Cooking host Padma Lakshmi: Harris’ culinary skills ‘might say even more about her success as a leader’

TV host, chef and actress Padma Lakshmi argued that Vice President Harris’ qualities as a cook also show her promise as a leader in a recent guest essay. 

“I see what everyone else sees on Kamala Harris’s résumé: a history of public service that qualifies her for the presidency,” Lakshmi wrote in a guest essay published in The New York Times. “But I would argue that the qualities she shows as a cook might say even more about her success as a leader.”

Multiple national outlets, including the Associated Press, have covered Harris’ passion for cooking. 

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An article published in September by the AP’s White House reporter Darlene Superville described Harris’ effort to introduce herself to voters and show a more relatable side after her late entry to the presidential race. “Since she’s become the nominee, Republicans have criticized Harris for not doing many interviews or giving enough specifics on her policy plans,” the AP story began. “But the vice president is sharing personal details about her childhood, cooking and food to show her more private side.”

Lakshmi praised Harris for showing a “clear delight in cooking and in talking about almost any type of food — a passion that is core to who she is, like basketball for Barack Obama or golf for Donald Trump.”

“I want a president who is intent on nurturing and nourishing all Americans,” Lakshmi wrote.

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“In various ways, Ms. Harris’s candidacy is reinventing the rules, as she simply bypasses old expectations about race, gender and political campaigning,” Lakshmi continued. “Food is yet another example of how Ms. Harris sidesteps generations of tension.”

Lakshmi said that Harris’ candidacy also shows cultural shifts around how voters view female politicians and cooking. 

“Cooking was for a long time a trap for female political figures,” Lakshmi wrote. “Many felt they had to disavow the household sphere altogether to be taken seriously — and then produce baked goods to counterbalance perceptions they were too ambitious.”

“In cooking, Ms. Harris displays the very qualities this country sorely needs — her care, and her ability to tell a new kind of story about what it means to be American,” she wrote. 

In August, Harris explained her strategy for making greens: “I have a friend who had a Christmas Party Christmas Eve every year, and she asked me to make the greens for her party every year. And I am not lying to you, that I would make so many greens, that I’d need to wash them in the bathtub. I’m telling you the truth