Even when traveling around the world as a model, Padma was always on the lookout to add to her culinary repertoire. Born in southern India, she had warm childhood memories of cooking with her female relatives as they carefully grated coconuts, shelled peas, and trimmed fresh mangoes.

As she globe-trotted on photo shoots, she found comfort in preparing recipes from her childhood, and soon she branched into the cuisines of the countries she visited. "My first big editorial shoot was in Morocco...where I learned about fiery harissa and couscous. While shooting French lingerie in Bali, I learned how to make a low-calorie fish dish I tasted there."

Padma spent much of her adolescence in the United States. She attended Clark University in Massachusetts and received a bachelor's degree in theater arts. Although she had wanted to be a model from a young age, her mother was determined that college should come first. "My mother's ideas on the subject were quite clear," Padma notes. "If I was beautiful at seventeen, I would be beautiful at twenty-one when I graduated from college."