I've been a model for 15 years, and I've been on 'Top Chef' for eight seasons, and before that I had other cooking shows, so I've learned a thing or two about how to camouflage certain areas and how to draw the eye to a preferable area of the body.

She grew up shuttling between her grandparents in Chennai and her mother in New York. She speaks English Tamil Hindi Italian and Spanish.

She has been the host of the US reality television program Top Chef since season two in 2006 for which Padma Lakshmi received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program. Padma Parvati Lakshmi (pronounced [ˈpəd̪maː ˈpaːrʋət̪iː ˈləkʃmiː]; born September 1 1970) is an Indian American cookbook author actress model and television host.