Padma Lakshmi

A vivid memoir of food and family, survival and triumph, Love, Loss, and What We Ate traces the arc of 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 Heartburn Long 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, she lived a life of dislocation that would become habit as an adult, never quite at home in the world. 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 judges’ table of Top Chef 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 seemingly wrong for her in every way who 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 Ate is 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.

Inspired by her travels to some of the most secluded corners of the planet, Padma Lakshmi shares the origins and secrets of her latest recipes for simple to prepare, international cuisine. She makes it easy to delight your guests with savory and sweet dishes such as Keralan Crab Cakes, Fresh Green Beans with Lentils and Coconut, Krispy Fried Chicken, BBQ Korean Short Ribs, and Chocolate Amaretto Ice Cream. By introducing a host of enticing flavors and spices, an everyday kitchen is transformed into a global one. Tangy Tart Hot & Sweet is both a culinary and personal scrapbook of Padma’s life, highlighted by dazzling photography and evocative personal stories about her lifelong connection to food and cooking. From appetizers to entrées, soups to desserts — Tangy Tart Hot & Sweet is perfect for anyone who wants cooking to be easy, elegant, and unforgettable.

A world-famous supermodel offers a collection of easy, delicious, and healthful recipes gathered in her exotic international travels, including dishes from Spain, Asia, and Morocco, accompanied by color photographs and an overview of Padma’s life, along with her beauty tips. 15,000 first printing.