Padma Lakshmi sits in a cozy corner of the East Village Italian restaurant Supper, her black hair half pulled back, the rest rippling around her shoulders. As she orders a cup of coffee and an appetizer of burrata mozzarella with tomato, basil and grilled bread, the Italian words come out with a perfect roll of the r's. The waiter, eager to please but flustered, strains to avoid looking in the direction of Padma's spectacular breasts. The Top Chef host, visibly, pertly pregnant, is wearing a stretchy wool dress by Temperley, and though her limbs are still reed thin, her boobs are another story. "Everything is...plumped up," she jokes, shrugging, her large gold earrings flashing in the dimly lit room. At 39, Padma is blooming, and she appears to be heartily enjoying the second trimester of her pregnancy. She dunks a substantial hunk of bread into a small dish of white beans, garlic and olive oil. "I'm eating all the time now."
Lately, she's also in the news all the time. After divorcing writer and Manhattan party fixture Salman Rushdie in 2007 and being linked to the 69-year-old billionaire Teddy Forstmann, Padma announced this October that she was happily, mysteriously pregnant. A flood of tabloids speculated on who the father could be, but Padma, who has spoken publicly about her long struggle with endometriosis—a condition that can cause infertility—wasn't telling. Then, later that month, a curious catfight erupted between Rushdie and his recent flame, the actress Pia Glenn, after Glenn claimed to Page Six that Rushdie was still infatuated with his ex-wife: "He would talk about Padma day and night," said Glenn. Rushdie disputed Glenn's assertions in a missive to Page Six, calling her "unstable" and "radioactive."
When asked about Glenn's and Rushdie's statements, Padma pauses and goes uncharacteristically silent. "Even though my name was there, in that text, I don't feel that it had—how can I put this...?" She trails off, as if at a loss for words. "I just don't think I have anything constructive to add to that."
But in the few years since her divorce, as Rushdie has been spotted about town with ever-younger women, Padma has been launching business ventures that seem to fulfill the promise of her last name—Lakshmi is the Hindu goddess of prosperity. She's no longer arm candy—nor does she want to be. Says Padma diplomatically, "I [have been] reconstructing my life and putting it back together in a way that looked more appropriate to who I was."
Jewelry collection can be purchased at Bergdorf Goodman
In May of this year, she introduced an eponymous line of jewelry at Bergdorf Goodman, and she is hard at work on her new collection of the delicate gold and precious-stone pieces inspired by traditional Indian designs. This fall she also launched a line of spices, teas and kitchenware for the Home Shopping Network. "Jewels, spices and teas—I sound like Magellan," says Padma, laughing.
Once the Top Chef season-six finale airs next week, she is also set to begin writing a third cookbook, a follow-up to her 2007 tome, Tangy Tart Hot & Sweet. "I'm thinking American classics retooled or something low-fat, since everyone is always asking me how I manage to eat so much and stay thin."
Indeed, the image of Padma as a captivating foodie siren, all breathy voice and body-hugging gowns, is a familiar one. She's the hot, graceful woman who—remarkably—eats. It's also a persona that Padma is willing to have some fun with. On an episode of 30 Rock that aired in mid-November, Padma played herself in a cameo on the cult show, joining the ranks of megastars like Oprah and Jennifer Aniston. In a scene with Alec Baldwin's character Jack Donaghy, she vies to host a dating show for his network. Leaning toward Baldwin, she purrs, "Men always tell me I'm very funny." If she were to land the fictional gig, Padma enthuses, "I could actually find a balance between work and...[she strokes her belly fondly]...being a mommy!" She then steals grapes from Baldwin's coffee table, apparently ravenous. The appearance, says Padma, who declines to speak directly about her pregnancy but is not afraid to reference it on TV for an audience of nearly 8 million viewers, "was a sweet coup for me, but I don't want to read too much into it. I mean, I think I can laugh at myself. I'd have been like, 'Here's your tea, sir,' and left if they'd asked me."
The fame that attends a popular show like Top Chef has other perks and is drawing her a growing fan base. She is now frequently recognized on the streets of New York, even makeup-free, in her unglamorous gym clothes at local food markets. "I went to a bar mitzvah on the Upper East Side last year," recalls Padma, who is talking with her hands. "And not to toot my own horn, but I might as well have been Michael Jackson to these 13-year-old boys and girls. There were something like 30 children around me, and they were all practically hyperventilating. I had this swarm of little kids going, 'Oh, my god! Oh, my god!' Kids are so authentic, so pure, and they'd be telling me, 'My sister and I had an amuse-bouche contest, and we need you to tell us who should have won.' I think that's really cool."
Padma strips off for Page Six Magazine
Those who've worked with Padma say she exudes a powerful, sensual allure—one that can make her seem mysterious and even aloof. "[Padma] could be perceived as the bitchy bitch kind of girl because of her composure," says Nikki Cascone, the co-owner of restaurant 24 Prince and a former Top Chef contestant. "She walks on the street, and you don't see any woman remotely in her ballpark." Dale Talde, a sous-chef at Chelsea restaurant Buddakan and also a past Top Chef contestant, confesses he was mesmerized by her. "She's absolutely stunning. She's probably one of the most beautiful people you will ever see in person, and she's gotten better with age. It was completely distracting—there's a lot of downtime, a lot of time when you have nothing else to do but stare off into the world. Who do you have to stare at: [Top Chef judge] Tom [Colicchio] or Padma? It's a no-brainer, even for the gays."
Born in New Delhi, Padma moved to America as a young girl and was raised in New York and Los Angeles by her mother, a nurse, often returning to India to stay with her extended family there. After earning a degree in theater from Clark University in Massachusetts, Padma was discovered by a modeling agent in Spain and was soon walking the runway for fashion icons like Ralph Lauren and hosting a TV show in Italy. As if her caramel skin, magazine-ready figure, and growing cookbook business weren't enough, Padma is also fluent in Hindi, Tamil, Spanish and Italian. She attained name recognition in New York after she wed Rushdie, whom she met at the glitzy launch party for Tina Brown's Talk magazine on Liberty Island. After marrying in a traditional Hindi affair in 2004, they became incongruous regulars on the party circuit, even appearing together in the front row at fashion week, Padma often wearing gorgeous, skin-baring frocks.
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