What to Know
Vice President JD Vance has admitted that the first meal he ever made for his wife, Usha Vance, was terrible. However, former Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi seems to think he should actually be more embarrassed. Because not only was the dish that he made disgusting, but it also made it seem like he didn’t really pay attention to his wife.
During a Fox News interview in February, JD spoke about the worst meal he ever made for Usha. It involved topping pre-made crescent rolls with vegetables and ranch dressing, then baking it in the oven, resulting in something totally “inedible.”
Usha is a vegetarian and JD isn’t.
And somehow, the aforementioned crescent roll concoction is what he came up with when wracking his brain for vegetarian meal ideas. “Usha’s a vegetarian and I am not. So I’m like thinking to myself, what does a vegetarian eat? OK, vegetables, dairy, and bread,” JD said during the Fox News interview. “So I went to the grocery store, I got those crescent rolls that you can get, they’re very good. I rolled them out into a pizza shape and put vegetables and ranch dressing on top and stuck it in the oven for 30 minutes.”
It’s not clear how JD thought this would turn out, but he admitted that it didn’t exactly turn out well. He’s actually surprised his relationship with Usha didn’t end after that. “It was disgusting,” he said. “Like, it was actually inedible. And I’m like, it’s amazing that the relationship lasted.”
LARA TRUMP: "Usha once said that you did not know how to cook much before you met her: So what is the best and worst dish that you ever cooked for your wife?"
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 22, 2026
JD VANCE: "The worst is very easy. Usha’s a vegetarian and I am not. So I'm like thinking to myself, what does a… pic.twitter.com/3Gmxs83aA0
But Padma was disgusted for various other reasons.
Yes, the meal JD made sounds gross. But Padma also questioned how he was in a relationship with Usha at the time, yet did not appear to know what she liked to eat. After all, people usually pay attention to what foods their partner likes. It also seems like JD would’ve actually tried to learn something about vegetarianism if he wanted to impress Usha.
So, after hearing about JD’s extremely questionable cooking, Padma added it to her list of reasons to hate JD. “There are so many reasons to hate JD Vance, I didn’t think we needed a culinary one, but it’s so bad,” Padma said during a recent appearance on The Daily Show. “And also, he’s married an Indian woman, so she comes from this very deep, vast culinary tradition, you know, and he’s giving her, what was it, ranch dressing?” Besides, she added, “Who bakes ranch dressing?”
But beyond that, does JD even know anything about Usha? “Also, he’s like, she’s a vegetarian, she only eats bread, vegetables, and dairy?” Padma questioned. “You’ve been married to this person for over a decade. And we eat lots of things, right? Rice, lentils, beans, squash, all this stuff.”
However, she admitted that she might be making assumptions and missing something — maybe JD does know his wife better than it seems. Clearly questioning Usha’s taste in men, Padma added, “But you know, maybe he knows what she likes because she doesn’t really have good taste.”
