AS Padma Lakshmi enters Craft, the Century City outpost of Tom Colicchio's Manhattan-based restaurant, the waitstaff momentarily stop prepping for dinner service to stare. Her long black hair is in a ponytail and she's wearing an oversized navy blue fleece sweater, jeans and gray sneakers.
The 37-year-old host of Bravo's celebrated cooking competition "Top Chef" doesn't notice the gawking as she settles into a booth and orders a pot of hot green tea. She's grateful to be between her big projects; she shot the "Top Chef" Season 4 finale a few weeks ago and just finished a tour promoting her second book, "Tangy Tart Hot & Sweet," which doesn't coyly refer to herself, but to the flavors of Mediterranean and Southeast Asian cuisines.
The newly single Lakshmi -- she divorced novelist Salman Rushdie last summer after three years of marriage -- is using her break to tend to more business: She's still settling into the New York apartment she bought in January and on the horizon are more cookbooks, another cooking show, her own brand of bottled chutneys, perhaps a jewelry line and a memoir.
"If I don't conquer the world, that's fine," said the Indian-born former model with a few acting credits to her name, including Mariah Carey's "Glitter" and a memorable turn on "Star Trek: Enterprise." "I want to teach people about things and places and foods they don't necessarily know. I think in America it's very important to sample and taste what the rest of the world is about. Maybe it comes from being an immigrant child and wanting others to understand me."
International flavors
Lakshmi spent her early childhood years in India but came to the United States as an adolescent. Once here, she found herself in the culinary melting pot of New York where she developed a passion for global cuisines. Her travels as a young model took her around the world, but no matter where she landed she always tried replicating the flavors of home: her mother's Indian food, the Filipino noodles of her neighbors, the dishes of Spanish Harlem and Chinatown.
The constant experimentation in the kitchen resulted in her first cookbook, "Easy Exotic," in 1999, which, in turn, led to a hosting job for "Planet Food," a documentary series exploring the culture and cuisine of different countries. Her own show, "Padma's Passport," followed.
