Padma Lakshmi on Being a Mom to Teen Daughter Krishna: 'I'm Strict About Some Things!' (Exclusive)

Padma Lakshmi finds a balance between being her teenage daughter Krishna in the public eye and being a protective mother.

PEOPLE caught up with the first A top chef host and cookbook author, 53, at the Gold Gala in Los Angeles on Saturday, May 11, where she was honored as a Golden Legend for her contributions to entertainment and cooking. She also worked as a culinary co-host of a gala dinner with restaurateur Roni Mazumdar

Since leaving the Bravo cooking competition after an impressive 17 years, Lakshmi has turned to other endeavors, including stand-up comedy and social media.

On TikTok and Instagram, Padma thrust 14-year-old Krisha into the limelight. Their conversations – filmed on the family couch or in the kitchen – range from decoding teenage slang to the challenges of the viral generation.

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“I think every parent will be able to identify with what we do,” Lakshmi told PEOPLE exclusively at the Gold Gala.

“It wasn’t a conscious thing. We were just sitting on the couch talking like, ‘Oh, that’s funny. This is funny,'” she explained. “And so I just said, ‘Let’s record it,’ and we just chopped it up. It’s just an experiment. It’s fun to watch your kids grow up and become what they’re going to be.”

Lakshmi admitted that she is sometimes surprised by Krishna’s honest answers.

“She has so many opinions,” she said. “I don’t think she’s any different than most teenagers; maybe she matured a little early.”

Padma Lakshmi and her daughter Krishna at the 75th Emmy Awards on January 15, 2024.

FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty

Lakshmi added that while Krishna appears on her social media account, her daughter does not have an account of her own. “He’s not on social media, at least as far as I know, or he’ll be in trouble,” she said.

“I’m strict about some things, and I’m not so strict about other things that I probably should be more strict about, like bedtime [as] she’s 14,” Lakshmi admitted.

“But I was very strict about making sure she ate a very good diet for the first four, five years of her life, and I wasn’t going to bow to her disrespecting adults,” she continued. “She didn’t [disrespectful]but that’s where our Asian culture shows itself in things like that — respecting our traditions like taking off your shoes before entering the house and calling your elders uncle and aunt.”

Lakshmi previously told PEOPLE that she “struggled” with how much Krishna was exposed.

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While in recent years, Krishna has joined her mom on the red carpet, including the Emmy Awards in January and a screening of Lakshmi’s cooking show Taste the nation last May, has been largely out of the limelight since birth.

Krisha’s father is Adam Dell, with whom Lakshmi was in an on-and-off relationship from 2009 to 2021. Lakshmi initially kept Krishna’s paternity a secret, and found the media speculation surrounding Krishna’s father “humiliating”.

“It was definitely nasty when the media started snooping around in different countries — not just in America, but also in India, England, Australia,” she recalled to PEOPLE’s I’m becoming a mom podcast in 2021.

Padma Lakshmi at the 3rd Annual Golden Gala on May 11, 2024.

Gregg DeGuire/Variety

As Krishna grew up, she would make occasional public appearances, eventually featuring in the Hanukkah episode Taste the nationsince Dell is Jewish.

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And while Krishna wasn’t present to see his mother receive the award on Saturday, the two reunited for Mother’s Day afterward. “We’re going to have a very relaxed Mother’s Day at home and relax and hang out with her,” Lakshmi said of their plans.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education