Padma Lakshmi On Love, Sex and Staying Hungry!

In her frank and feminist new memoir, Padma Lakshmi retraces the journey until now — every bittersweet, fiery hot bit of it. Now, at 45, with levity and hard-won confidence, she’s heading right back for the unfamiliar, finds Vatsala Chhibber 

- Vatsala Chhibber

I did not expect Salman Rushdie to take up the first 45 pages of Padma Lakshmi’s memoir. The languid woman I met, flat on a sunbed, cracking up the make-up artist with her Italian digs, projects the happy comfort of a midday nap on a blistering Goa afternoon; which, in fact, it was. The first thing you notice about Lakshmi, once you’ve recovered from the impact of those cheekbones, is this uncanny ease that stays in place through oppressive jetlag, 5am call times, walloping heat. When she squints at the camera screen between changes, Lakshmi’s approval, just like her disagreement, is measured.