Padma Lakshmi says apple pie is not American - is she correct?

If Don McLean ever updates American Pie, he may have to sneak in a small footnote now, because this week Padma Lakshmi reignited a debate that has appeared before: the simple, factual claim that apple pie is not originally American.

The remark, which she made again in a recent interview promoting her new cooking show, set off a round of online reactions that ranged from mild irritation to full-blown cultural outrage.

But the actual history behind her statement is neither controversial nor new.

When she said it

Lakshmi first made the claim several years ago during a 2020 interview about American food culture. She repeated the point this week, emphasising that the ingredients and the idea of apple pie are all imports from other parts of the world.

The renewed statement caught more attention this time, largely because debates over food and national identity have become louder and more reactive.

What she said

In simple terms, Lakshmi argued that nothing about apple pie — not the apples, not the crust, not the spices — is indigenous to North America. Her point was not to diminish the cultural value of the dessert, but to explain that its origins lie in a long global chain of agriculture, trade, migration, and culinary borrowing.

The apples

North America’s only native apple is the small, sour crab apple. The sweet apple varieties used in pies today were brought by European settlers. The apple as we know it is the result of domestication and cultivation that took place over thousands of years in parts of Central Asia and Europe. By the time it reached North America, the apple was already a thoroughly Eurasian fruit.

The crust

Pie crust, the simple mixture of wheat flour and fat, also traces its roots elsewhere.

Wheat was first domesticated in the Middle East and spread across Europe over many centuries. It was European settlers who brought wheat farming to North America. The dairy fats used in classic pie crusts — butter, lard — only became common in the region after colonists introduced cows and pigs. Prior to that, neither the grain nor the fats existed in the ingredients of any indigenous North American dish.

The spices

The comforting aroma of apple pie depends heavily on cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.

These spices do not grow in North America. Cinnamon comes from Sri Lanka. Nutmeg and cloves come from the Maluku Islands in Indonesia. These were once some of the most valuable commodities in the world, traded across continents and responsible for shaping early empires. Their route into European kitchens — and eventually American ones — was long, expensive, and deeply global.

The pie itself

The technique at the heart of apple pie, enclosing fruit in a baked crust, is also a much older invention.

Medieval Britain had its own version of apple pies long before the idea of the United States existed. Dutch, French, and Arabic pastry traditions played major roles in developing what we now recognise as the modern pie. When Europeans eventually settled in North America, they brought these culinary methods with them, adapting them to the ingredients they cultivated in the New World.

Why this matters

Lakshmi’s point, both in 2020 and now in 2025, is part of a broader argument: the foods people consider “traditional” or “national” are often the products of global movement and cultural blending.

The backlash she received this week has less to do with food history and more to do with the discomfort some people feel when national symbols are revealed to be international creations.

The cultural tension

Apple pie became a symbol of American identity in the 20th century through advertising, wartime nationalism, and popular culture. The phrase “as American as apple pie” has been used for generations to promote a sense of heritage and continuity.

Admitting that the dish itself is a patchwork of global influences complicates that image. It suggests that even the most iconic national symbols are built from borrowed parts.But that, in many ways, was Lakshmi’s point. Apple pie is a reminder that cultures evolve through mixing, migration, and exchange. It did not become American by being native; it became American because generations of people adopted it, adapted it, and eventually made it part of the national story.

The larger lesson

Padma Lakshmi’s statement is not a criticism of the United States or its traditions. It is a reminder that cultural identity is rarely pure and almost never original. Apple pie, like so many cherished dishes, reflects the global history that underpins modern national identities. Its journey — from Central Asian orchards to European bakeries to American symbolism — is a perfect illustration of how food travels, changes, and becomes part of collective memory.In the end, the debate says far more about the myths people hold onto than about the pie itself. Apple pie is American in the way that America itself became American: through a mixture of influences, ingredients, and ideas that converged over centuries to create something familiar, comforting, and uniquely theirs.