Padma Lakshmi (b.
1970) is a New York-based Indian American model, actress
and award-winning cookbook author. Starting with season
two, she has been the host of the reality television
program Top Chef. Her first name literally means
"lotus" in Sanskrit; Lakshmi is the name of
the Hindu goddess of wealth.
Her cookbook Easy Exotic was awarded Best First Book at
the 1999 World Cookbook Awards at Versailles. She was
host of the Food Network series, Padma's Passport, which
is part of the larger series Melting Pot. She has also
been a guest host on parts of the British culinary
tourism show Planet Food. She hosted the segments on
India and Spain. Other notable television roles include
a guest appearance as an imperious princess in an
episode of Star Trek: Enterprise. She was host of
Domenica In, Italy's top-rated television show.
She also starred in Glitter with Mariah Carey and in
Boom with Amitabh Bachchan. In 2006 she starred in ABC's
The Ten Commandments with Dougray Scott, Naveen Andrews,
and Omar Sharif. She played Sean Bean's nemesis in the
iTV film Sharpe's Challenge. She is a graduate of Clark
University in Worcester, Massachusetts, where she
majored in Theater Arts. She married novelist Salman
Rushdie in Manhattan, New York in 2004. She is a Hindu.
Lakshmi's career began when she was discovered while
sitting in a cafe by a high-profile modeling agent in
Spain. Ever since then, she has walked for top designers
such as Emmanuel Ungaro, Ralph Lauren, and Alberta
Ferretti and done ad campaigns for Roberto Cavalli and
Versus.
From high-fashion model to host of a cooking show might
appear to be an unlikely journey, but not if you're
Padma Lakshmi.
Even when traveling around the world as a model, Padma
was always on the lookout to add to her culinary
repertoire. Born in southern India, she had warm
childhood memories of cooking with her female relatives
as they carefully grated coconuts, shelled peas, and
trimmed fresh mangoes.
As she globe-trotted on photo shoots, she found comfort
in preparing recipes from her childhood, and soon she
branched into the cuisines of the countries she visited.
"My first big editorial shoot was in
Morocco...where I learned about fiery harissa and
couscous. While shooting French lingerie in Bali, I
learned how to make a low-calorie fish dish I tasted
there."
Padma spent much of her adolescence in the United
States. She attended Clark University in Massachusetts
and received a bachelor's degree in theater arts.
Although she had wanted to be a model from a young age,
her mother was determined that college should come
first. "My mother's ideas on the subject were quite
clear," Padma notes. "If I was beautiful at
seventeen, I would be beautiful at twenty-one when I
graduated from college."
While studying in Spain during her last semester of
college, she was sent on her first modeling job. Since
then, she has been featured in such magazines as Vogue,
Elle, and Glamour, and has worked with many
international designers. Her career has also taken her
into feature films and television in Germany and Italy.
Among other places, she has lived in Milan and Los
Angeles, and she's currently a resident of New York. In
1999, Padma published a cookbook called Easy Exotic: A
Model's Lowfat Recipes from Around the World (Hyperion).
Padma Lakshmi Profile,
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