She walked the red carpet that night with Helen Mirren , Queen Latifah and the ladies of Wisteria Lane. It was the 59th Primetime Emmys, although she wasn’t there for the reason she’d always envisioned — her acting... She could laugh over the fact that she was on a nominated reality show — she hated reality shows, except for Bravo’s Top Chef, which she hosted, murmuring alluring ‘Mmmm’s as she tasted food and delivering the signature ax line, “Please pack your knives and go,” all while looking like an earthly incarnation of Lakshmi, Hindu goddess of prosperity, her namesake.

Padma knew that acting would happen — she’d come a long way since appearing with Mariah Carey in Glitter. She’d been in a Bollywood film and a British mini-series, and had her own media company , Delicious Entertainment... She was proud to be the only Indian woman making the paparazzi scream her name — “Padma!” So what if it was because of food. She liked food. “I never thought that this would be the way,” she told a reporter. “ But if you think of it, I’m the kind of girl who thinks about what she’s gonna cook for dinner when she’s finishing her lunch.”

“Padma Lakshmi,” she hoped, may be on many food labels as “Paul Newman” — “a big hero.” Soon there would be Padma jewelry and fashion, “like Jennifer Lopez,” she said, and television and cookware, “like Martha Stewart.” In September, she sealed a deal with IMG, an entertainment marketing giant. “She has a global image and no end of ideas,” said John Steele, a V.P., “so we have multiple agreements.” “Like,” Padma said, “Tiger Woods.” How amazing was it that she, the daughter of a single mother who fled India to escape the stigma of divorce, was set to become the first Indian woman with an American brand — perhaps the first to self-brand. “I’m as American as anyone else,” she has said....

... contd.