Top Chef Host Padma Lakshmi Celebrates 50th Birthday With Bikini Pic And Uplifting Message

Padma Taste the Nation 2020

It’s been a pretty big year for pretty much every person alive on Earth, but for Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi, her “big year’ has not really had much to do with the global health crisis. Instead, Lakshmi premiered her new series Taste The Nation on Hulu earlier this year. This week, she also hit a big birthday milestone and celebrated it with a stunning bikini pic.

Padma Lakshmi is a big lover of food and it’s inspiring to me to see her eat so many wonderful foods on television and still be able to confidently rock a bikini at 50. She shared the birthday pic along with an inspiring message:

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The longtime Top Chef host, who won an Emmy for her work back in 2009, also told her fans on Twitter that for her birthday “Champagne Padma” would be coming out, which is a version of Padma fans of the show should be familiar with.

This delightful version of Padma popped up this past season during a Quickfire challenge in which Padma Lakshmi and Jonathan Waxman were judging. While the chefs attempted to create meals that would make good airplane food, Padma demanded ice for her champagne and more whilst goofing around with Waxman. Truly good TV, but I digress.

Padma also shared some deeper thoughts surrounding her birthday, noting on Instagram that this year has been a “mix of misery and elation.” She also said though that at home things have been nice and that she’s been really happy with how Taste the Nation was received by her fanbase, also revealing her gratitude for 2020:

I cannot ask for anything more. I am truly blessed: a loving and attentive partner, a child that continues to be a miracle every day and work that I am proud of and fully engaged by with people I love.I am today very lucky. But I am also a product of the toil and troubles my younger self endured. And I thank that version of me.

Padma Lakshmi’s bikini birthday post inspired a lot of woman of varying ages to also comment with their own looks in swimwear as they’ve hit 50 and beyond. Padma also didn’t stop with the one bikini look, either, also sharing photos of herself emerging from the water (which she also referred to elsewhere on Twitter as “just a little bit cold”).

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Anyway, whether or not Padma was drunk on the beach, 50 looks good on the TV host. I can’t wait to see her back on my TV soon. Luckily, she’ll be back at some point. Hulu renewed Padma Lakshmi’s Taste The Nation early in August for a second go of 10 episodes. Top Chef is also likely to be renewed over at Bravo, though the network has not officially announced Season 18 yet.

Jessica Rawden
Managing Editor

Jessica Rawden is Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. She’s been kicking out news stories since 2007 and joined the full-time staff in 2014. She oversees news content, hiring and training for the site, and her areas of expertise include theme parks, rom-coms, Hallmark (particularly Christmas movie season), reality TV, celebrity interviews and primetime. She loves a good animated movie. Jessica has a Masters in Library Science degree from Indiana University, and used to be found behind a reference desk most definitely not shushing people. She now uses those skills in researching and tracking down information in very different ways.