What Top Chef's Padma Lakshmi Eats for Breakfast

The "Top Chef" host's morning routine is all about tea, ova, and the occasional batch of French toast

May 28, 2013

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What Top Chef's Padma Lakshmi Eats for Breakfast

Welcome to My Morning Routine, where we take a look at how people kick-start the day. And by "people" we mean celebrities.

If you've been paying any attention to the food world in the last ten years, you know who
Padma Lakshmi is. She's been the host of Bravo's Top Chef since 2006 (and just started filming its 11th season), has written two cookbooks, and even has her own line of teas (and recently teamed up with Sterling Vineyards to promote some of their wines). She also has a three-year-old daughter, Krishna, and a serious thing for eggs. --Sam Dean

Most weekdays I get up around 7 a.m., have my first cup of tea, and then wake my daughter up around 7:15 to 7:45. She never wakes me up--if I let her, she'd sleep until 11. She's got disco hours.

The tea is one that I actually produced for Easy Exotic. It's classic Earl Grey with French vanilla and French lavender, among other things. Two cups of that are worth more than a cup of coffee. So I have that with milk and honey, and usually one boiled egg, one piece of sourdough toast, and one grapefruit.

On an average day when we all have school and work, that's what I eat. The only thing that varies is the hot sauce, which I'll drizzle over the egg. I have a whole variety of those: there's a sauce called Lingham's that I love--it's from Malaysia, I think; there's Tapatio; and one that's sort of a sweet and spicy one with scotch bonnet peppers and mango. I'll put coriander chutney that we've made at home, or mango chutney. I get into these moods and I'll have one hot sauce for a while.

I can't think of something that would hit the spot in the same short, effective way as that breakfast. I do sometimes make savory French toast with herbes de Provence and cheese instead of honey or syrup, but I do love eggs. There's a million ways that I'll eat them.

Sometimes I like soft-boiled, sometimes hard-boiled and sliced, and other times poached. It can be scrambled, but I don't really do scrambled unless I do it myself. I don't like my eggs overcooked--it just takes the pleasure out of them for me. I'm actually obsessed with eggs. I love egg salad, I'll often have an egg salad sandwich for lunch, with big romaine leaves.

But my lunch varies a lot. And I'm not opposed to having wine with lunch at all. I don't do it if I have to film or get a lot of work done, but sometimes it's nice to have just one beautiful glass of Pinot Noir. And Sauvignon Blanc goes really well with egg salad! I guess egg salad is kind of rich, but if I were eating it at night, I would have it with a glass of ice-cold Sauvignon Blanc.