Padma Lakshmi Roasts the 'Ranch Dressing' Meal JD Vance Cooks for His Indian Wife Usha
Padma Lakshmi Roasts the 'Ranch Dressing' Meal JD Vance Cooks for His Indian Wife Usha
Erin ClementsMon, March 2, 2026 at 4:40 PM UTC
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Padma Lakshmi and JD VanceCredit: Getty(2) -
Padma Lakshmi criticized a meal Vice President JD Vance recalled once making for wife Usha that included crescent rolls baked with vegetables and ranch dressing
“He's married an Indian woman, so she comes from this very deep vast culinary tradition, you know, and he's giving her, what was it, ranch dressing?” Lakshmi said
Vance admitted that the dish was "disgusting" when he told the story on Fox News, calling it "actually inedible”
Padma Lakshmi is weighing in on Vice President JD Vance’s recent admission of the “worst” meal he's cooked for wife Usha Vance.
During a Fox News interview with Lara Trump in February, Vance was asked about the best and worst dishes he’s made for the second lady.
“Usha is a vegetarian, and I am not,” he began his answer. “So, I’m thinking to myself, what does a vegetarian eat? Vegetables, dairy and bread. So, I went to the grocery store. I got those crescent rolls that you can get that are very good. I rolled them out into a pizza shape, and put vegetables and ranch on top, and stuck it in the oven for 30 minutes.”
“It was disgusting,” he recalled. “Like, it was actually inedible.”
Padma LakshmiCredit: Noam Galai/Getty
Lakshmi shared her thoughts on the vice president’s culinary creation during a visit to The Daily Show.
“He's married an Indian woman, so she comes from this very deep vast culinary tradition, you know, and he's giving her, what was it, ranch dressing?” the Top Chef alum said.
“Who bakes ranch dressing?” she went on. “Also, he's like, ‘She's a vegetarian. She only eats bread, vegetables, and dairy.' You've been married to this person for over a decade, right? And we eat lots of things, right? Rice, lentils, beans, squash, all this stuff.”
She concluded, “But, I mean, maybe he knows what she likes because she doesn't really have good taste.”
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Vice President JD Vance and his wife, second lady Usha VanceCredit: Antoine Gyori/Getty
The Daily Show’s Desi Lydic then asked Lakshmi, “What's the worst thing that a partner has ever made for you?"
“Well, it wasn't really what they cooked. It was how they brought it to me in bed,” Lakshmi replied. “They brought me a cup of tea and my kitchen is downstairs, and my bedroom is upstairs. And literally, if they had committed a crime, I would have caught them because there was a trail of drops of tea all the way up to my bed. And then the next morning I went downstairs and it was sticky. There were drops of honey."
"And you can tell a lot about a chef by the way they cook and how clean they are. Uh-huh. But that's true of men too," she added.
Lakshmi will return to TV this week when America’s Culinary Cup premieres on CBS on Wednesday, March 4.
Lakshmi is the creator, host and executive producer of the invitation-only series, while chefs Michael Cimarusti and Wylie Dufresne will serve as judges.
According to the show’s official description, 16 elite chefs will be tested on 10 “culinary commandments” during the season.
According to TV Insider, Lakshmi opened up about the new show while talking to press at CBS’ presentation at the Television Critics Association Winter Tour in January.
“I’ve obviously had almost two decades of experience in the genre, and I thought the genre was ready for a shake-up, for a refresh, and for something new and different. And I wanted to be the one who did it,” she said.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
