As Top Chef prepares to serve up another season, things will be looking a little different. Longtime host Padma Lakshmi will be leaving ahead of Season 21, and Top Chef: Seattle winner Kristen Kish will take her place. Lakshmi previously got real about the reasons why she left, noting it was “a whole lot of complex factors” like the popularity and the work. Now, she’s opening up about what she will and won’t miss about the Bravo cooking show.
Beginning in the second season, Padma Lakshmi took up the hosting mantle, replacing Season 1 host Katie Lee. Since then, she’s been the host and one of the judges. It’s taken up much of her life in the last 17 years, and she admitted on Good Morning America just what she will and won't miss about the show, and it completely makes sense:
It’s very hard, what I miss most is actually the people. When you spend 17 years on a show, 19 seasons, my daughter grew up on that set. I’ll miss almost everybody because they’re like family. But what I won’t miss is the copious amounts of food in a very short time. I know it’s a high-class problem to have, but it can feel really uncomfortable, the long hours, eating all that food. I will not miss it.
Although Top Chef welcomed a new group of chefs every season, the crew stayed the same. It sounds like Padma Lakshmi and her colleagues became a family, and when you work almost 20 seasons with the same group, it’s to be expected. In 2010, she gave birth to her daughter, Krishna, and for the first 13 years of her life she probably spent a lot of time on set watching her mom and growing close to the crew.
The expected downside is also pretty understandable. As the host and/or judge of a cooking series, you’re expected to taste all of the food, including the worst Top Chef meals ever. While a lot of the food is likely delicious, eating that much in a single day takes its toll as the longtime host explained.
Even though Padma Lakshmi won’t be returning for Top Chef Season 21, there is still a lot to look forward to. As a previous winner, new host Kristen Kish knows what the competing chefs will be dealing with, and she can offer a new perspective while in the host’s seat. The upcoming season will also take place in Madison and Milwaukee, so it should be interesting to see how it goes and how Kish does.
Lakshmi still has her food documentary series, Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi, which dropped its second season in May, and it is available with a Hulu subscription. As of now, the series has yet to be renewed, but after leaving Top Chef, it’s possible she will have much more time for this series. Fans will just have to keep an eye out for another season of Taste the Nation, and while we wait for both that and Season 21 of Top Chef, you can stream all 20 seasons of the cooking show with a Peacock subscription.
