I was happily watching The Princess Bride for about the 1000th time on Bravo (“That’s right. When I was your age, television was called books.”), and I saw the name “Padma Lakshmi” flash across the screen. A little Googling later, and it appears that Padma Lakshmi, model, occasional actress, cookbook author, and oh yeah, Mrs. Salman Rushdie, has a new gig — possibly her most high-profile one yet.

She’s hosting the second season of Bravo’s Top Chef, a cooking reality show:

Known as the first Indian supermodel, actress and award-winning writer Padma Lakshmi joins the second season as host of “Top Chef,” introducing the challenges to the contestants and sitting at the judges’ table each week. Lakshmi is currently working on her second cookbook for Miramax Books due in Spring 2007, a culinary endeavor of over 150 recipes from around the world and intriguing personal memoirs. This is a follow up to her successful first cookbook, “Easy Exotic,” for which she won the International Versailles Event for best cookbook by a first time writer. Lakshmi hosted “Padma’s Passport” on The Food Network, cooking diverse and low-fat cuisine based on her best selling book, “Easy Exotic.” Lakshmi also hosted the documentary series “Planet Food” for The Food Network and worldwide Discovery Channel, in which she journeyed the world for exotic cuisine. (link)

Ok, she’s not really the first Indian supermodel — though maybe she’s the best-known in the American TV landscape. (But who was the “first” Indian supermodel?) I suppose one could make a comment about the phrase, “easy exotic,” but we’ll try and rise above that. Between “Planet Food” and “Padma’s Passport,” I prefer the latter title, though I think what she really needs to do is start her own video podcast: the Podmacast.