Padma Lakshmi's Quotes

In truth, I am a single mother. But I don't feel alone at all in parenting my daughter. Krishna has a whole other side of her family who loves her, too. And so Krishna is parented by me, but also by her grandmother and aunts and cousins and uncles and friends.

My first taste memory is pickle. Even as a kid, I was really weird. I liked chillis. I used to climb up the shelves in my grandmother's pantry. The pickle jar was kept right at the top. One time, I dropped the jar and it broke. I was totally busted.

Part of my job as a food writer is to describe food. So my work on 'Top Chef,' I feel, is an extension of that. When we give a criticism to the contestant, we want to make sure we tell them why it's not working and why it would work if they did it a different way.

Whenever I'm in sync with the trends, it's always an accident. I still love wearing clothes I've had for ten years. I think understated luxury is the chicest thing.

Wine, like food, is so emotional. If you think about it, so much of the courting ritual is surrounded by wine and food. There's a built-in romance to wine.

You don't need expensive classes and all kinds of weird equipment if you really want to be in shape. There are great ways to do it that are very economical, it just takes a time commitment, even if it means waking up a half hour a day before the rest of the household gets up because that's the only time you have.

Jewelry should not upstage you. I pick one hot point on my body that I'm going to highlight. Let one area do the singing - you don't want to hear three songs at once.

I'm the kind of girl who thinks about what she's gonna cook for dinner when she's finishing her lunch.

People always comment about my clothes. They don't think a fashionable woman can love food and be knowledgeable and actually cook.

You don't want your jewelry to make you look fat. A lot of what's out there now does - you just wind up looking like a Christmas tree.

All chefs are like Jewish mothers. They want to feed you and feed you and impress you. It's an eagerness to please.

I think wine is such a big universe that it's kind of like food - it's intimidating to a lot of people, myself included.

I was lucky to have a successful career as a model, but that was just a way to pay off my college loans.

Where is it written that a smart woman can't also be stacked?

I'm not attached to things at all. I'm very lucky to have quite a few beautiful things, but if I look back at my life, I was often happiest when I had very little.

One thing that happens when you're pregnant is that as your stomach starts to stretch. It itches! So I have to keep my belly really lubricated. Every morning, there's a buttering ceremony after I get out of the shower. It's really like basting a turkey with body butter.

Whether I'm making a recipe or a piece of jewelry or a white-rose-and-jasmine tea or the perfume, I like to think of myself as a happy little sorceress, and if I could just have a little general store with all that stuff and give people a sense of my taste, that would be lovely.

During the course of filming 'Top Chef,' I gain 15 lbs., so I'm used to needing two dress sizes.

Every city has a Donald Trump; ours is just the Trumpiest.

Flowers die and wine gets consumed. Both are lovely. I appreciate both. Wine and roses. I actually had someone bring me a lobe of foie gras once.

I am a sufferer of endometriosis. I didn't want any young women to go through what I went through. I thought that people should know about it.

I am as omnivorous as it's possible to be. I always say there's nothing I won't eat and nothing I won't wear.

I don't have any stigma attached to my body. When I'm in my own private space, I have very little on.

I grew up a vegetarian. Then, because I grew up in the states, I started slowly eating meat. First it was bologna sandwiches, or pepperoni on pizza.

I know most people use their phones to tell time, but there's something very romantic and beautiful about a timepiece.

I love seafood. I'm not a vegetarian but I'm probably a pescetarian.

I really like to sometimes go into food detox and eat very simply.

I tend to sleep in the nude... I'm a sensual-leaning woman. You have to use the word 'leaning' or it sounds like I'm boasting.

I think eating in itself is the act of great sensuality, so all you have to do is point the camera in the right direction.

I was the first Indian model to have a career in Paris, Milan and New York.

I work out all the time! I don't just sit around and eat burgers whenever I want. Oh, if I could I probably would, but I don't.