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It’s late November, and Padma Lakshmi has just returned home from a cross-country tour. She’s been promoting Padma’s All American, a cookbook celebrating the immigrant and Indigenous recipes that make our culture deliciously diverse. Her green-hoodie-clad Chihuahua, Divina, jumps into her lap, while her 15-year-old daughter, Krishna Lakshmi-Dell — who her mom affectionately refers to as “Littlehands” — cozies up next to them. They’re riffing on what makes someone a “hardcore New Yorker,” arguing about their favorite films (“White Chicks is not better than A Fish Called Wanda”), and telling us that if it weren’t a school night, they would both be tempted to stay awake until the sun rises (“We have to separate ourselves from each other because we just keep talking, keeping each other up”).
We know Padma as a celebrity gourmand, a host for television shows Top Chef and Taste the Nation, an actress who once played a rival diva to Mariah Carey, a model who’s walked the runway for Ralph Lauren and Isaac Mizrahi, the writer of five books, a women’s rights activist, and even a stand-up comedian. Two years ago, she packed her knives and left Top Chef after hosting the Bravo reality competition show for 19 seasons. But she’ll be back on TV soon: Next March, she’s hosting America’s Culinary Cup, another competition series, this time produced by CBS and with a top prize of $1 million. When Padma is home, though, she’s usually swapping recipes in her kitchen with famous friends like Awkwafina and fellow food experts Melissa King and Samin Nosrat. That is, if Krishna isn’t taking the opportunity to roast her mom for being classically Gen X: Today’s Labubu is yesterday’s Monchhichi; to “crash out” is “to flip your lid” in mom terms; “aura” equals “coolness”; and don’t even think about bringing up “Six Seven.”
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Padma Lakshmi: I haven’t seen you. The book tour was hectic, and some of it was really great, and some of it was a little sucky, well, because of Grandma, but mostly, it was good.
Krishna Lakshmi-Dell: Well, I’m tired. I’ve had a long week.
Padma: I can tell.
Krishna: Okay, thank you.
Padma: I did not mean it like that, but I know my kid.
Krishna: Let’s start with this question: If you were on a deserted island and you could only bring three ingredients to sustain you, what would they be?
Padma: Rice, salt, and chile. I think that would get me through a lot because I’m assuming I could fish.
Krishna: Well, you can’t fish.
Padma: I would try. I’m not a very outdoorsy person.
Krishna: Imagine you having to literally be a hunter-gatherer.
Padma: I could gather.
Krishna: If you could host five notable people for a dinner where you didn’t have to hunt for the ingredients, who would be your guests?
Padma: You. Jesse Tyler Ferguson because he’s funny at dinner and he just interviewed me for the cookbook in L.A. — he was very good with the crowd. And who else? I’ll throw you a bone: Charli XCX or Billie Eilish.
Krishna: I could kiki with Charli. We can have a fun time.
Padma: Kiki?
Krishna: Kiki is, like, “to hang with.” With Charli, we could all have a really good night, a really late night.
Padma: Where does it come from, kiki?
Krishna: It’s a queer term. But Billie Eilish, if she was there, I think I’d genuinely just be crying the whole time.
Padma: I’ve got two more people. Nora — Awkwafina — would be hilarious. And Punkie Johnson.
Krishna: That’d be really fun. What would you cook?
Padma: I would cook pernil from the book. Or the Qabuli pulao, which is meat and rice and it’s delicious. You don’t like lamb, but you loved it. Then I would make that cake that you love from the book and the company drink, which has a lot of citrus and tequila.
Krishna: Okay, cute.
You are a model, an author and actress, a chef and a TV host, and, recently, a stand-up comedian. What’s a secret to letting yourself get comfortable and try new things or pivoting to a new career?
Padma: I’ve been lucky in my life to make a living out of what naturally interests me. Whenever I give advice to younger people, that’s what I say: Try to find a job that’s as close to what you love doing anyway for fun because that’s the key to life. I also get bored very easily, so I’m always looking to stimulate myself — it comes from that. I want to challenge myself. I want to grow. I’ve gone back to improv and some of the things I did in my younger life because the food career kind of took me one direction, which was very lucrative and it gave us the lifestyle we have. But now I’m in a place where I want to revisit some of the things that were important to me growing up.
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Krishna: You have so many different spaces that you like to dip your feet into in the industry and just with your job. What do you think is the through line of all of that?
Padma: I think the through line is that I’m always trying to communicate with others. Whether it’s writing a book or editing The Best American anthology series or making a TV show, I’m always trying to tell a story. I’m always trying to communicate an idea or a feeling. I want connection with my audience, wherever they are.
Krishna: What’s a lesson your mom tried to teach you but you had to learn the hard way?
Padma: My mom always told me to work really hard if I wanted something.
Krishna: You did not have to learn that the hard way.
Padma: I did learn it the hard way. I knew it, but there are no shortcuts. What do you think? What’s a lesson you learned the hard way?
Krishna: With my acting, I’m always asking, What can I do to get more professional work? You told me that any life experience that you have, no matter how minuscule you think it is, will inform your creativity. Experiencing culture makes you a better performer.
Padma: A better, well-rounded person.
Krishna: I think that was something I really didn’t understand until I came to the school that I’m at right now and started auditioning. There were a lot of parts that some of my peers didn’t fully understand, but I did — I understood the nuances of them because of the culture that you’ve experienced and exposed me to.
Padma: Yeah. My mom frustrates me sometimes because she always says, “Just pray.” I never could really relate to that because I’m very secular. But I will tell you, there have been some really hard moments in the last year, and in the end, I haven’t prayed, but I’ve meditated. When I haven’t been able to control certain things or I can only control my reaction to them, just meditating and taking a moment to spend time by myself and calm myself down, doing that inner work, has been the best remedy because there’s nothing else to do.
Krishna: What’s your favorite recipe to make with me?
Padma: We haven’t made it in a long time, but there was this apple cake.
Krishna: Oh, I know what you’re talking about.
Padma: It was like half-pie, half-cake or an upside-down apple cake. And we need to make that this winter because that, to me, smacks of your childhood. And Christmas. That’s my favorite thing to make with you.
Krishna: Really?
Padma: Well, it’s just fun. And the gingerbread house. We were so crazy with our gingerbread houses, and this year, we can’t slack off. We have to get fun candies.
Krishna: We should get a three-tier one. We should recreate a Bridgerton mansion.
Padma: It’s going to require effort.
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Krishna: That’s fine.
When you eat at a restaurant, what’s your biggest pet peeve?
Padma: When I’m having a really intense or in-depth conversation with someone else and the waiter arrives at the most inopportune time. I get that you want to give good service, but this is not it. Everyone should be in the service industry, even just for six months minimum, because it teaches you emotional intelligence and patience and how to deal with a whole bunch of people. And to me, that’s basic. Just being able to feel the right moment is kind of basic.
Krishna: You’re talking about the darkest, deepest secret you’ve had or I’m having a fight …
Padma: And they’re like, “Here’s the Champagne.”
Krishna: What’s your biggest pet peeve in general?
Padma: Air-conditioning. It’s too cold everywhere.
Krishna: I mean, we’re always cold.
Padma: I’m not cold right now.
Krishna: I’m freezing.
Padma: Well, why don’t you wear a sweatshirt? Look at what you’ve got on!
Krishna: That’s too much work. You know what my pet peeve is?
Padma: What?
Krishna: I just experienced this. My pet peeve is when the hostess doesn’t make an effort to integrate people, to make them feel comfortable. I have such an outgoing personality; I’m social. When I’m at a dinner with friends or when we’re all hanging out, and especially when it’s just girls, I’m trying to have fun with them and get to know them. I don’t like when people bring people together but don’t make an effort to make sure they’re all feeling comfortable.
Padma: People are shy, and one of my favorite things to do is invite all different kinds of people to a party. I love the mix of a musician and a writer.
Krishna: You also make an effort to be like, Oh my God, you would love this person. I’ve seen you at your dinner parties. You make an effort to talk to every single person in the house. I also host a lot of stuff for my friends, and especially if I’m integrating my friends from different schools or different friend groups, I make an effort to make everyone really comfortable.
Padma: Yeah. That’s a good pet peeve.
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Krishna: Okay, you travel a lot. What’s your best travel memory traveling with me?
Padma: It would have to be the many times that we’ve gone to Europe. Remember when we had that pasta class in Rome? We couldn’t stop laughing.
Krishna: That was fun.
Padma: I liked Iceland, too. Iceland was very low-key.
Krishna: Iceland was really hilarious.
Padma: We’ve taken some really great trips.
Krishna: Iceland was cold. Iceland was us laughing at each other, at how stupid we looked, and I was, like, fighting against the wind. I was like, If I stop moving right now, I will get blown away.
Padma: Remember when I lost my phone under the northern lights?
Krishna: I was so annoyed at you at 2 in the morning.
Padma: But we found it!
Krishna: No, I found your phone under a rock. Here’s what happened: We wanted to see the northern lights because when you’re in Iceland, that’s what you do. It’s, like, an hour-and-a-half drive, and you have to go in the middle of the night. We leave at midnight, drive to this place, and then we stop. We see the lights. We’re like, Wow, how amazing. Isn’t this so pretty? We’re taking photos. We kind of drive a little farther. It’s an even better spot. We take photos. Twenty minutes later, we’re in the car and you’re like, Wait, where’s my phone? I was like, Are you kidding me right now? You were like, Oh my God, I swear I just had it. Where could it be? And I was like, No, you’re joking. You’re lying. It’s, like, 3 a.m. and it is cold.
Padma: And you have Find My Phone so you can see my phone.
Krishna: I was like, We’re going to track it. So I tracked your phone, and we went in circles in Iceland at 3 a.m., and it’s pitch-black. I get out of the car, and I’m trekking through the wind and searching on the ground. I’m on gravel and stone — and it’s a huge open field — for this phone. Finally, we found it, and I kid you not, it was under a rock. You know another funny thing in Iceland?
Padma: The mini ponies?
Krishna: Well, yes, the mini-ponies. But the thing is, we are both such night owls. For me, I never want the night to end. I’m a fun person to hang out with, and if we hang out with each other, we could stay up until 9:00 in the morning.
Padma: Sometimes we have to not hang out so you can make your bedtime in school. You make it anyway, but we never want to go to sleep, and we never want to get up in the morning.
Krishna: We always have midnight snacks. In Iceland, it would be, like, 11 p.m. and everything closes at 9:00 p.m., and I remember we went to this 24-hour establishment and we got all this random Icelandic ramen.
Padma: Oh, yeah. It was their version of 7-Eleven.
Krishna: We were watching The White Lotus in Iceland, having the weirdest snacks.
Padma: That was really fun. We didn’t really need to go to Iceland for that. We could have just stayed here.
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Krishna: As the mom of a 15-year-old, what do you want 15-year-olds to know?
Padma: My message to 15-year-olds is to give yourself some grace. When I was younger, I wanted to mold myself into exactly what I thought I should be, but what I thought I should be changed so many times as I grew. Give yourself space to be weird and quirky and ugly and all of those things. Have the freedom to do that in a private way that explores all the corners of your personality and what that could look like because you never know.
What about you? What do you want parents to know about 15-year-olds?
Krishna: What I want parents to know is any criticism that you give your child and anything that you pick out about them, they’re already thinking it times a hundred. People have different parenting styles, but I’ve learned the most when you give me the space to mess up. I feel like when children are told not to do something so many times by a parent, it almost makes them want to do it more. You want your kid to be coming to you for advice, and you want to make your kid feel like you’re giving them advice on how to live the best life they can, not on how to be the best child. Does that make sense?
Padma: Yeah, how to be happy and healthy versus projecting.
Krishna: Just giving them room to mess up themselves.
What’s one thing you wish you could tell your younger self when you were my age?
Padma: I would say, “Thank you for putting up with so much and for not giving up and for having to do some hard things that have allowed me to succeed.” I think the first half of my life, even until 35, was really, really hard. I want to thank that young girl and young woman for going through what she did and surviving — and not only surviving, but in the end, taking her pain and turning it into something positive and thriving.
What about you?
Krishna: What’s something I’d like to say to myself when I was my age?
Padma: No, something you’d like to say to your 30-year-old self.
Krishna: I just feel like I’m going to have a lot of dogs. Not a kid.
Padma: You don’t want to have kids?
Krishna: I mean, I don’t know, but 30 …
Padma: You don’t have to have a kid by 30. You can have a kid by 40.
Krishna: I know. That’s a hard question. I think I’d probably just be like, “What is happening?” I would tell myself to go through your Notes app. I’ve got so much stuff on my Notes app.
Padma: Like, songs you’ve written and stuff?
Krishna: Just thoughts.
Padma: I have random stuff on my Notes app.
Krishna: What’s the most random thing you have on your Notes app? Go look at it.
Padma: I know what’s on it. I look at it all the time.
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Krishna: Really? I do too.
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Padma: Different things to pack for different climates, lists, also astrology from Chani Nicholas, notes for the cookbook that I guess I can delete now because it’s out and it’s too late. Anytime I’ve had a thought about an essay, I write notes. I also have notes about my stand-up, funny things to develop later. What’s the last thing on your Notes app?
Krishna: “Don’t make lasting decisions based on temporary emotions.”
Padma: That’s a great one.
Krishna: What were you wearing in high school? What did you wear when you were 16?
Padma: I have more resources, so I have better brands now, but honestly, I kind of dress the same as when I was 16. I still wore a lot of bodycons, spaghetti-strap dresses.
Krishna: For sure.
Padma: When I was your age, there were these painters’ pants that were really in style, and they were really big, and they had a lot of pockets.
Krishna: JNCOs?
Padma: No, but they were jeans. Or just big pants — like, cargo pants — and little tank tops and stuff.
Krishna: So what I’m wearing right now?
Padma: Pretty much. Or I wore shorts and tank tops.
Krishna: Okay, so basically what everyone wears.
Padma: My style hasn’t really changed since my high-school years.
Krishna: Yes it has. If I imagine you in an outfit, you’re in high-waisted flared pants or flared jeans and a silk blouse.
Padma: Yes, that is my go-to. Because for my book tour and for writerly things, nobody dresses up. And then when I was doing Taste the Nation, I wanted to blend in.
Krishna: Nothing about you blends in anywhere.
Padma: Well, I just don’t want it to be about my appearance. For so long, everything has been about what I look like.
Krishna: I think that’s just for women in Hollywood anyway.
Padma: That’s true. I’m just trying to just have it not be a topic. I love clothes. I love dressing up. I love fashion. I don’t want it to be the only thing.
Krishna: I feel like I could spend $5 billion in one day on clothes.
Padma: I believe you. You have that capability.
Krishna: Absolutely.
What’s an outfit you regret wearing on the red carpet?
Padma: So many.
Krishna: Or something that you see that you cringe at, where you’re like, Oh, hell no.
Padma: I blame it on the hormones because I don’t think I knew it yet, but I was pregnant at the time and I liked my hair, which was this giant, elaborate bun with lots of pieces in it.
Krishna: Do you stand by this?
Padma: That’s exactly the dress I’m talking about.
Krishna: Are you serious?
Padma: I swear to God. Yeah. That was Emmys 2009.
Krishna: That’s really ugly.
Padma: Don’t say that. I actually like the silhouette of the dress.
Krishna: Oh, okay.
Padma: I think it’s sexy.
Krishna: I think it’s just the flowers. This is a little “What’s going on?”
Padma: I had just had you. That was the Met Ball. That’s Roberto Cavalli, and my boobs were bigger than my head because I had you six weeks before that and I was nursing, and nothing fit me. I’m amazed that it fit me.
Krishna: I mean, all of your red carpets are pretty good, except this one that’s just a red suit, but what the hell?
Padma: I got an award for Variety’s Power of Women.
Krishna: But they’re capris.
Padma: Whatever. You asked.
Krishna: Do we have any rules around sharing a closet?
Padma: I have very rarely worn anything of yours — also because I can’t fit in most of your things yet. But you have no rules.
Krishna: Even if you tried to implement any rules, I would never follow ’em.
Padma: Well, you can take things, but you should just tell me.
Krishna: If I tell you, then there’s a chance you’ll say no.
Padma: Oh, so you’d rather ask forgiveness than permission?
Krishna: Absolutely.
Padma: But just tell me because sometimes you wear things and I don’t know they’re gone and I go crazy trying to find them and I turn the house upside down. I know I’ve put it in a place where it is no longer, and so it just causes a lot of strife. I’m just saying — otherwise, I’m going to sell all my Birkins. I’m going to start giving away major items if you don’t start telling me.
Krishna: No! Don’t do that. I do tell you after the fact.
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Krishna: What advice do you have for women who are just starting out their careers?
Padma: My advice for people starting out in a career is just to remember that everything takes longer than you think it’s going to. So just have a plan, and it’s okay to veer off that plan, but the more organized you are about how you’re going to pursue what you want — not just knowing what you want —the better off you’ll be.
Krishna: How do you have motivation to keep doing activism work when there are so many depressing things on the news? And also just for someone who maybe isn’t a public figure, how do you keep hope for the future when there’s so much violence and so much hate constantly in the mainstream?
Padma: It’s a great question. And this year has been really demoralizing, for lots of reasons. But I will say that the thing that gives me hope is when I actively try to do something that counteracts all of that negativity or violence or hate or any of those issues that are important to me. I think what’s important is most of my issues that I work on, I have a personal connection to. I work on immigrant rights because I am an immigrant and I know what it’s like to be an immigrant. With the Endometriosis Foundation, same thing: I suffered from that disease, I have a lot of fully formed opinions about how horrible it is, and I can speak to it even though I’m not a scientist or a doctor. Even if you’re not a public person, if you can just find one thing that you have a personal connection to, even if it’s something small for you. You volunteered at Animal Haven — it’s fun because you like puppies.
Krishna: I love dogs. I just like animals in general. We got this dog in the pandemic, Divina. She’s a Chihuahua, but she is so mean to me. She’s rude.
Padma: That’s because you antagonize her. You have a sibling relationship.
Krishna: When we’re hugging, she gets mad. I actually do love helping animals, though.
Padma: You should do something for someone else. That’s what gives me motivation too, just knowing how lucky I am and trying to pass that good fortune on to someone else who needs it.
Krishna: What do you hope will change for young women in their 30s and 20s in America?
Padma: This actually occupies a lot of my thinking. Not to be too earnest, but I have a kid, and you’re going to be a woman in your 20s and 30s before we know it. And I’m really afraid for you. We live in New York, and God forbid you need health care, you have me and your dad, but for a lot of people, they don’t. I’m worried that you aren’t going to enjoy the freedoms that we had and the protections that we had as women. I think I really enjoyed being in my 20s. I really loved the ’90s. I was a model in the ’90s in New York, and it was fantastic.
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Krishna: If I could live in any time period, I would want to be a rock star in the ’90s.
Padma: Everyone wants to be a rock star. How about an accountant or a florist in the ’90s? Or a nurse? I mean, the ’90s were pretty great.
Krishna: I’m sorry that I missed them.
Padma: I’m sorry you missed them too. There were no camera phones. There was no internet. You could just be who you wanted to be and have fun.
Krishna: That’s what I like about New York: Everyone is so crazy — you can be whoever you want to be. If I think I look bad or I’m doing something embarrassing, I have no social anxiety when I’m walking down the streets of New York because I know for a fact there’s someone else 10 feet away from me that’s doing something 10 times crazier, which is so scary, but it’s also so fun. If I’m bored. I’m like, Let me take a walk, and there’s a guy with a snake on his head, and I’m like, Hey, you know what? I’m not bored anymore.
Padma: I think New York is a great place to raise children, too. I’m glad you had a New York childhood.
Krishna: A New York 14 is 17 anywhere else, I think.
Padma: Except that you guys don’t all learn to drive when you’re supposed to.
Krishna: I’m learning how to drive right now!
Padma: You are. But a lot of New York kids don’t know how to drive.
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Krishna: What is one thing that you want people to take away from your book?
Padma: That the very thing that ICE is trying to destroy is what makes this country so cool. All our immigrants from all over the world over generations and generations, that is what gives this country flavor. That is what makes the pop culture, the economy, the food, the music, the sports. That’s what makes the secret sauce that allows America to be a world-dominating power. And the sooner we realize that that is where our riches and richness come from, the better off we’ll all be. And also that the food is really delicious.
Krishna The food is really delicious.
What recipe in the cookbook was the hardest for you to make?
Padma: A seven-layer eggplant dish called fateh batinjan. It’s not difficult; it’s just time-consuming. There’s so many parts to it, and that can be intimidating, but it is so worth it when you make that dish. You don’t want to eat anything else. It’s just glorious.
Krishna: What do you think is the easiest dish to make, other than the drinks?
Padma: A lot of the appetizers. All the salads are easy. The condiments — you just usually throw stuff in a blender. The beef skewers are easy. You just marinate it and then grill it. There’s so many recipes that are really no-brainers. It’s just about getting the spices or the ingredients, and now you can get everything online. I’m really proud of this book, and I want people to start cooking from it. And if you don’t like to cook, then just read it cover to cover. That’s what I do: I read cookbooks cover to cover, and then I just kind of riff.
Krishna: What’s one thing you can tell us about your new CBS show?
Padma: I just saw the first cut of the first episode this morning.
Krishna: Can I see it later?
Padma: Yeah, you can. It’s looking really good. I can tell you we’re giving away $1 million. I’m very excited, and it’s the biggest swing I’ve ever taken professionally, and I hope it works. I have no idea if the CBS audience is going to like it, but I like it. It’s airing on March 4 at 9:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, right after Survivor 50. So no pressure.
Krishna: What’s something that you’d like to do career-wise that you haven’t accomplished yet? You want an Oscar. Someone give her an Oscar.
Padma: I want to direct a movie.
Krishna: I want you to be in a movie. You’re actually such a good actor — just no one knows.
Padma: Because I’ve done nothing.
Krishna: Well, you’ve done Glitter. It’s a masterpiece.
Padma: It was also 25 years ago.
Krishna: You know, my teacher brought that up to me.
Padma: No. Really?
Krishna: She was like, I was watching Glitter and I noticed your mom…
What’s your dream role?
Padma: My dream role? I already have my dream role, which is being your mom.
Krishna: Well, in a movie.
Padma: I know the popular thing for actors to say is, like, Uncle Vanya, but truthfully, I would love to be in an action movie. I want to get the training.
Krishna: Kill Bill, something like that?
Padma: I actually auditioned for that. Years ago.
Krishna: I didn’t know that!
Padma: Obviously didn’t get it, but I would love to do an action movie. Or an independent movie — anything that has a really great part that’s just appropriate for me and not just some boring love interest.
What if you could pick any movie to be in and I could just wave the magic wand and it would happen?
Krishna: I want to be in a horror movie. So bad. I love horror.
Padma: That’s one of the places in cinema where we really don’t agree. I just get scared. To be honest, when you’re at your dad’s, I still check under the bed.
Krishna: You’re a little scaredy-cat. I like the feeling of being scared by something I know isn’t actual danger.
Padma: Okay, that’s fair. It just stays with me too long. I think about it too much.
Krishna: That’s why I’ll do little fluffers between horror movies.
Padma: Like what?
Krishna: I’ll watch White Chicks.
Padma: Why do you like that movie so much?
Krishna: It’s the best movie in the world.
Padma: It is not.
Krishna: Yes, it is.
Padma: It is not better than A Fish Called Wanda.
Krishna: Yes, it is.
Padma: Oh my God. Take that back!
Krishna: What is funnier than two badass cops dressing up as two bitchy white girls? That is so funny to me.
Padma: Agree to disagree. That must be your father’s side of the taste.
Krishna: No, that’s my side of the taste. Do not disrespect White Chicks in this house! You have a white chick as a daughter. Is that scary for you sometimes? I mean, I’m not white to white people. Whenever I meet someone who’s, like, white, red hair, pink skin and freckles, and blue eyes, they’re like, So what are you really? When I meet a brown person, they’re like, Okay, don’t care.
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Padma: I hope you’ll lean more into your Indian side later. When I heard you sing that song in Sanskrit for your grandma, I nearly cried with joy.
Krishna: You love to be like, Can you just sing this thing that you learned eight years ago and haven’t done in the last five years?
Padma: Can I tell you, the words that you did remember, even though it was a few bars, your voice sounded better on that little recording than I’ve heard in a long time, which is great. I can tell when you’re singing well and when you’re not. I’m not comparing you to anyone else — just comparing you to yourself. That training that you had in classical Indian music for six years really is going to pay off when you’re ready to not be embarrassed about it.
Krishna: I wouldn’t say I’m embarrassed about it. It’s just that’s not the music that I want to do.
Padma: I don’t expect you to all of a sudden put out an album in Sanskrit, but I do think that genre of music will connect when you’re older. You have to go to India without me again and just explore stuff. Look, when I was 15, I didn’t want to be that Indian either, so I get it. I’m not like, “Oh my God. Why are you denying your culture?” I get it.
Krishna: I think everyone at my age denies their culture a little bit because they just want to individuate from their parents. But I love you, and I’m so excited for your new projects that are coming up. I think you’re so talented, and I’m so excited to one day be hopefully more successful than you.
Padma: I hope you’re more successful than me, too.
Production Credits
- Photography by Richie Shazam
- Styling by Emma Oleck
- Photo Assistants: Clay Campbell, Austin DeWitt, and Christopher Morel
- Styling Assistant: Lili Marner
- Set Design: Lane Vineyard
- Set Design Assistants: Gabrielle Arriaga and Germán Rojas
- Hair: Jeanie Syfu
- Makeup: William Scott
- Manicure: Nori
- Tailor: Lindsay Wright
- The Cut, Editor-in-Chief Lindsay Peoples
- The Cut, Photo Director Noelle Lacombe
- The Cut, Deputy Culture Editor Brooke Marine
- The Cut, Photo Editor Sofía Mareque
