Your Mama's Kitchen is brought to you by Rivian.

For a long time, if you think about what it means to be All-American, there are certain images that would dance through your mind.

Apple Pie and a white picket fence.

Well, by the way, not a single ingredient in apple pie is indigenous to North America,

not even the apples, not the lard, not the flour, not the sugar.

So, you know, that's sort of, yes, we say as American as apple pie,

but even that is a fallacy.

Hello, hello, and welcome back to your mama's kitchen.

This is the place where we explore how we are shaped as adults by the kitchens that we grew up in as kids.

And it's not just the food, it's all the stuff, the laughter, the way we might eavesdrop on our parents' conversations, the way that food can provide a taste of home from a distant land. I'm Michelle Norris, and we couldn't dream up a more

perfect guest for our show than the one and only Padma Lakshmi. Padma was host and executive

producer of Top Chef for 17 years. That's 20 seasons. That is a long and

delicious run. She was also the creator and host of the acclaimed Hulu series, Taste the Nation.

She is a prolific writer. She has penned four cookbooks, a best-selling memoir, and a children's book.

She is a model, an activist,

one of times 100 most influential people in 2023, and now she is a guest on your

mama's kitchen. Hey, Padma. Hi, how are you, Michelle? Thanks for being with us. My pleasure.

You spent a lot of time in the kitchen, and did you grow up feeling comfortable in the kitchen

as a child?

Or was the kitchen more the domain of your mom and your grandma?

It was both.

I mean, it was certainly the domain of women, and I always felt

...