For her show Taste the Nation, Padma Lakshmi traveled across the country to cook, eat, and immerse herself in different immigrant communities. Through time spent with Thai immigrants in Las Vegas, the Gullah Geechee community in South Carolina, and more groups of people whose culinary stories have evaded the mainstream, Lakshmi told stories about how immigrants have shaped the United States and become its backbone — all through the lens of food. The show’s two seasons earned Lakshmi accolades, though she announced earlier this year that it wouldn’t be coming back for another. But given that Taste the Nation started as a book idea, it was only natural for Lakshmi to preserve the project in the form of a book.

That book, Padma’s All American, is out now. As Lakshmi told me via Zoom call, “There was so much love, both critically and with viewers [that] I felt this would be a great record of this thing that we did, which frankly has been the highlight of my professional career so far.”

A combination of recipes from the people Lakshmi met while filming the show and reflections from her travels, Padma’s All-American is a coda — for now — on the Taste the Nation project, though Lakshmi isn’t finished with its bigger-picture ideas nor with making food television. She spoke with Eater about why she felt compelled to do Taste the Nation after Top Chef, why claiming Americanness is so important right now, and her vision for future food shows.

Eater: What made the Taste the Nation project feel essential for you?

Padma Lakshmi: The biggest instrument was [wanting to go] deeper and deeper into the issue of immigration. It was working with the ACLU [as the Artist Ambassador for immigrants’ rights and women’s rights] and meeting different people and wanting to reach across the aisle [but also] wanting not to preach or wag my finger, but try to show instead of tell.

I love fine dining. I value it, I respect it, I know the effort and resources it takes, but that is not how I eat and that is not how most people in the world eat. Also, so much of food television is either analytical or competition or demonstrative or all three, so it can become clinical. I was always interested in doing and teaching about completely different kinds of food from completely different kinds of people than [the chefs who] were walking into the Top Chef kitchen.

What about this project felt more challenging to you than your previous books?

I was dealing with many cuisines and a lot of them were cuisines from ethnicities that I’m not a part of, so I felt an enormous responsibility to do justice to these foods that other people grew up with and which were beloved to them. I had to toe the line between making something accessible enough that people outside the community would be able to recreate it in their own kitchens with what they had on hand, for the most part, while still retaining and preserving what about the dish made it so beloved to the people from where it came.

It’s not the most traditional way to make a certain Afghan dish, [for example,] but it’s also third-culture food, because this is American immigrant food; it’s another thing entirely. I feel fine about taking liberties with Indian food, but I’m a lot more careful when I’m talking about German food or Thai food. I also want to make sure that the choices I’m making — calls for substitutions and things — are relevant to that cuisine and guided by cultural precedent.

What was the most satisfying part of working on Taste the Nation and writing this book?

I’m very proud of the profiles of various people that I met on the road over these last several years because the book is really not about me; the book is about them. At most, it’s about my experience of getting to know them and what that journey was like, but it’s really [centering], not myself.

You’ve talked to a lot of people while making this book — not all of whom, I assume, totally agree with you. I’m curious what you see as the limits of using food to challenge people’s misconceptions or change their minds politically.

I am skeptical of the power of food to change people’s minds. I think what food can do is bring people to the table and then, through other modes of persuasion and diplomacy, hopefully we find a middle ground. All it can do is be a key that unlocks the door. Once you walk in, the hard work begins.

Did it feel important to you to reclaim the word “American” from the way it has been warped by our current political climate?

I am an American of Indian heritage and I’ve spent my life working in this country and paying a lot of taxes and contributing in every way I can. I think that flag and that word belongs to more of us than some of us would like to accept. I’m not reclaiming it; I’m just claiming it.

Padma’s All American seems like a bookend on the Taste the Nation project. How do you see these themes as continuing in your work moving forward?

It’s hard for me to separate my own identity as a person or as an American from being an immigrant. Especially with what’s going on today with ICE and everything, it’s a very deep topic for me and I don’t think I’m done with it. Television is very cyclical and it’s very hard to keep a show on air because of the economics of it and because of the streaming wars, but I’m in the business of making television. I will always make television and I will find my way through the market as best I can, but I would love for a 2.0 version of Taste the Nation to come back.

I think we are seeing more movement in humankind than at any other point in our society’s history and that commingling of cultures is really interesting to me. I think that is where creativity and magic happen. I’m interested in going to Berlin and trying Turkish food. I’m interested in eating Indian food in South Africa. I want to see that the world is a really big place and it’s also a really small place and we have to live together.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.