Television host and author Padma Lakshmi will host this year’s National Book Awards ceremony, the National Book Foundation announced in a news release.
Lakshmi, best known as the host of the cooking show Top Chef and the travel documentary series Taste the Nation, is the author of five books, including two cookbooks and a reference guide to spices and herbs.
In 2016, she published a memoir, Love, Loss, and What We Ate, which covered her early years as a model, her marriage to novelist Salman Rushdie, and her struggle with endometriosis. A critic for Kirkus called the book “an intimate, revealing portrait, far different from the woman blazoned in the tabloids.”
Her most recent literary work, a children’s book titled Tomatoes for Neela, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal, was published last year.
The National Book Awards are frequently hosted by celebrities. Past emcees have included comedian Phoebe Robinson, author Jason Reynolds, and actors LeVar Burton and Nick Offerman.
“The National Book Awards Ceremony is the highlight of our work each year celebrating exceptional literature,” said Ruth Dickey, the National Book Foundation’s executive director. “We are honored that Padma Lakshmi will bring her passion for books, storytellers, and human connection to this year’s in-person Benefit Dinner.”
The ceremony is scheduled for Nov. 16. Also appearing at the awards will be novelist Neil Gaiman, who will present the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters to author Art Spiegelman.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
