Love, Loss, and What We Ate audiobook

This is an interesting memoir because it is so full of yearning and I always appreciate when a writer can lay their desires bare. The narrative certainly meanders, but that isn't a bad thing. There is an interesting lack of structure in how Lakshmi shares her life, from her childhood here in the United States and in India, to her adulthood, her modeling career, marriage to Salman Rushdie, hosting Top Chef and eventually becoming a mother. The writing is particularly strong when she writes of her relationship with an older man named Teddy, and, of course, when she writes about food. She captures the wide-eyed wonder of someone who loves learning and being around learned people, someone who has lived a whirlwind life around the world and has the good sense to appreciate it. I do wish editors would edit celebrity books more rigorously because with a stronger edit, this would have been not just a great book but an excellent one. At times, the prose just wanders too much and a bit more formal structure would have gone a long way. Still, I enjoyed reading this one. I recommend it.

I enjoyed this. Admittedly, I walked into this with a fairly low opinion of Lakshmi -- I had assumed her to be vapid, self-absorbed, and attracted to little more than money and power. And she is! But I guess I was surprised to the degree that she owns it. She doesn't come off well in all situations, and she cops to a lot of it. That's not easy. She's kind of a jerk, she thinks she's brilliant and beautiful -- more than she likely is, I'm guessing, but who cares? She at least offers a portrait of a person who is more dimensional than I anticipated and loves pretty deeply. In the end, I liked her more than I expected to, though she could certainly use a sense of humor, which she seems to sorely lack.

This book was filled with nostalgia of many kinds for me - the by-lanes of my childhood, the feelings that come from trying to straddle different worlds because of living in different countries, TamBrahm traditions and most importantly - thayir saadam. While I felt that Padma tries to hard to be poetic about food in some places, I also felt that this was a very honest take on her life. She calls herself out on many things including daddy issues, a sense of entitlement and more. She also takes the time to walk readers through the symptoms, fears and treatment surrounding endometriosis, which will likely help some women who may be dismissing this as just a sign of having a low pain threshold. Overall, an easy read, with some yummy TamBrahm recipes thrown in, and a lot of nostalgic memories of people and places. Once you're done reading, be sure to watch the segment on the Ellen show where Padma demonstrates just how thayir saadam can be made. Remember it HAS to be mixed by hand!

As a closeted foodie one of my favorite shows is Top Chef. I was always intrigued, by Padama Lakshmi: a coco-colored beauty who is articulate and icy, with a highly educated palate. Thus, I was captivated by her memoir. Padma is whip smart. Her book covers her high profile romances with older men (Salman Rushdie & Teddy Frostman), growing up in India, her ethnic identity struggles, her modeling career, having endometriosis, filming Top Chef, her undying love for her little girl, and food. Her elaborate descriptions of making Kumquat & Ginger Chutney and other Indian dishes made my mouth water. I did not know that before she did Top Chef, she had written two cookbooks. An added bonus is that the book includes the recipes for the food she discusses. I listened to the audio book which was richly augmented by the author's reading of her own words.

Padma Lakshmi may be a pretty face, but she is no fool. She opens this memoir with the dirt everyone was hoping for: intimate details of her failed marriage to Salman Rushdie, the infamous and brilliant writer. It was a torrid affair, start to finish, but wonderfully these are not even the most interesting chapters of Love, Loss, and What We Ate: A Memoir. Lakshmi's story is that of an immigrant child, shuttling between India and New York or LA. It is a story of single motherhood and matriarchy. It is the dirty tell all that many hoped for out of the pen of a model turned television star. And it is the food memoir that everyone who pairs book-club and dinner parties was waiting on. I expected behind the scenes footage of her public life- Top Chef, the food network, cook books, maybe even stories from within that often whispered about marriage to Rushdi. What I did not expect was the kind honesty and self reflection of a woman truly looking back on her life. Because Lakshmi takes blame for her actions, and is upfront about many of the mistakes she has made, readers are along for the emotional roller coaster found in the quiet moments of life she tenderly portrays - lying on the kitchen floor wrecked after a break up, trying to balance terminal illnesses with the joy of young childhood. These details could have easily been left out, along with all of the mentions of chutneys and street vendor hot-dogs, but that would not have been true to the experience, and Lakshmi clearly wanted to present an honest telling of her life- with the details no one else could. This memoir focuses not just on the facts, but the personal impact of each event - I literally had to pull over on the highway because I was sobbing for her so hard. Written precisely in the best way for an audio adaptation- everything flows naturally as if these are stories being told by a new friend late into the evening. The audio-book is read by the author, and Lakshmi is well suited for this format. I felt as if she was in the room with me, telling the story, mimicking the voices of the Indian family and American friends, breathing life into characters who are all to often mocked rather than embraced for their cultural differences from mainstream media. AND she reads recipes aloud with commentary in the epilogue, sending us all back to the early years in our first apartments and college dorm-rooms calling home to our mothers when we wanted to make something familiar from home. If you are a Food Network lover, a Padma Lakshmi fan, or a memoir reader- this is a great choice.

I’ve watched Top Chef off and on for several seasons, but have never been a massive Padma fan, admittedly because I knew nothing about her. Growing up, she had one foot in America, the other in India, not feeling as though she fit in either place. There’s depth to her story. She’s more than a pretty face and a ropy scar. Here, Padma lays her life bare discussing her health and relationships with candor. There isn’t much sugar-coating, if any.

I was waiting for Padma to write a book because I was a fan of her cookbooks. This memoir of love and loss resonated in ways with me I didn't expect. Her relationship with Salman moved me and her story of finally being able to be mom had me overjoyed with happiness.

I will finish this book in the near future. Very well written and enjoyable but I must finish a pile of library books that are holding me hostage.

What a story, and what a life!I am a fan of Top Chef and have watched Padma on it since I first started watching. I always wondered what her claim to fame was, and her memoir definitely fills us in and more. I was blown away by some of the stuff I learned about her, and am even more in awe of her. She's not just beautiful, but she's smart, a good mother and human being in general.Plus there is recipes in this book that she so graciously shares with us. One of them is her childhood favorite, Chili Cheese Toast. I can't wait to try it!Yeah, I'm a bigger fan now. I want to track down her cookbooks now too. Recipes that are indulgent without the fat, basically. I'm intrigued.Fans of the show Top Chef, or not, you will like her life story. I'd bet on it. She is simply fascinating.

I started watching old seasons of Top Chef during my maternity leave; I used to love the show but took a break for several years when I cut the cord on cable and lost access to Bravo. Now every season is on Hulu and I’ve become Top Chef crazy and can’t get enough TC content. But I digress. I adore Padma, so I may be biased, but I found this to be a very captivating memoir. Although I love TC, there were many other much more interesting parts of this book. She had a unique childhood, with periods in New York, India, and Southern California. Her descriptions of food are luscious. The stories about her family, her cultural traditions, and motherhood were the best parts for me. Her weird taste in men make the stories about her romantic relationships fascinating if not a little perplexing. The only parts I didn’t love were the sections on her modeling career, which were boring. Overall, this is a brutally honest book and Padma makes herself very vulnerable, which I always love to see in a memoir.

Thoroughly enjoyed Padma Lakshmi’s beautifully written and brutally honest memoir. Hearing her read the audiobook made it that much better. I devoured her words the way she and her cousin devoured chaat. So many shared experiences as young South Asian girls separated from all we knew to start a new life provided for us by our selfless parent(s). It’s amazing to me that we might have had the same thoughts practically at the same time growing up on opposite sides of the country and as adults despite the vast differences in the lifestyles we live. I remember stumbling upon a cooking show called Melting Pot on Food Network so many years ago and being delighted to see representation of our delicious cuisine by someone who looked like me. I picked up her first cookbook Easy Exotic soon after. Maybe I’ll cook something from it tonight?

As a long-time Top Chef viewer, I had a barebones sketch of Lakshmi's life but it turns out she is so much more than what I had gleaned. There is much more honesty and vulnerability in her memoir than I would have guessed and as such, her decisions don't always come across in the best light. Yet that's what makes the writing so compelling. I appreciated her advocacy for women's rights from the options for women growing up in India to how endometriosis has impacted her life and health. Plus, there was some fun behind-the-scenes on Top Chef. I haven't tried any of the recipes but there were plenty that made my mouth water.