Padma Lakshmi is an Indian-born American model, actress, food expert, and award-winning author. She was the first Indian model to have a career in Paris, Milan and New York. Her modeling career led to her acting career as she began appearing in television shows filmed in Hollywood, Bollywood, and Europe. As an author she won the Best First Book award at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, for her first cookbook ‘Easy Exotic’. Her memoir, ‘Love, Loss and What We Ate’, released on the International Women's Day, is a New York Times best-seller. Padma is also a television host and an executive producer. She has been hosting the US reality television program ‘Top Chef’ since 2006, for which she received a nomination for the ‘Emmy Award for Outstanding Host for a Reality Program’. Ambassador for the ACLU and the recipient of the NECO Ellis Island Medal of Honor, Padma is a well-known businesswoman, heading many of her companies like ‘Padma’s Easy Exotic’ that sells a collection of frozen foods and ‘Padma Collection’, a home décor line.
