“I pitched ‘Taste the Nation’ to several networks.

I flew to Los Angeles on my own dime 2 or 3 times & everybody said no.

When my agent told me that Hulu called and said they’d love to talk, I said: ‘I’m not flying to L.A. again. I’m done.’” @NYTmag https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/03/magazine/padma-lakshmi-interview.html

“I hated coming home after being away from my kid, and she’s saying, ‘Mommy, did you sell it?’ and I have to look at this 9-year-old and say, ‘No, I didn’t.’ One entity — I won’t name names, but he’s no longer at the network — even wrote me a long email about *why* he said no.”

“I guess he was trying to be respectful, but I don’t need a 900-word email about how my show idea is derivative.

Especially when there’s nothing that I can see on TV like it.”

“I’ve heard an Italian expression, ‘È come essere schiaffeggiato nel buio,’ which means ‘It’s like being slapped in the dark.’ You don’t know where it’s coming from, and you don’t know why it’s happening to you. I have experienced this in a million ways.”

“You have to remember, I’ve been on prime-time television for 14 years. I have a show that airs in countries all over the world... Our show ( @BravoTopChef) has been nominated for an Emmy every single year that I’ve been doing it.”

“And yet all these networks that claim they want diversity — and here was ‘Taste the Nation,’ a show about the diversity of our country, and they said no. I started to think, maybe I’m the only one interested in this stuff.”

“It’s the same thing when I see other, white women being published constantly, and their books selling, and I know that their recipe is a watered-down version of an Indian recipe or a Moroccan recipe.”