The former Top Chef host's first cookbook in almost 20 years celebrates crave-worthy dishes from the U.S. and beyond—and keeps it accessible for cooks of all levels.
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When the great Padma Lakshmi launched her Hulu series Taste the Nation in 2020, I was instantly locked in. The show followed the ex-Top Chef host’s travels through the U.S. as she explored the foodways of the many different immigrant and Indigenous communities that have settled and flourished in various enclaves across the country.
As she dined with locals from Honolulu to Houston and beyond, Padma showcased the rich histories of the food and the people who make and enjoy it. The show inspired viewers (myself included!) to be more adventurous in the foods we prepare and the journeys we take.
With her new cookbook, Padma’s All American, Padma has translated her own journey across seven years of filming the show into 300-plus pages of recipes and stories that help inspire home cooks to bring that spirit of curiosity and generosity into our own kitchens. The result is a sprawling, yet approachable collection of recipes that will find even the most hesitant of home cooks reaching for their aprons to recreate these dishes. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself dog-earring a dozen or more recipes on your first page-through.
Padma’s All American features more than 100 recipes split into nine categories ranging from lighter fare—small plates and salads—to a mix of both plant- and meat-based mains. The cookbook even offers a selection of dessert and drink recipes before it concludes with a “Feasts” section. This final section outlines menus composed of recipes from the book that work well together.
The cookbook truly offers something for everyone as it pulls from a swath of food traditions. You’ll find everything from the Persian-favorite yogurt tahdig to a Peruvian ceviche to a Milwaukee-inspired fried veal schnitzel to qabuli pulao, a mouth-watering Afghan lamb and rice dish. And those of us with a sweet tooth will have a hard time skipping past Padma’s strawberry-cardamom and cream cake.
For home cooks looking to start with a more familiar flavor, this cookbook also has you covered with a number of approachable touchstones like Padma’s own take on spaghetti carbonara or chicken tikka masala (a dish she actually didn’t grow up eating or cooking but has come to appreciate).
As I dove into the book, one of its soup recipes jumped out at me: the ribollita white bean and vegetable stew. As Padma writes in the recipe’s introduction, the Tuscan dish got its start as a humble “peasant dish” that remixed leftover minestrone by adding beans and day-old bread. This recipe, though, skips the bread and really zeros in on the flavor of the beans and the array of fresh vegetables and herbs. It felt like the perfect dish to reintroduce some non-beige foods to my body post-Thanksgiving, while also being plenty comforting and cozy for a chilly, wintry dinner.
The recipe was surprisingly simple. I took advantage of the Padma-endorsed cheat code of starting with canned (and drained and rinsed) cannellini beans instead of dried. And although there are no less than eight vegetables or herbs to chop or mince, the recipe is written to serve six, so you’ll only need to peel two carrots and dice two stalks of celery, for example. Even as someone who dreads the endless chopping that some recipes require, this was entirely manageable.
The stew itself came together very quickly. As I took my first sip, I was shocked by the flavor punch the stew packed despite such a quick cook time. The broth was imbued with a depth of flavor from the diced fennel, freshly squeezed lemon juice and parsley among its many ingredients. When I dove in with a lightly toasted slice of fresh sourdough bread, the ribollita took it up yet another notch. This is a dish I can see myself making again and again.
Padma’s All American is a cookbook I enthusiastically recommend for most home cooks. It is a cookbook that rewards your curiosity with recipes that strike a balance between ambitious and approachable, unexpected and recognizable.
The cookbook, too, is an evocative one. Interspersed with the recipes are profiles highlighting some of the same faces that Taste the Nation viewers will recognize. These are the people and families behind the delicious dishes that are conveyed in the pages of Padma’s All American. The cookbook dives deeper into their histories and traditions, providing a potent context for the delicacies that follow.
This is one cookbook you will find yourself coming back to, crafting dishes that will become comforting family favorites while also prompting you out of even the deepest of cooking ruts. Perhaps most excitingly, the book even lays flat while open on your countertop as you cook!
