Top Chef's Padma Lakshmi - Little Known Facts the Show's Hostess

Padma Lakshmi is not only the sultry host of season two and season three of Top Chef on Bravo, she is also a model, a cookbook author, and a movie star. Even if you are a fan of Top Chef there are some facts about Padma Lakshmi which may surprise and delight you.

Jewelry Designer?

Padma Lakshmi has a line of jewelry coming out, which includes bold cuffs, according to the October 2007 issues of Self magazine. She is quoted as saying, "There is something tribal and powerful" about wearing the cuff bracelets.

Favorite Scents

She also likes to create her own fragrances. She told Self magazine that she mixes her own essential oils every morning. Some of her favorite scents include jasmine, mandarin, myrrh, and rose.

The Story Behind the Scar

The scar on Padma Lakshmi's arm is from surgery she had after a car accident when she was 14. She mentioned this on the season three special of TC, as it was a viewer question. Web searches about her scar are also popular.

She has included a piece of writing that she wrote about it for Vogue in 2001 on her web site. If you'd like to hear the whole story about the scar, and how she has come to terms with it, read her article here Almost Flawless.

Vegetables or Bacon?

Her favorite food is bacon, despite the fact that she was a vegetarian growing up.

Woman of Many Tongues

She is fluent in five languages.

Single?

Even hardcore fans of Bravo's Top Chef's may have not made the connection betweenn Padma Lakshmi and Salman Rushdie. Padma Lakshmi and Salman Rushdie, author of divorced in July of 2007. The couple was married in 2004 in Manhattan.

Lady Padma

Although it sounds like a character from Star Wars, this is Padma Lakshi's new title.

Because Salman Rushdie was knighted before he and Padma were divorced, she gets to keep the title of "Lady Padma," and her "ladyship.

Yes, She Can Cook!

One kind of wonders what this woman can't do. Her cookbook Easy Exotic won the International Versailles Prize for Best First Cookbook.

College Graduate

Clark University is nearby, yet I had no idea she attended the college until I read her biography page on her web site. She studied theater.

Enterprise Episode

She was in an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise titled "Precious Cargo" which aired in 2002. Don't worry, nobody else saw it either.

Top Chef's Padma Lakshmi is an ambassador for the United Nations Development Fund for Women.

One of the Beautiful People

She was named one of People Magazine's "100 Most Beautiful People" in May of 2007.

Sources:

BravoTV.com

Clehane, Diane. "Model entrepreneurs: Banks, Klum and Lakshmi take beauty and brains to the bank." (WOMEN IN SHOWBIZ) (Heidi Klum, Tyra Banks and
Padma Lakshmi)." Daily Variety November 20, 2006.
Imdb.com
Lakshmi, Padma, "Almost Flawless," Vogue 2001.
Rapoport, Adam, "Cook for Us, Padma." GQ Magazine , http://men.style.com/gq
Padma Lakshmi's Official Web Site, http://www.lakshmifilms.com
Remarriage.com
Self Magazine, October 2007, page 250.
Top Chef: The Watch What Happens Special, Season Three
Vogue, April 2001