About this item
A vivid memoir of food and family, survival and triumph, Love, Loss, and What We Atetraces Padma Lakshmi s unlikely path from an immigrant childhood to a complicated life in front of the camera a tantalizing blend of Ruth Reichl s Tender at the Bone and Nora Ephron s HeartburnLong before Padma Lakshmi ever stepped onto a television set, she learned that how we eat is an extension of how we love, how we comfort, how we forge a sense of home and how we taste the world as we navigate our way through it. Shuttling between continents as a child, never quite at home in the world, she lived a life of dislocation that would become habit as an adult. And yet, through all her travels, her favorite food remained the simple rice she first ate sitting on the cool floor of her grandmother s kitchen in South India. Poignant and surprising, Love, Loss, and What We Ate is Lakshmi s extraordinary account of her journey from that humble kitchen, ruled by ferocious and unforgettable women, to the Top ChefJudges Table and beyond. It chronicles the fierce devotion of the remarkable people who shaped her along the way, from her headstrong mother who flouted conservative Indian convention to make a life in New York, to her Brahmin grandfather a brilliant engineer with an irrepressible sweet tooth to the man who was seemingly wrong for her in every way but proved to be her truest ally. A memoir rich with sensual prose and punctuated with evocative recipes, it is alive with the scents, tastes, and textures of a life that spans complex geographies both internal and external. Love, Loss, and What We Ateis an intimate and unexpected story of food and family both the ones we are born to and the ones we create and their enduring legacies. Praise for Love, Loss, and What We Ate Love, Loss, and What We Ate is the Padma we didn t know a frank, introspective look at a fascinating and unusual life. Surprisingly revealing and disarmingly bittersweet. Anthony Bourdain This vivid, generous, finely written memoir reveals the smart, vulnerable, and resourceful person behind the beautifully dressed judge telling the chefs to pack their knives and go home. And the recipes are great Francine Prose Beautifully written and moving, this book is also a feast for the senses that will leave you hungry for more. It paints an evocative picture on every page, and offers a wonderfully crafted landscape of the culinary textures and cultural touchstones that have shaped both the woman and her palate. Padma has given us something layered and lyrical an immigrant s journey, as well as a young woman s struggle to come into her own. In telling her own story with such grace and artistry, she has created something culturally important for us all. Susan Sarandon"
About the Author
Emmy-nominated Padma Lakshmi is known internationally as an actress, food expert, model and award-winning author. Lakshmi recently wrapped her twelfth season as the host of Bravo's Emmy award-winning Top Chef. Lakshmi was born in India and grew up in America. She graduated from Clark University with a Bachelor's degree in Theater Arts and American Literature. Known as India's first supermodel, she began her career as a fashion model, working in Europe and the US. Lakshmi established herself as a food expert early on in her career, having hosted two successful cooking shows and writing a best-selling cookbook Easy Exotic, for which she won the International Versailles Event for best cookbook by a first time writer. Lakshmi followed this success with the publication of her second cookbook, Tangy, Tart, Hot & Sweet, released by Weinstein Books, which has over 150 recipes from around the world alongside intriguing personal memoirs. In addition to these current projects, Lakshmi is a savvy businesswoman with multiple companies of her own. Her debut home décor line, The Padma Collection, hit floors in Bloomingdale's stores nationwide with tabletop dishware, stemware and hand-blown glass décor pieces. She has also created Padma's Easy Exotic, a collection of culinary products including frozen organic foods, fine teas, natural spice blends, as well as hard goods. For The Food Network, Lakshmi hosted Padma's Passport where she cooked diverse cuisine from around the world. Lakshmi has also hosted Planet Food, a documentary series broadcast on The Food Network and worldwide on the Discovery Channel where she journeyed to countries such as Spain and India. Lakshmi is Emmy nominated for her role as host and judge on Bravo's Top Chef which has recently been awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Reality Competition Show. Other television credits include co-hosting Rai Television's Domenica In, Italy's highest rated program.Lakshmi is also an accomplished writer. In addition to her food writing, she has contributed to such magazines as Vogue, Gourmet and British and American Harper's Bazaar as well as had a syndicated column on fashion and food for The New York Times. Originally known as the first internationally successful Indian supermodel and often noted as a global style icon, Lakshmi has been featured as People magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People and 25 Most Intriguing People, AOL's Top 20 Style Influencers, Gotham magazine's Best Dressed New Yorkers, and part of The Elle 25.She recently penned her first book of prose, entitled "Love, Loss and What We Ate," published by Harper Collins/ECCO, which hits shelves in March of 2016.
