About this item
Neela loves cooking with her amma and writing down the recipes in her notebook. It makes her feel closer to her paati who lives far away in India. On Saturdays, Neela and Amma go to the green market and today they are buying tomatoes to make Paati's famous sauce. But first, Neela needs to learn about all the different kinds of tomatoes they can pick from. And as Neela and Amma cook together, they find a way for Paati to share in both the love and the flavors of the day. Bestselling author and host of Bravo's Top Chef and Hulu's Taste the Nation Padma Lakshmi takes young readers on an intergenerational journey full of delicious flavors and fun food facts that celebrates a family's treasured recipes. And Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator Juana Martinez-Neal brings this circle of women to life with vivid detail and warmth.
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.
