{"id":14726,"date":"2020-06-24T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2020-06-24T13:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2020-06-25T09:19:26","modified_gmt":"2020-06-25T13:19:26","slug":"taste-the-nation-digs-deeper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/taste-the-nation-digs-deeper\/","title":{"rendered":"Taste the Nation Digs Deeper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Padma Lakshmi and David Shadrack Smith, president of Part2 Pictures, talk to <\/em>TV Real about <\/em>Taste the Nation, which has debuted on Hulu.<\/em><\/p>\n

While food and travel have long proven to be a powerful TV combination, peppering in politics and true cultural exploration at such a poignant time in America makes it all the more potent. Taste the Nation<\/em>, which debuted last week on Hulu, does just this. Across ten episodes, the show follows as author, activist, host and executive producer Padma Lakshmi takes audiences on a journey across America, exploring the rich and diverse food culture of various immigrant groups and shining a spotlight on the people who have shaped what American food is today. While viewers may be used to seeing Lakshmi judging dishes on the long-running hit Top Chef<\/em>, this show sees her digging deeper. From indigenous communities to recent immigrant arrivals, the host breaks bread with Americans across the country to uncover the roots and relationship between food, humanity and history. The result is stories that challenge notions of identity, belonging and what it means to be American\u2014with loads of tasty dishes showcased along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis project originally started out as a cookbook idea,\u201d Lakshmi tells TV Real<\/em>. \u201cAfter the 2016 election, I became an artist ambassador for the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union], focusing on immigration issues and also women\u2019s reproductive health. There was a lot of hateful rhetoric coming out of Washington about immigrants, everything from the Muslim ban to separating families at the border. I wanted to show what America looks like \"***Imagen***\"today, and use food as a vehicle to do that. We all love tacos, Pad Thai and shawarma, but don\u2019t often think about the hands that prepare those dishes.\u201d<\/p>\n

This idea resonated with Part2 Pictures, which worked with Lakshmi to develop the series. \u201cIt was clear that the American palate had embraced the food of so many different traditions but not always the people, and we wanted to explore that gap along with the complex process of assimilation that is both personal to Padma and nearly universal to all Americans,\u201d says David Shadrack Smith, president of Part2 and executive producer of Taste the Nation<\/em>. \u201cThe deeper story\u2014which food can tell so well\u2014is how to navigate holding on to your traditions across generations and transplanted in new lands. Food is at the heart of this process, often the strongest link to identities thrown into the melting pot of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says that food is one of the most powerful transmitters of culture, and \u201cthat\u2019s what we wanted to dig into. It\u2019s about how identity gets passed along generations, it\u2019s about how you introduce yourself to a new land, it’s about preserving yet evolving the core of your traditions. In each episode, we explored themes that were specific to the community we went into such as how to overcome misconceptions about your culture or stay connected to your roots or reclaim an identity diffused through time. The cooks, restaurateurs, farmers and market owners we met were all thinking about these questions as they cooked traditional food or created new directions for their cuisine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to remind people that America is a nation of immigrants, and our similarities are far greater than our differences,\u201d Lakshmi adds. \u201cWe are a great country because of the diversity among our people, and there is plenty of room at the table for us all to share.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Part2 has made a name for itself with content around visionaries like Deepak Chopra, Oprah Winfrey and Lisa Ling, so working with Lakshmi on their foray into the food space was a natural fit. \u201cWe\u2019ve been wanting to produce a food series for a long time, partly because we\u2019re obsessed with food like so many, and partly because food is flavored with so many great stories about our world,\u201d Shadrack Smith explains. \u201cFinding one that allowed us to be bold in our approach and tell great human stories around the food is what we were waiting for, and this series does that. It\u2019s fun but with a big heart, is visually stunning and allows the food to do what food does best: give everyone a chance to get together, break bread and get to know each other. I haven\u2019t seen another food series that goes as deep into the stories of whole communities to understand how we all got here, where the flavors that make up the American menu come from and appreciate the hands that make the food we eat.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Lakshmi, it was important to be involved behind the scenes, serving as an executive producer on the show. \u201cI have a hand in every aspect of production,\u201d she says. \u201cDavid, Sarina [Roma, executive producer] and the team at Part2 were so helpful in guiding me through many of the technical aspects because this is the first time I\u2019ve done something from scratch, from an idea in my head to a whole actualized series. When I wasn\u2019t on camera, I was combing through research, examining storylines, giving feedback on scouting locations and interview questions, and everything else in between.\u201d<\/p>\n

All ten episodes are currently available for binge-viewing on Hulu, including \u201cBurritos at the Border,\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t Mind If I Dosa,\u201d \u201cWhat Is Chop Suey Anyway?\u201d and \u201cZen and the Art of Poke.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think having all the episodes arrive at once\u2014like a great feast\u2014means viewers can see the whole picture at a glance and then dive into the specific episodes in their own way,\u201d Shadrack Smith says. \u201cEpisodes vary in length and even format, as we really tried to tailor each one to the story we were telling. There is a kind of arc to the season, but really, the experience of watching it on a streamer is designed to satisfy the cravings for a particular kind of food (or connection to a specific community) and hopefully inspire viewers to keep exploring. One of my favorite elements Hulu has designed is links to recipes from the episodes that you can get to right from the show page\u2014that could only happen on a streaming platform, and from personal experience I can say that the recipes are amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Padma Lakshmi and David Shadrack Smith, president of Part2 Pictures, talk about Taste the Nation, which has debuted on Hulu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":350,"featured_media":14727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,69],"tags":[267,4986,4987],"class_list":["post-14726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-hulu","tag-padma-lakshmi","tag-taste-the-nation","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nTaste the Nation Digs Deeper - TVREAL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/taste-the-nation-digs-deeper\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Taste the Nation Digs Deeper - 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