Watch Now
Where To Watch
| Stream On |
|
Critic Reviews
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Lakshmi’s flirtatious manner, her unquenchable glamour, allow her to Trojan-horse Taste the Nation’s true intentions for viewers who might be expecting a vaguely patriotic travelogue through America’s most iconic meals. What she’s offering instead is one of the most fascinating food series to emerge in recent years: a ruthless indictment of how a nation’s cultural heritage has been constructed out of the people and traditions that it has consistently and brutally rejected.
-
Lakshmi’s life experience often parallels the immigrants she befriends on screen, differentiating Taste the Nation from the surface-level interrogations of its food travel show predecessors.
-
Taste The Nation With Padma Lakshmi won’t make anyone forget about Bourdain and his various shows, but it’s well-shot, Lakshmi is a warm and knowledgeable host, and the food she discovers is both comforting and surprising.
-
It's a series that deftly breaks form from the traditional culinary travelogue again and again. In some food shows, it seems like hosts are stretching to make a political point (or they go out of their way to skirt around it). Lakshmi, instead, confronts it head-on. ... Lakshmi has real presence here.
-
Lakshmi links her personal experience with the areas that she visits, which makes “Taste the Nation” feel both personal and universal.
-
While Taste The Nation is somewhat slicker in presentation than those shows[Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown, Samin Nosrat’s Salt Fat Acid Heat, and David Chang’s Ugly Delicious], it benefits from its hyper-focus. ... Lakshmi proves an amiable guide through the episodes, even if her years of hosting have shaven off some of her rough edges.