Padma Lakshmi is returning to the culinary competition world.
The former Top Chef host and producer will front a new food series at CBS with the working title of America’s Culinary Cup. Lakshmi created the format and will executive produce alongside former NBCUniversal content chief Susan Rovner.
The project has been in the works for several months, as Lakshmi and Rovner inked a development deal with CBS in September 2024.
America’s Culinary Cup will feature “the nation’s most decorated chefs,” per the show’s logline, competing in a format “designed to challenge their creativity, endurance, presentation, leadership and more.” It’s slated to premiere in the 2025-26 season.
“We’re inviting elite chefs from across the country to represent their unique culinary style and battle it out,” Lakshmi said in a statement. “This competition echoes the thrill of sports and the American spirit as we cheer on our favorite chefs. I’m very excited to work with CBS and partner with Susan on America’s Culinary Cup.”
The show marks CBS’ first entry into the food competition subgenre of unscripted TV in more than a decade. It’s a world Lakshmi obviously knows well, having hosted 19 seasons of Top Chef on Bravo, earning a host of Emmy nominations for her work. She left the show in 2023, saying at the time that her decision came “after much soul searching.” Lakshmi also created and hosted the Emmy-nominated docuseries Taste the Nation for Hulu.
Lakshmi is executive producing America’s Culinary Cup via her Delicious Entertainment. Rovner exec produces via Aha Studios.
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