Padma Lakshmi, a fixture of American culinary television since the early aughts, knows that many people are used to hearing her speak in one language: food. So when she felt called to action in the wake of the 2016 election, frustrated by anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies , she channeled her desire for change into a new TV show—one that highlighted the cuisines of immigrant and Indigenous communities across the U.S.

Taste the Nation, a Hulu docu-series that premiered in 2020, followed Lakshmi —an immigrant herself, having moved to the U.S. from India as a child—as she traversed the country in an effort to learn more about the cultures that have shaped American food for decades. The aptly-named series saw the former host of Top Chef sample Mexican cuisine in Texas, Thai dishes

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