Padma Lakshmi is the Emmy-nominated host of the highly rated and critically acclaimed, Emmy-winning Bravo series "Top Chef," and the author of two cookbooks: TANGY, TART, HOT & SWEET and the award-winning EASY EXOTIC. In addition to her culinary achievements, Lakshmi has contributed to such magazines as Vogue, Gourmet and Harper’s Bazaar (UK and US), and penned a syndicated column on fashion and food for the New York Times. Her television-hosting credits include "Planet Food" and "Padma’s Passport," as well as other programs in the United States and abroad. A global style icon and the first internationally successful Indian supermodel, Lakshmi also helms companies of her own such as the Padma Collection and Easy Exotic.

Lakshmi is a cofounder of the Endometriosis Foundation of America. Since 2009, the organization has advocated for early diagnosis, promoted research, and raised awareness in the medical community and the greater public about this devastating chronic disease that affects over 190 million women worldwide. 

She lives in New York City with her daughter.

Books by Padma Lakshmi

Love, Loss, and What We Ate: A Memoir

by Padma Lakshmi - Memoir, Nonfiction

Long before Padma Lakshmi ever stepped onto a television set, she learned that how we eat is an extension of how we love, how we comfort, how we forge a sense of home --- and how we taste the world as we navigate our way through it. Shuttling between continents as a child, she lived a life of dislocation that would become habit as an adult, never quite at home in the world. And yet, through all her travels, her favorite food remained the simple rice she first ate sitting on the cool floor of her grandmother’s kitchen in South India. LOVE, LOSS, AND WHAT WE ATE is Lakshmi’s extraordinary account of her journey from that humble kitchen, ruled by ferocious and unforgettable women, to the judges’ table of “Top Chef” and beyond.