caption years_active birth_name birth_place citizenship occupation children height ethnicity article_title birth_date spouse eyecolor image place name haircolor
lakshmi at the 2008 tribeca film festival 1988 -- present padma parvati lakshmi vaidynathan new delhi , india american model , author , actress , tv host 1 5 9 tamil padma lakshmi
 1 september 1970 salman 2007 divorced rushdie april 17 , 2004 july 2 , brown padma lakshmi at the 2008 tribeca film festival.jpg kerala , india padma lakshmi black
padma lakshmi

padma lakshmi -lrb- ; born september 1 , 1970 -rrb- is an american cookbook author , actress , model , television host and executive producer .
her debut cookbook `` easy exotic '' won her the `` best first book '' award at the 1999 gourmand world cookbook awards .
she has been the host of the us reality television program `` top chef '' since season two in 2006 , for which she received a nomination for the primetime emmy award for outstanding host for a reality or reality-competition program .
in 2010 , `` top chef '' won the emmy award for outstanding reality-competition program .
