Padma Lakshmi's Secret to Success: Turning Insecurities into Inspiration

The writer, TV host and philanthropist opens up about facing imposter syndrome.

Padma Lakshmi.Yu Tsai/Sports Illustrated

Padma Lakshmi is the true embodiment of a multitalent. The TV host is also a New York Times best-selling author, activist, producer and mother. Later this month, she will add Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model to her never-ending résumé, as the 52-year-old will appear in the 2023 issue.

While she’s known for her many creative pursuits, Lakshmi is synonymous with Top Chef. She’s been the host of Bravo’s Emmy Award–winning series since Season 2. The show premiered in 2006 and is now in its 20th season.

Lakshmi is also the creator, host and executive producer of Hulu’s Taste the Nation. The series explores the cuisines of various cultures and groups around the U.S., and its second season is set to premiere on the streaming platform May 5.

With all Lakshmi’s hard-earned success, it’s difficult to believe that she has ever experienced self-doubt or felt insecure, but her candid nature is what makes her so relatable and down to earth.

“I get my drive from my insecurities,” Lakshmi admits. “I think it’s the only way I know to calm that voice in my head that says, ‘You’re not that smart. You haven’t done that much.’ You know? So in order to combat that feeling, I try to stay productive. I think of ways that I can generate my own work.”

She notes that much of her success thus far has been self-generated. In fact, Lakshmi says that she was offered the Top Chef hosting gig after pitching the network a different food-related show. While executives passed on her original idea, they pursued Lakshmi for Top Chef from the jump—she joined the show in its second season (she was working on a previous commitment during the first).

“I got Top Chef because I pitched them another show that I wrote. Same thing with Taste the Nation,” she says. “I got the first couple of shows that I had on the Food Network because I wrote a book and I went as part of my book tour, and they got to see what I did.”

While she has continually created opportunities and opened doors for herself, it hasn’t happened without some doubt along the way. Lakshmi says she frequently experiences imposter syndrome but uses that internal struggle to push through times of uncertainty while inspiring others to do the same.

“In spite of it, I’ve still managed to carve out a corner of the universe for myself. So for everybody feeling doubtful about themselves, I feel it, too, and you just have to push through the fear,” Lakshmi advises. “It’s always gonna be there. So just say, ‘I’m scared, but I’m gonna do it anyway. I feel insecure, but I’m gonna do it anyway.’”

Lakshmi confesses that despite feeling good about her body, she still felt some insecurity leading up to her SI Swimsuit photo shoot with photographer Yu Tsai in Dominica. She hopes that people who see her photos in the publication choose to embrace their own imperfect bodies at any age the same way she does.

“I feel beautiful,” Lakshmi says. “I feel like I have a very lucky and fruitful, productive life, and I hope that that’s what [other women] see when they see these pictures. I hope they see a full woman in all my facets and nuances and also some contradictions.”

She believes her imposter syndrome stems from lack of representation, particularly when it comes to women of color. Now, Lakshmi uses her own platform to lead by example.

“​​I just didn’t see a lot of people that were doing what I’m doing,” she says of her career trajectory. “So there was no example, never mind a brown example or a female example, there was just no example of the career path that my life wound up taking.”

Though she’s worked as an actress, television host and model, Lakshmi says her identity is most closely tied to her work as a writer. Her memoir, Love, Loss, and What We Ate, was published in 2016, and she’s also penned several cookbooks, as well as a children’s book.

“I’ve always generated my own work and that’s been a godsend, and that’s why my writing is so integral to who I am,” Lakshmi says. “If you ask me to just pick one thing, actor, model, host, whatever, producer, I would say I’m a writer first.”

Meet Padma Lakshmi—read the 2023 SI Swimsuit model’s full feature profile here.