Padma Lakshmi Quotes

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

In a way that somebody else converts to Judaism or becomes a Hare Krishna, I belong to the church of fried chicken.

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?

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.

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.

The best thing you can do for someone is make them a beautiful plate of food. How else can you invade someone's body without actually touching them?

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.

Women's voices not being heard is the root of many of the problems of the world.

Don't use a different dish for every single ingredient. If you've got three ingredients that go in at the same time, put them all in the same plate. That way you have just one plate to dump in.

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.

People are thrown off by someone who looks feminine, but is also strong. It's not that pretty girls aren't smart, it's that women aren't strong.

I've always thought the back is one of the most beautiful parts of a woman.

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

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

Miami, which has already aired, has this wonderful blend of Caribbean culture and Latin American culture and Southern American culture (talking about fried chicken). All those combine to make for a very very interesting array of ingredients, restaurants, and the chefs that come there. It also has great seafood, not to mention the glorious citrus that's there. And all those things inform what you do - and they should.

I've always had a fantasy to write a cookbook, because everyone wants to know what a model eats.

There are two schools of fried chicken. One is brining in salted water and the other is soaking in either buttermilk or milk. I just combine the two.

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.

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

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.

If you like a wine that you drink, now with your phone, it's so easy. Just take a picture of the label. You learn about it. You learn where it comes from and what the soil is like and why you like it. And that'll lead you to another wine.

I always loved my bangles, I can't remember a time when I didn't have a bangle on.

India's had two groovy moments. Once when the Beatles went to India and now when Madonna has embraced yoga.

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.

In southern Spain, they made me eat a bull's testicles. They were really garlicky, which I don't like. I prefer to take a bull by the horns, not by, um...

DON'T wear loud clanging bangles at work, it's disruptive and noisy and your coworkers won't appreciate it! Bangles should have a gentle wind-chimey tinkle, not the crash bang of a million pots and pans.

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

Decide which you want to play up: your clothing or your jewelry, but not both. Let one be the star and one the supporting player.

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

I'm not tough. I'm tenacious.

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.

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

If you have children in your house you have Frosted Flakes.

Even the fried chicken is great cold.

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.

Each city has its own culinary landscape.

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

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

I think a great classic watch is the first staple every woman should invest in.

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'm a sucker for fried chicken - I really love it.

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.

I will eat anything, at least once. For better or worse.

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'm an immigrant kid who came to America from India when I was very young and grew up in New York City with a single mom and really was influenced by all of those immigrant cultures bumping up against each other.

I like me better naked. I don't mean that in a vain way... When you put clothes on, you immediately put a character on. Clothes are adjectives, they are indicators. When you don't have any clothes on, it's just you, raw, and you can't hide.

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.

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.