Padma Lakshmi’s Thanksgiving Turkey: Slow Roasted and Richly Sauced
The New York Times
The host of “Taste the Nation” and “Top Chef” isn’t a professional chef herself. That’s why her bird is stress-free and foolproof.
There are two doors, nearly identical, that open into the downtown Manhattan penthouse of Padma Lakshmi. One leads to her office and staff work spaces and the other to her yipping Chihuahua and the living areas. Ms. Lakshmi, the television host and producer, author and activist, moves between the two wings (and upstairs to the bedrooms) in fuzzy slippers.
She often ends up in the kitchen, where those spaces — and her professional and private lives — converge. “I’m a homebody,” she said, “which is ironic, given what I do for a living.”
She was preparing a turkey ahead of Thanksgiving to perfect her recipe for publication. To start, she swirled a wide ladle full of Kampot black peppercorns over one of the seven burners on her custom Lacanche range, watching and sniffing and waiting for them to crackle and release their perfume.
