What Padma Lakshmi’s been up to since leaving Top Chef

As Top Chef began season 21, long-time host Padma Lakshmi was nowhere to be seen. She had announced her departure from the show last year, noting that she planned to spend more time on her show Taste the Nation and other projects she had in the works. If you follow her on Instagram, you have probably seen a lot of photo shoots and more casual videos of her cooking at home, sometimes with her daughter. If you have been curious about what else has she been doing, The New Yorker’s Helen Rosner can answer your questions. She spent a lot of time with Lakshmi over the past few months and has written a lengthy profile about the model turned cooking show host.

As it turns out, Taste the Nation is in limbo, neither renewed nor cancelled, so Lakshmi has turned to another project that is close to her heart: stand-up comedy. Yes, you read that correctly, Padma Lakshmi is funny! Or at least she wants to be. She has hosted a few standup sets in a series called “Padma Puts On a Comedy Show”, and she’s been polishing her comedic chops with cameos on Saturday Night Live, which she hopes to host someday.

Does this mean she’s leaving the world of food behind? Probably not, because she still has a production company pitching projects and Taste the Nation may get renewed eventually. But Lakshmi seems nonchalant about the prospect of not being involved in a show about food. “I won’t miss eating eight thousand calories a day,” she told Rosner about leaving Top Chef.