CBS Adds Padma Lakshmi Cooking Competition To 2025-26 Schedule

It's time for Padma Lakshmi to unpack her knives.

The former Top Chef host is next set to preside over America's Culinary Cup, a cooking competition series ordered Thursday at CBS for its 2025-26 season, TVLine has learned.

Lakshmi serves as host, creator and executive producer of the championship-style competition, which, per its official synopsis, will feature "an invitation-only cast of the nation's most decorated chefs as they embark on a one-of-a-kind competition designed to challenge their creativity, endurance, presentation, leadership and more."

"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 [Rovner] on America's Culinary Cup."

Lakshmi is best known for emceeing Bravo's culinary competition Top Chef, which she departed in 2023 after hosting since Season 2 in 2006; she has since been replaced by Kristen Kish, who won Top Chef's 10th season. Lakshmi has also hosted the food-centric Hulu docuseries Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi, and has made guest appearances on shows like 30 Rock, Royal Pains and RuPaul's Drag Race.

CBS' 2025-26 lineup is currently taking shape, with only The Equalizer and Poppa's House remaining as the network's yet-to-be-renewed scripted series. Meanwhile, the FBI franchise's International and Most Wanted iterations have both been cancelled (as has S.W.A.T.), making some room on the schedule for a whole lot of potential spinoffs (including already-ordered offshoots of Blue Bloods and Fire Country).

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