Padma Lakshmi Talks ‘Top Chef’, ‘Taste The Nation’ And That Elusive Emmy Win: “I am the Susan Lucci Of Reality Television”

deadline.com:

Culinary super tastemaker Padma Lakshmi is once again in the running for Emmys, both for Bravo’s Top Chef and her Hulu series Taste the Nation.

Over her years of hosting and executive producing Top Chef, she has earned 14 Emmy nominations herself, but victory has remained, tantalizingly, just beyond her reach. “We’re in the golden age of television, and it’s really competitive.

I’m sort of the Susan Lucci of reality television,” she tells Deadline. “It would be lovely to win, especially because this is our 20th season of Top Chef.” Lakshmi made her debut as host in season 2 of the two-time Emmy-winning reality competition show, and has been a main ingredient in Top Chef’s success for 17 years now. “We’re doing the show for the fans, and I’m really lucky we have such loyal, interested fans,” she says. “Twenty seasons is a long time.

I hope we do win, I’m not going to lie, but I don’t know what our chances are.” Over the years, Lakshmi has witnessed significant changes at Top Chef.  “The caliber of the contestants has just gotten better and better and we’ve gotten more diverse in our casting,” she notes. “We still have a-ways to go, but we’re doing great compared to our earlier seasons.”  Along with gustatory triumphs, Lakshmi has witnessed some near-disasters in the Top Chef kitchen.