I usually doze off between 7:30 and 9 p.m. while putting my baby to sleep. Then I suddenly wake up remembering I'm an adult with no bedtime. I spend the next four hours catching up on reading, e-mails, and other adult pursuits until I collapse for good until sunrise.

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.

I'm not attached to things at all. I'm very lucky to have quite a few beautiful things, but if I look back at my life, I was often happiest when I had very little.

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

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

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.

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.