Padma Lakshmi
Padma Lakshmi returns to Bravo tonight as the host and a judge of the top rated series Top Chef. This Hindu beauty is not only known for her television appearances, but she is also a respected model, actress, and author.
Padma was born in Madra, India in 1970. She graduated from Clark University in Massachusetts with a major in Theater Arts. She began her career as a model after being discovered in a café in Spain. She has done runway work for such top designers as Alberta Ferretti, Ralph Lauren, and Emmanuel Ungaro as well as ad campaigns for Roberto Cavalli and Versus. She made the People Magazine’s 100 Most Beautiful issue in 2007 and was ranked #87 on the Maxim Hot 100 list of 2007.
Padma began acting in the late 90s, appearing in the television mini series Figlio di Sandokan, Il in Italy. In 2001, she was in the Mariah Carey bomb Glitter and she appeared in Mistress of Spices alongside Aishwarya Rai and Dylan McDermott in 2005. In 2006, she won rave reviews when she appeared as Princess Bithia in the ABC mini series The Ten Commandments. She also starred in the BBC America mini series Sharpe’s Challenge.
Padma had her own show on the Food Network (“Padma’s Passport”) and hosted a documentary series called Planet Food (which aired on both the Food Network and Discovery Channel). She has written two cookbooks: Easy Exotic: A Model’s Low-Fat Recipes from Around the World and the just released Tandy, Tart, Hot & Sweet. She won the International Versailles Event for best cookbook by a first time author for Easy Exotic. Among the magazines to which she has contributed are Harper’s Bazaar, Gourmet, and American Vogue.
Padma married controversial author Salman Rushdie on April 17, 2004. Rushdie is most famous for the novel “The Satanic Verses” that was considered so blasphemous by Islamic radicals that the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie to be put to death.
Season three finds Top Chef in Miami with returning judges Padma, Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, and new judge Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’s Ted Allen.
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