she noted. "Every episode is different, and I needed something to anchor the show. 'Cooking Commandments' served several functions for me. They allowed me to create organic episodes built around important culinary principles, rather than relying on a mysterious set of ingredients or the need to take things to the next level, or anything like that. But they also provided a unifying framework that didn't feel repetitive. I wanted to keep not only the chefs guessing, but the viewers as well.".
«"I knew I'd be compared to my other work, and I didn't want that to dictate every decision I made. If I was going to return to this genre, I wanted to create something different, so I was already mentally working through: «"What I didn't like, what I liked, and how to change it.". "I truly believed the genre needed a refresh," Lakshmi added. "What always bothered me about all these shows, in any genre, was how the actors were isolated and kept in a state of psychological stress—even their phone conversations had to be monitored. You can read as many books as you want, go to any restaurant, but it's your hands and your taste that have to be at work in this field every day.".
Lakshmi also criticized her fellow TV cooking competition hosts for not creating an environment conducive to success for contestants.
Michael Cimarusti, Padma Lakshmi and Wylie Dufresne at "Cooking Cup of America" (Jackie Brown/CBS)
«The main principle that guides all decisions in our show is: „"How can we support these amazing chefs so they can be their best selves?" Speech it's not about that, „"How can we create obstacles for them? How can we stop them?"“ " she explained. "It's like if you had a great artist, you wouldn't give him terrible brushes and lousy paints, or if you had a musician, you wouldn't give him an out-of-tune guitar or violin.".
One of the culinary principles of the first season is sustainability, and the production team proudly embraced this principle behind the scenes.
«From an economic standpoint, it’s impossible to run a restaurant with a lot of waste. But there’s also a moral imperative to respect the environment. When so many people are struggling with resource scarcity, I think, fundamentally, ethically, we have to do everything we can,» Lakshmi said. «In each episode, we instruct the chefs to only prepare sample portions; we don’t need a lot of food. You’ll see an episode where the chefs have to prepare a lot of different dishes, so we made sure to tell the crew that nothing would go to waste and that after the judging was over, we’d be able to offer them all sample portions of the dishes. It was really cool because everyone was either filming or recording all these chefs, and they were listening to us talk about food, so it was nice to share that with our large crew. And we have a really large crew.».
«"Also, there comes a point in our pantry where the ingredients don't look so pretty anymore, but they're still absolutely wonderful and usable. When something's a little wilted but still great, we replace it but give it to our production crew," she added. "We almost have a mini-retail area where our art department, camera crew, and producers can just say, 'What's this?'" „"Oh, can I get some of these edible flowers first?"“ »
Wylie Dufresne, Padma Lakshmi and Michael Cimarusti at "Cooking Cup of America" (Jackie Brown/CBS)
Additionally, the host of "Taste the Nation" and author of the cookbook "Padma's All American" also noted how patriotism is often reflected in her work.
«"I couldn't help but be drawn to that word. I think it's because, in a world where many people exclude citizens from being considered true Americans, it was important to me to reclaim that title. That's why you see me standing in front of the flag on the book cover, because I believed the flag had been appropriated by a certain ideology of white supremacy," she shared. "Our country was built by people of all ethnicities. America was brown for millennia. The white majority only became the majority population a couple hundred years ago. But 'The Cup,' again, is a reference to sports.".
«"As the creator of the show, I wanted to bring the Italian Culinary Cup and the Australian Culinary Cup to life. I'm a producer; that's my job," Lakshmi added. "Our industry is shrinking like never before, and I'm eager to expand my production company's portfolio. I want my legacy to be teaching as many people as possible about food—where it comes from, how it's prepared, its emotional component, its cultural significance, how it's not just something we eat, how it's political, and how it's simply the way most people interact with each other.".
Ultimately, the 16-time Emmy nominee is proud of the show she produces for CBS every Wednesday since the 50th season of "Survivor.".
«"I'm not a chef; I create a show for chefs. So, it was really important to me to get advice and opinions from people who are captains in the industry and whom I respect. Some of the judges who came on the show also filled out an entire questionnaire that we sent out... In the end, we didn't have enough space to include it all. We did so much that there wasn't enough space on a network show to go into detail about, for example, the points system and the categories," Lakshmi concluded. "In season two, I think we'll be able to slow down the pace, allow our judges to express more opinions, and delve deeper into certain aspects, just like we do with any other sports statistics.".
The first season of America's Cook-Off is available to stream on Paramount+.
The article, titled "For Padma Lakshmi, 'America's Culinary Cup' Is a Sporting Event, Not a Reality Show," first appeared on TheWrap.