Padma Lakshmi Destroys 'Racist' Column That Says Indian Food Is 'Based Entirely On One Spice'

Is this really the type of colonizer 'hot take' the \n@washingtonpost wants to publish in 2021- sardonically characterizing curry as "one spice" and that all of India's cuisine is based on it?pic.twitter.com/suneMRD8vs

— Padma Lakshmi (@Padma Lakshmi) 1629738025

Not only is this laughably/embarrassingly wrong (like 2+2=75 wrong), the comparison to French/white food as the implicit standard by which all other foods should be measured is so revealing.

— The Korean Vegan, Esq. (@The Korean Vegan, Esq.) 1629734923

lol. i loved this piece, it put some foods in perspective for me.https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/03/26/394339284/how-snobbery-helped-take-the-spice-out-of-european-cooking\u00a0\u2026

— Adam (@Adam) 1629734487

Wow this article really explained the behavior of a lot of white men in a grilling and smoking group I'm part of who think if you add anything other than salt and pepper to a piece of meat, it's because you "can't cook it properly"

— Jill Dobel (@Jill Dobel) 1629742081

Well at least he admits it\u2019s more than one spice. He should stick to unseasoned chicken and white rice, seems more suited to his refined palate

— Seana Lyn (@Seana Lyn) 1629735100

Trying to figure out which one spice Indian cuisine is entirely based on\u2026pic.twitter.com/wJwubjBV1c

— Tim Broyle, MD (@Tim Broyle, MD) 1629733681

"ONE SPICE?" Which one? cumin? coriander? turmeric? kalonji? ajwain? cardamom? paprika? amchur? mustard seed? black pepper? fenugreek? cinnamon? kala namak? I'll run out of space before I run out of Indian spices I can think of off the top of my head. White nonsense(TM) indeed!

— AZ (@AZ) 1629737878

Literally the whole reason Columbus put his colonizer behind on a boat (misnaming Native peoples of this continent as Indians in the process) was to Bring. Back. Spices. Plural. Even the original colonizers knew India wasn\u2019t a one spice kinda place. The Caucasity, indeed.

— Maria (@Maria) 1629771724

Even Columbus knew it was more than one spice

— Meena Harris (@Meena Harris) 1629782469

You don\u2019t like a cuisine? Fine. But it\u2019s so weird to feel defiantly proud of not liking a cuisine. You can quietly not like something too

— Mindy Kaling (@Mindy Kaling) 1629757868

The doubling down is not a good look, my dude.pic.twitter.com/D4N1U48QKO

— L Hale (@L Hale) 1629734352

From start to finish plus the illo, the column was about what a whining infantile ignorant d---head I am. I should have named a single Indian dish, not the whole cuisine, & I do see how that broad-brush was insulting. Apologies.(Also, yes, curries are spice blends, not spices.)

— Gene Weingarten (@Gene Weingarten) 1629747162