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REALITIES OF COOKING Padma Lakshmi: ’Eating brings people together and the kitchen is where the action is.’

The sultry model who makes the drudgery of shopping for vegetables look like buying designer wear, and cooking look like an exotic sensual experience, this food writer and TV hostess is back with a bang — as hostess of “Top Chef Season 2”, then with her book “Tangy Tart Hot and Sweet” that will soon be out in India. And…she’s busy moving into her own apartment in LA, now that she’s split ways with author-husband Salman Rushdie.

Sitting in LA, she tells us that food shows are getting popular because TV is getting more popular and there’s a good proliferation of channels and cable TV. “The world is becoming a smaller place. Even in Bangalore and Madras you have so many different kinds of restaurants. All are curious about different cuisines and now you have access to them.”

But if lesser people are cooking, why do they watch shows? “Everybody eats and that’s what unifies us. Even if you are not a chef, you have an opinion.” On “Top Chef”, a reality show featuring 15 chefs in a competitive kitchen, Padma plays judge. The show begins its fourth season in America this March.

“I’m a cook for sure but I don’t cook for the public,” says Padma, raised a traditional vegetarian, but turned to meats once she joined college. Back home in Chennai she loves her vetta kozhambu and kovakka curry, and of course, meen moilee. “I just love coconut milk… and fish because it’s healthy.” And how does the world of models and perfect figures gel with food and cooking? “You can have a nice figure if you eat a small portion and it’s healthy,” the lady simply explains.

“I don’t cook on the show, but judge the food and explain the challenges to the chefs. I’m not using my hands, but my talent.” She’s not acting at all on the show, she insists. But aren’t reality shows and high drama interlinked these days? “Sometimes you just have to be sterner. The drama comes from the show, not from the judges. When I’m cooking I don’t approach it differently from writing for ‘Harper’s Bazaar’ or doing a photoshoot… It’s all creative.”

Her latest book “Tangy Tart…” will have her family photos, her daily life, all down on paper. “The work I do is defined by my family. My cookbook is very personal…It’s got more than what you’ve ever read before,” says the shrewd author.

Padma admits that she’s not too sure if peeling, grating, and cooking looks glamorous when done in one’s own kitchen. “But I’m never happier than when I’m in the kitchen listening to music. It’s satisfying to cook something on your own.”

She then goes on to quote French fashion diva Elsa Schiapirelli who famously said ‘A good cook is like a sorceress who dispenses happiness.’ “There is magic in it and it is feminine.”

A fellow male journalist wants to know if good looks and culinary abilities make Padma a lethal combination. Pat comes Paddy’s answer: “The way I cook has nothing to do with the way I look. But it’s nice to be able to make food for other people. Eating brings people together and the kitchen is where the action is.”

Fed up of being asked personal questions, she says part of being constantly in the public eye is you learn some things on the job. “People take things out of context and have a lack of control.”

She says she’s a simple person and while not working she wants to cook at home with friends and cousins. “I’m more normal that you realise,” she concludes.

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