Saturday Night Live: Padma Lakshmi cameos in Top Chef spoof

Even though Padma Lakshmi may no longer be the host of Top Chef, she still played a similar role on Saturday Night Live. After all, the show did a spoof of the culinary competition that was completely over the top, and it also allowed her to play at certain biases people have when it comes to whether or not people will excel at making certain food based on their cultural background.

The basic premise of this show was not all that hard to describe. Nate Bargatze, the host of this episode, played a white chef who just so happened to be excellent at making soul food. Meanwhile, the Black chef was pretty terrible at it. What made this all the more awkward was that Nate’s character also had a white sous chef, was from Rhode Island, and continuously apologized for it. Padma had to go out and announce all of his prizes, which included honors from Howard University and also some acclaim via Essence Fest. Once again, he felt uncomfortable — and that’s what this sketch was really all about.

For those who did not know, Lakshmi made the decision herself to move on from Top Chef moving forward, where she will focus more on her Taste the Nation series and other projects. She was iconic to the series to so many years and will be missed — but we are still happy that she’s willing to make fun of herself in this environment.

This was not the only show that was spoofed over the course of the episode, as we also did have a chance to see a skewering of all Hallmark Channel movies, courtesy of a movie all about a serial killer who just so happens to have a romantic connection. All in all, this was pretty darn on-point.

Related – Be sure to get some more news on the Saturday Night Live cold open this week

What did you think about Padma Lakshmi making a cameo on tonight’s Saturday Night Live?

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