Padma Lakshmi caught up with Billboard's Raina Aniftos at 2024 Gold Gala.
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00:00 Now we have the culinary director here of the Gold House Gala.
00:04 I mean, how do you even go about curating a menu for an event like this?
00:08 I mean, it's really hard, but I wanted to obviously showcase Asian food.
00:14 And so I brought my friend, Chef Vijay Kumar, who, you know, has a beautiful restaurant
00:19 that I love of South Indian food called Sema.
00:22 And we wanted to represent our cuisine here at Gold House.
00:25 And, you know, I'm also being honored tonight, which feels amazing and humbling.
00:30 So just we wanted to just make food for our people, by our people.
00:36 And I feel like food in general is such a unifying thing, like going to restaurants and trying cultures.
00:43 And I think it's a lot of ways that people get exposed to different cultures is through their food, first and foremost.
00:48 Is there like a cuisine when you first got into this that you weren't expecting to like so much?
00:53 And now it's one of your favorites?
00:55 I mean, I didn't, when I was growing up, I didn't know that much about Japanese cuisine.
00:59 And now I'm very, very, very in love with it.
01:03 I still don't. There's a lot to understand.
01:06 And, you know, really, it's precision knife work.
01:09 Every culture and cuisine has the thing that makes them sort of stand out.
01:15 And I think for Japanese food, it's really that attention to detail and the precision of execution and knife skills as well.
01:22 I feel like a lot of injecting traditions into the experience of eating, that's so beautiful for their culture as well.
01:29 It's a way to pass on culture, right?
01:31 It really is. It's amazing.
01:32 And of course, you always go live with your daughter and create like really amazing little dishes with your daughter.
01:39 How does it feel, like you said, passing down like things like that, the joy of spending time together with food?
01:46 I'm always thankful when we spend time together, especially in the kitchen.
01:49 And, you know, my daughter gets her Indian culture through food.
01:53 She also gets it through her music, through our family, through religion, through stories, all of it.
02:01 So I think everything you do should be infused with who you are so that your children know who they are.
02:09 And speaking of music, is there an Asian artist that you're loving right now that you think people should check out?
02:15 Oh, my gosh. You've caught me there.
02:18 Like, I, you know, honestly, I don't know that many Asian artists, but Eric Nam is here.
02:25 He's amazing. He's super cool.
02:27 Yeah. I mean, have you met him before?
02:29 Yes. He was on Taste the Nation.
02:31 Was he? Yes, on the Korean episode.
02:33 So, yeah, he's the sweetest.
02:35 So, yeah, I'm sure he'd be glad to see you too tonight.
02:38 Well, thank you so much, Padma.
02:40 And thank you for everything you do in the culinary world.
02:42 It's amazing. Thank you.
02:43 I feel gorgeous.
02:44 Bye.
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