For a long time, I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was desperate to find something that fit me and I just decided that if I could organically make a professional living out of the things that interested me, then I would be a happy person.

Padma Lakshmi

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.

Padma Lakshmi

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

Padma Lakshmi

It doesn't matter how precisely the onion is cut as long as the person chewing it is happy.

Padma Lakshmi

My first taste memory is pickle. Even as a kid, I was really weird. I liked chillis. I used to climb up the shelves in my grandmother's pantry. The pickle jar was kept right at the top. One time, I dropped the jar and it broke. I was totally busted.

Padma Lakshmi

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

Padma Lakshmi

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.

Padma Lakshmi

I wasn't like those girls who give birth and are back on the runway. It took me probably six months to gain 45 pounds and I would say it took me double that time to lose it.

Padma Lakshmi

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.

Padma Lakshmi

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.

Padma Lakshmi

I'm not tough. I'm tenacious.

Padma Lakshmi

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.

Padma Lakshmi

For a while, I became an atheist; now that I'm grown up, though, I'm not hard-edged enough to be an atheist. Even though I live with a flaming atheist, I love going to temple. I love all the rituals.

Padma Lakshmi

You don't want your jewelry to make you look fat. A lot of what's out there now does - you just wind up looking like a Christmas tree.

Padma Lakshmi

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

Padma Lakshmi

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

Padma Lakshmi

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.

Padma Lakshmi

I've always thought the back is one of the most beautiful parts of a woman. I've created four versions of the front-to-back necklace which actually gives you two necklaces in one. I love the way they swing and catch the light as a woman is walking away. You almost want to pull on it and stop her!

Padma Lakshmi

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.

Padma Lakshmi

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.

Padma Lakshmi

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.

Padma Lakshmi