Samantha Bee and Padma Lakshmi Discuss Immigrants in the Food Industry in 'Top Chef' Parody

From ELLE

It's a sunny July afternoon in a beautiful apartment in SoHo, and I’m here to watch the taping of a segment for Full Frontal With Samantha Bee. If you’ve ever watched the show-or stumbled upon a viral clip-you know that Bee is a feminist, and she doesn’t fuck around. She’s reported on Puerto Rico, crashed Sean Spicer's book tour, and famously called Ivanka Trump a feckless c*nt. She apologized later for, yes, using the word, but mostly for distracting from the devastating news that migrant children were being separated from their parents.

The shoot is a multiple-hour endeavor, and throughout I’m introduced to a number of women running the show: the director, the writer, Bee’s publicist (it’s her birthday; Bee bought her a Disney princess balloon) and assistant (she just got engaged; we all fawn). I also stand by others in what I learn is called “video village,” a.k.a. the area behind the cameras where we can watch the monitors and see the footage come to life.

On this particular day, Bee is tackling the subject of the 1.3 million undocumented immigrants who work, often behind-the-scenes, in the United States restaurant industry. In a separate interview Bee traveled to Philadelphia to talk to the chef of South Philly Barbacoa, Cristina Martinez, who left her country and came to the United States because she was being assaulted by her ex-husband; she then worked up from dishwasher to successful business owner. Bee also talked to a number of undocumented workers, who explain they’re hesitant to speak up for themselves-even when they’re treated unfairly-for fear of being fired.

But on this day we’re in New York City, and Bee is joined by author, model, and Top Chef host, Padma Lakshmi, to film a-what else?-Top Chef parody, where Lakshmi also talks openly about the impact of immigrants in the restaurant industry. You can see it all in the exclusive clip above, which will also air during Wednesday’s episode.

“They’re really the unsung heroes of our food industry,” Bee tells me, as she takes a quick break from filming. “I’ve worked in so many restaurants that it’s a topic that means something to me. I think they’re generally subjected to harsher conditions than people who have citizenship or their papers because they have very little legal recourse if they’re treated unfairly in the workplace.”

It’s an issue that never really left Bee’s mind since the days when she worked in restaurants, and one she wanted to tackle now that she has a big platform. And Lakshmi’s cameo? Well, Bee also loves food. And cooking. And television shows about food and cooking. “I’m such a huge fan of hers. Really like, admired her from a distance for a long time,” she said of Lakshmi, who was so poised and blindingly beautiful on set that I almost had trouble looking her in the eye when we sat down for a quick interview. (Never mind the fact that I also, for a moment, got my pen stuck in her daughter’s hair while on set, but I digress.)

For Lakshmi, who immigrated to the United States from India, it’s a particularly profound subject. She tells me she credits her career in food to the fact that she’s an immigrant and that, as any immigrants would tell me, mixing cultures always creates wonderful food, and many immigrants are used to constantly straddling cultures in their day-to-day life. Food also becomes a tie for people, connecting them to their home countries. "Immigrants often hold on to their own food traditions very strongly because it’s a way to comfort themselves," she says. "It’s something that’s a common denominator. My child is half Indian, and she’s pretty much raised in America, but through Indian food, I could share an aspect of her culture with her."

Lakshmi has also taken the topic of immigration beyond the food world and started leaning more into the political space. She penned a piece for CNN about the zero-tolerance policy, and when we sit down, I ask her how the news has affected her; at that point, the policy had caused thousands of children to be separated from their parents. It’s something, she says, that’s so visceral for her, not just because she’s a parent, but because she was a child who was separated from her mother for an extended period of time when she came to seek asylum in America.

"I can directly see how [my experience as a toddler] affected my self confidence and my emotional life and my tranquility and how it trickles down, even at the age of 47," she says. "When things happen to children in the first formative years of their life, it affects them until they die… I just don’t want this country to sew a whole generation of immigrant children that are really going to resent the U.S. government and, by extension, the American people… I don’t think that we will live down the consequences of what we’re doing."

I ask her what we can do to help immigrants, specifically in the restaurant industry, to rise up the ranks and gain more independence. She mentions a program called ESL Works, which brings English language training to food and beverage companies. Bee is also selling T-shirts through her website after tonight's episode, and proceeds will go to The Giving Kitchen, which offers social services to restaurant workers.

"The restaurant industry can’t exist in its current form without undocumented immigrants," Bee says. "I think it deserves attention. I can’t say I really know how to solve this problem, but I think drawing eyes to it is always a good thing."

Find out more, and watch the entire episode tonight on TBS at 10:30 P.M. EST.

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