Padma Lakshmi Reveals Why Mentorship Is a Game Changer—Especially for Women

Padma Lakshmi’s recipe for success? Behind every successful woman, the 49-year-old Top Chef host says, there should be another woman right there cheering her on. 

It’s no secret that Lakshmi has built a full and prosperous career for herself as an on-air personality and foodie. So when we sat down with her to discuss her new partnership with Stacy’s Rise Project, a Stacy’s Pita Chips initiative that supports female-founded businesses, we were curious to know what her driving force is.

The soon-to-be Taste the Nation host said the key to pushing her career forward is simple: It’s all about mentorship.

Lakshmi said she consistently mentors one or two women in their 20s at a time and that she gets just as much out of it as they do, if not more. But why does she focus on female-to-female mentorship specifically? As Lakshmi put it, “Mentorship is a game changer for anyone, but especially women because often we’re not encouraged to take leadership roles or to go into our own businesses.” She added, “Stacy’s is such a success story of someone who did that.” (FYI: Stacy’s was founded by a woman named Stacy Madison in 1997 and is now a super big deal.)