‘Top Chef’ host Padma Lakshmi appears in the December issue of Playboy Magazine. The 42-year-old former model appears in the magazine dressed in lingerie.

In the accompanying interview, Padma opens up about her three-year marriage to British author Salman Rushdie (who was 23-years-older than her).  ”Now there is somebody who has great wit and is a great flirt,’”she tells the magazine. “I don’t regret a day I spent with Salman, but it was tiring. He has a big life, and it only got bigger when we were together. I’m happy to have stood next to him holding his hand, but we were in very different parts of our lives.” Wow, that’s shocking. A man 23-years-older than you is in a different part of life? Ya don’t say!

The couple’s marriage lasted three years until 2007, with Padma going on to have a baby daughter Krishna, now two-years-old, by computer mogul Adam Dell.

Mid way through their marriage, Padma begun hosting duties for food competition show Top Chef which won the Emmy award for Outstanding Reality Competition programme back in 2010.

The tenth season of the show aired last week on U.S. network Bravo.

‘I can cook, but I’m not a chef and I don’t want to be,’ she admits to Playboy. ‘I never aspired to run a restaurant.

‘What I am is an excellent taster. I have an incredibly sensitive palate, which is why I can do what I do.

‘If I taste a dish, I can usually replicate the ingredients. And if I kissed you, I could probably tell what you had for lunch.’

Luckily, all that rich food doesn’t affect Padma’s svelte figure due to her ‘fast metabolism.’

She says: ‘I’m tall, and my digestive tract is ironclad and can really take a beating. Having been a model for 15 years, I also know a thing or two about how to dress if I’ve put on a few pounds.

‘And I usually gain between 10 and 15 pounds over six weeks each season. Then I spend 12 weeks working it off. But it’s worth it.’

The TV star admits that her model good looks makes her something of a man magnet, although she is usually unaware of her own attraction.

‘A lot of men get frustrated with me, actually, because I am like a guy,’ she says. Honestly, I’m like a truck driver trapped in this body. I don’t want to be your best friend. I don’t expect you to give me a birthday card or send me flowers.

‘Don’t get me wrong. That stuff’s nice, but I am a physical and sensual person. I love to be held. I love massages. I’m just not a Hallmark kind of gal.’

Padma, who hails from Chennai, India, also reveals what attracts her in a man.

‘I want someone who’s a challenging adversary, who can tease me and get away with it, who can flirt and make me think and laugh and blush,’ she says. ‘But there’s an art to that. You either have it or you don’t.

‘Sex is good when the attraction is good. It’s not a technical skill. If my mind is engaged, the body will follow.’

Playboy’s new issue hits newsstands Tuesday, November 20.

I like Padma, I think she’s a great host on ‘Top Chef’. Watching her private life, however, I have no clue how she’s attracted to the men she ends up with. Makes her look like a gold digger (most of her men are stupid rich). Maybe I’m just jealous? My mom always did say – marry for money, love will come later.

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