The cookbooks and the writing in general have been a real bonus, but it’s not something I’ve ever pursued… I’ve been lucky, I guess. – Padma Lakshmi
For a while, I became an atheist; now that I’m grown up, though, I’m not hard-edged enough to be an atheist. Even though I live with a flaming atheist, I love going to temple. I love all the rituals. – Padma Lakshmi
I’ve always thought the back is one of the most beautiful parts of a woman. I’ve created four versions of the front-to-back necklace which actually gives you two necklaces in one. I love the way they swing and catch the light as a woman is walking away. You almost want to pull on it and stop her! – Padma Lakshmi
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. – Padma Lakshmi
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. – Padma Lakshmi
I’m not of the American ilk that, you know, your lover needs to be your best friend and know you inside out. I think he should know you well enough to please you. Otherwise, what secret will there be to tell him when you’re ninety? – Padma Lakshmi
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. – Padma Lakshmi
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. – Padma Lakshmi
I never Tweet about my daughter. Never. I just want to be respectful of her privacy. My job as a mom is to know when to open my mouth and when not to. – Padma Lakshmi
People always comment about my clothes. They don’t think a fashionable woman can love food and be knowledgeable and actually cook. – Padma Lakshmi
I know most people use their phones to tell time, but there’s something very romantic and beautiful about a timepiece. – Padma Lakshmi
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. – Padma Lakshmi
For a long time, I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was desperate to find something that fit me and I just decided that if I could organically make a professional living out of the things that interested me, then I would be a happy person. – Padma Lakshmi
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. – Padma Lakshmi
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. – Padma Lakshmi
From the simple stringing together of lemon garlands for the goddess Durga, to dividing the prasadam or blessed foods for the children first, I came to associate food not only with feminity, but also with purity and divinity. – Padma Lakshmi
I don’t have any stigma attached to my body. When I’m in my own private space, I have very little on. – Padma Lakshmi
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. – Padma Lakshmi
I have great empathy for all the contestants that come on ‘Top Chef,’ whether they go home right away or they make it to the finish line. It’s a very vulnerable position they put themselves in and I feel for them. – Padma Lakshmi
All chefs are like Jewish mothers. They want to feed you and feed you and impress you. It’s an eagerness to please. – Padma Lakshmi