Threaded through the illustrious career Padma Lakshmi has built as an Emmy-nominated TV host, food expert, author, activist, actor, and model is a theme of curiosity. Whether showcasing culinary artistry of the country’s most decorated chefs on her new CBS show America’s Culinary Cup or chronicling the diversity of American cuisine through the lens of immigrant and Indigenous communities in her recent cookbook Padma’s All American, her goal remains the same: relationship.
“I’m always trying to connect—with the viewer, with the reader, with the person in front of me,” she says. “When I discover something delicious, my first instinct is to share it with others.”
This desire to explore food, culture, and connection drives her creative pursuits. Padma’s All American was born from her 2020-2023 show Taste the Nation, which sought answers to the questions, “What is our food emblematic of? What does it say about a given set of people?” “And I’m infinitely interested in that,” says Lakshmi. “I think we all are. I think we tell ourselves stories so that we know who we are.”
At 55, Lakshmi is also invested in connecting with herself. Aging well isn’t about rigid rules or perfection, she says. It’s about listening closely to your body, honoring its changes, and finding balance in how you eat, move, work, and rest.
Telling Stories Through Food
Despite rising to modeling fame during the 1990s when “thin was in,” Lakshmi says she has never felt conflicted about her deep and abiding affection for food.
“I did not have a fraught relationship with food,” she says. “I’ve always loved eating. My mom instilled that value in me. From her I learned the joy of trying new things and learning how to cook new recipes and sharing recipes with others. Food is how most parents transmit their cultural background to their children.”
It wasn’t until her late 20s, after gaining weight for a film role and needing to lose it again, that she first began consciously connecting food and weight. Her earliest cookbooks emerged during that period, shaped in part by the conventional nutrition wisdom of the time.
“Back then, we thought fat was bad,” she says. Her first cookbook, Easy Exotic: A Model’s Low-Fat Recipes from Around the World, was focused on low-fat recipes complete with calorie and nutrition counts. But Lakshmi says she never thought she’d have a career in food, even after that first foray into the cookbook world.
Soon after, though, came Padma’s Passport, a Food Network show where Lakshmi cooked recipes from around the world. And then in 2006, she began a 17-year stint as host and judge of Top Chef.
Food became the foundation of many of her most successful ventures. But in 2023, she stepped away from culinary competition citing burnout. When she decided to return in 2025, it was with clarity about what she wanted from the experience.
“I really had a couple of years to think about what I would do if I went back to the genre,” she says. “Now with Culinary Cup I’m excited about people just watching the pure unadulterated pursuit of excellence.”
The show is intentionally stripped down to the basics. Instead of gimmicks and manufactured drama, the focus is on what Padma likes best: storytelling through culinary artistry.
“It’s really about the chef and the food that they want to create,” Lakshmi says. “We’re not putting any obstacles there. We’re giving them all the resources.”
Padma's Recipe for Prevention
At 36, the same year she began Top Chef, Lakshmi was diagnosed with endometriosis, a painful condition where uterine cells grow outside the uterus. She’d lived with symptoms for years before doctors correctly diagnosed her. The experience fueled a desire to raise awareness for the condition, and in 2009, she co-founded the Endometriosis Foundation of America, an organization dedicated to combating endometriosis through advocacy, targeted research, and education.
She credits her experience with endometriosis with fundamentally changing how she approaches her health as she ages. After years of pain and delayed diagnosis, she no longer assumes someone else will guide her care. She believes in taking the reins of your own health.
“I learned the hard way that you can’t take your health for granted,” she says. “You have to really be the person in charge of it.”
Lakshmi says she stays on top of recommended screenings and vaccines. She got her shingles shot at 50 and schedules mammograms. “I get ultrasounds. I do all the things that you’re supposed to do,” she says. “I just don’t want to have any surprises.”
Equally important to Lakshmi’s approach to healthy aging is moving and nourishing the body she’s been given. Rather than viewing workouts and healthy eating as something she has to do, she sees them as a luxury. She acknowledges that time, resources, and access are a privilege not everyone has, but believes mindset can make a huge difference.
“During book tours, for example, I don’t get a chance to eat a lot of home-cooked meals, so I make sure to eat a lot of vegetables,” Lakshmi says. And as soon as she gets access to a kitchen, she’s back to her favorites, like a homemade ribollita, a hearty Tuscan soup she makes from scratch. And she prioritizes moving, with cardio like boxing or jump rope and strength training with Pilates, calisthenics, and weights. It’s as good for her mental health as it is for her physique.
“I love to exercise,” she says. “It’s also great for my mind. It’s my self-care. It’s when I can just be by myself and listen to a podcast or music, and nobody can bug me. It’s a reset.”
Looking Forward With Gratitude
Lakshmi remembers what it felt like to be young and learning her way through the world—and as a mother of a 16-year-old, she has a front row seat to her daughter’s own coming of age—but now feels firmly rooted in who she is.
“At 55, I feel like I’ve arrived,” she says. “I know myself better than ever.”
If she could speak to her younger self, she says she would start with gratitude for her grit and stamina.
“I’d say, ‘Thank you for doing all the groundwork that allows me to have the life I have now,’” she says. “Don’t worry. You’ll get there—but it’s going to take a long time. So take it easy on yourself.”
Despite a demanding schedule, Lakshmi is intentional about what she wants next: more balance, more presence, and fewer moments lost to autopilot.
“I hope I’m not working this hard in 10 or 15 years,” she says. “I hope I have time to smell the roses a little bit more and enjoy my life.”
For Lakshmi, healthy aging isn’t about slowing down to a stop. It’s about choosing where your energy goes, nourishing your body, moving because it feels good, and allowing room for joy, rest, and connection.
