Padma Lakshmi left Bravo’s Top Chef in 2023 after 19 seasons of hosting and executive producing. She said she was “burnt out,” and later confessed to feeling the food competition show format “had gotten stale.” Three years later and Padma is returning to hosting and exec producing duties, just on a new show and network. America’s Culinary Cup premieres tonight at 9:30pm ET on CBS/Paramount+ (boo), and boasts the largest cash prize ever on a food competition show: $1 million! (In my head I’m saying that Dr. Evil style.) So Padma was on The Daily Show recently to promote her new gig, where she fabulously took JD Vance to task for cooking garbage meals for his wife Usha, who is vegetarian:
“Top Chef” alum Padma Lakshmi says JD Vance’s politics are far from the only gripe she has with the vice president.
Calling out his questionable kitchen habits while appearing on “The Daily Show” last Tuesday, the model-turned-foodie told host Desi Lydic: “There are so many reasons to hate JD Vance, I didn’t think we needed a culinary one, but it’s so bad.”
She was referring to an unsavory recipe Vance admitted to making his wife Usha Vance during a February Fox News interview: a sloppy concoction consisting of veggies, ranch dressing and pre-made crescent rolls that the VP himself called “disgusting” and “inedible.”
Horrified, Lakshmi told Lydic, “He’s married an Indian woman, so she comes from this very deep vast culinary tradition, you know, and he’s giving her, what was it, ranch dressing?”
“Who bakes ranch dressing?” the celebrated cookbook author said aghast. “Also, he’s like, ‘She’s a vegetarian. She only eats bread, vegetables and dairy.’ You’ve been married to this person for over a decade, right? And we eat lots of things, right? Rice, lentils, beans, squash, all this stuff.”
“But, I mean, maybe he knows what she likes because she doesn’t really have good taste,” she then shrugged.
Lakshmi, whose new chef showdown “America’s Culinary Cup” premieres on March 4, is far from the first one to shudder at Vance’s peculiar taste in food.
During President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, the Republican earned some serious side-eye for repeatedly mentioning his love for Diet Mountain Dew — yes, diet.
I’m always here for a takedown of JD Vance — he should’ve been banished to the ratty couch of forgotten history long ago. But let’s please take a moment to acknowledge and applaud the masterful way Padma slipped in a dig at Usha Vance in this appearance: “But, I mean, maybe he knows what she likes because she doesn’t really have good taste.” BOOM! Perfect, no notes. It insults Usha and JD in one fell swoop, all under the guise of a compliment! (That JD knows his wife well, sure.) As for the “dish” in question — veggies, ranch dressing, and pre-made crescent rolls — I don’t know if anything has ever screamed frat boy cooking for himself away from home for the first time more than that assemblage of ingredients. That’s practically an episode of Chopped on Food Network! At the end of the day, though, the biggest shocker to me in this story… is that JD cooks at all. As for Diet Mountain Dew, ew. There’s a bottle of regular Mountain Dew that lives in the office kitchen at my work; it’s been there for months and never loses its shocking neon/radioactive hue, and the only time I’ve seen it imbibed is from one colleague who’ll take a sip anytime she’s sick but has to plow through a pile of work. Thank you for joining me on this detour down Mountain Dew Lane.
Photos credit: ASPN/Backgrid, Elder Ordonez/INSTARimages, Roger Wong/INSTARimages, Getty Images
She had me at “there are so many reasons to hate JD Vance”
And such a long, long list of abhorrent, slimy, and disgusting reasons.
This is JD Vance’s family recipe, y’all. Hatfields and McCoys have fought and died over whether ranch dressing (aka nascar sauce) or mountain dew makes the best crescent roll casserole. (//sarcasm, as a proud Kentuckian here).
Usha knew this is the slop he’d be feeding her long before they got married. But it says a lot about a man that he makes his wife something he calls “inedible”. He’s so gross.
He’s so uggggghhhhhhhhh.
My 11 yo daughter saw him in the SOTU last week (! A week and a war ago) and said, “Why does his face look like that?”, talking about Vance. Made me lol.
He looks like an animated Cabbage Patch doll (or a Garbage Pail Kid to be more accurate). It’s an excellent question.
Ha! Love your daughter! Why, indeed?!
I agree that since Usha made such a loathsome choice in a life partner, who the hell cares what’s for dinner? She’ll be free in a few years though when he’s cooking mac and cheese for his new wife Erikkka.
JD Vance went on television and, in response to bigots spewing racist bile against his wife, defended the bigots. Cooking his wife garbage is the least of the reasons he’s a piece of shit. And Usha seems on board with it, considering she’s had 4 children for his followers to hurl racist vitriol towards.
The best part of this whole clip is learning Padma Lakshmi is a master at insults. Come sit by me, indeed.
You should take a gander at Top Chef. Her insults are legendary, I think she was better than Tom Colicchio at really shaming the ones who deserved it, and she is also incredibly empathetic. There are more than a few times she’s appeared to be bordering on tears when she’s asked a Cheftestant to “pack their knives and go”.It’s a lovely balance with Padma!
Yay to anyone reminding us how loathsome he is (and her by dint of her life choices).
I’ve had people I do like ask me what I actually eat as a vegetarian – all the stuff that’s not animals???? It’s pretty broad.
Well done.
I’m a long time Top Chef fan……. Padma has always had the shade to throw.
Word, expert level achieved. She is better at it than Tom Colicchio, IMO. Gail is just a marshmallow.
Anthony Bourdain…is the all-time great. That Thanksgiving episode will live in infamy.
Basically he said that he bought crescent rolls in a can, flattened them out, put (canned?) veggies and ranch dressing on top — and then baked all that as if it were a pizza. This is not a gift to his wife. This is not charming or kind. This is a gigantic EFF YOU to his wife. Really.
I mean, there are at least a dozen stellar Indian places he can order from in DC — if he really wanted to treat her to something special. He’s basically showing her that he is happy to treat her to garbage. I would’ve been SO insulted.
🔥 🎯
JD does not shape himself to a life that centers Usha or her culture. Usha must shape herself around him, and it’s been nauseating to watch.
And she’s in bad shape