Tangy Tart Hot and Sweet: A World of Recipes for Every Day

From Publishers Weekly

The host of TV's Top Chef, Lakshmi (Easy Exotic) puts her own culinary skills to the test in this glossy, cosmopolitan cookbook. Here, in vibrant colors, are her own palate-shaping memories in the form of recipes and short but highly personal essays. Like Nigella Lawson, Lakshmi's sex appeal is part of her draw as a food personality, and this collection obliges with adorable family photos as well as glamour shots of the model/actress nibbling on her creations.

Top Chef Host Padma’s Indian Cooking

Padma Lakshmi, the cookbook author and host of Bravo’s reality show Top Chef, reveals her own formidable culinary skills at an intimate dinner party.

There’s a saying in tamil about good cooks: ’Her hand has a sweet aroma to it,’" says Padma Lakshmi, host of the hit Bravo reality show Top Chef, suggesting that the ability to create wonderful meals is a gift that cannot be taught. Then she confesses that her own dishes are sometimes disappointing when she makes them for people she doesn’t like.