Padma Lakshmi has found success at whatever she's put her mind to. Discovered by a top modeling agent while sitting in a café, she went on to walk the runway for Ralph Lauren, star in ad campaigns for top designers, and host the top rated show in Italy. Now, with the unprecedented success of Bravo!'s Top Chef, she has become a media darling and recognizable taste-maker. She is one of the most photographed women in the press and one of the most sought-after guests on television.

Before Top Chef, Lakshmi starred in her own show, The Melting Pot on The Food Network, and hosted the documentary series Planet Food on Discovery. She brought to the screen her international flair and her unrivalled passion for exotic, under-the-radar cuisine—a passion that was captured in Easy Exotic, her low-fat ethnic cookbook, currently in its third printing, which won the International Versailles Prize for Best First Cookbook. Tangy, Tart, Hot & Sweet, her much anticipated follow-up, will feature recipes along with her memoirs.

As an actress, Lakshmi had a memorable role in the movie Mistress of Spices. On the small screen, she won critical acclaim starring in the BBC mini-series Sharpe's Challenge, based on Bernard Cornwell's bestselling books. She also co-starred, with Omar Sharif, in the ABC mini-series The Ten Commandments. Lakshmi, who is fluent in five languages, has contributed to Vogue, Gourmet and Harper's Bazaar, and is a syndicated New York Times columnist. She lives in New York.

Having had international success in fashion, broadcasting, writing and acting, Padma Lakshmi is a living example of the opportunities of an increasingly borderless world. Her talks explore the trajectory of her own remarkable life, which she has lived on the basis on one fundamental tenet: be open to the possibilities around you. Everyone, she argues, has talents, skills, and interests that they can parlay into something that is personally or professionally rewarding. As one of the first people of Indian ancestry to make it big in the American entertainment industry, she has battled stereotypes and discrimination. Lakshmi encourages audiences to "design themselves", never letting the prejudices of others define who they are or what they can become. Know what your own skills are, Lakshmi says, and be truly open to what the world is offering you.

As the host of the hit show Top Chef, author of the bestselling cookbook Easy Exotic (as well as the soon to be released Tangy, Tart, Hot & Sweet), Padma Lakshmi has her own philosophy of food: the world is becoming bigger and smaller at the same time. The United States, she argues, is a microcosm of that trend–a place where the palate is becoming more adventurous, and where we are all a little bit Chinese, a little bit Mexican, a little bit Indian. A brilliant chef in her own right, Lakshmi is an arbiter of taste and style, and someone with a natural talent for recognizing major developments in the culinary world. All of those ingredients come together in a talk that will appeal to anyone who loves food.

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