SO MODELS really do eat.

Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi put that question to rest when she popped up in an ad for burger chain Carl's Jr recently.

She wolfs down a western bacon cheeseburger, describing how it reminds her of her high-school days.

It's an unexpected move from someone who has gone from Bollywood actress to health nut and food personality, thanks to her hosting gig on reality show Top Chef.

When the news broke, media watchers were sceptical about the endorsement.

Entertainment Weekly writer Adam Markovitz blogged: 'Doesn't it seem weird that Lakshmi - a model-thin health nut who wrote a book of low-fat recipes - is hawking fast food, let alone something called a 'thickburger'?'

Food site Epicurious called it a 'questionable endorsement'.

But over the phone from her home in New York, Padma, 38, defended the endorsement.

'There's a myth that we (chefs) only sit around eating foie gras. That's not true. Sometimes we eat Italian food, or Chinese food. Sometimes we eat a sandwich that we picked up from a street stall,' she said.

The ad kicks off with her walking through a food market, then moves quickly to a scene at the foot of a staircase, where she indulges in what seems like 20 seconds of burger porn.

Burger part of her childhood

Sauce drips all over her, and she tugs at her dress to suggest the burger is making her sweat.

One expects no less from the fast-food chain. Four years ago, Paris Hilton appeared in a commercial for it, washing a car in a bikini.

When The New Paper spoke to her earlier this month, Padma said she hadn't seen the final cut yet, but she said the concept was 'true' to her personality.

She explained that the offer to endorse the burger chain had come after she publicised her love for the Carl's Jr burger in her book Tangy Tart Hot and Sweet: A World of Recipes for Every Day.

'I used to go to Carl's Jr regularly after school with friends. I wrote about the burger because it was an authentic part of my childhood,' she said.

The company approached her months later, asking her whether she would be interested in endorsing the very same burger she had loved in her teens.

'I felt okay about doing it because I loved the burger, and it felt natural to me. And Carl's Jr always has funny, memorable advertisements.'

Still, some netizens have raised their eyebrows at this former vegetarian openly endorsing a beef burger.

Padma said burgers were one of the reasons she turned into a meat-eater in her teenage years in the US.

'It was a staggered process, and it was a natural part of being exposed to different foods, and being around other kids in this country,' she said.

In Top Chef, Padma joins fellow chefs Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons and Toby Young in judging amateurs, who try to out-cook each other for $100,000.

The third season of the show is on Sony Entertainment Television (SingTel mio Channel 20) at 9pm on Tuesdays.

Padma is not the first TV chef to endorse less-healthy foods. In 2007, Anthony Bourdain called Rachael Ray's endorsement of Dunkin Donuts 'evil', likening it to endorsing drugs for children.

Padma disagreed that her endorsement was a bad thing, but said the burger was 'probably the most decadent thing I eat'.

It's no surprise, then, that Padma, a model and former wife of author Salman Rushdie, is still, well, model-thin.

Ask her about her 'secret', and Padma, who has hosted Top Chef for four seasons and written two cookbooks, says there is none.

'I'm around food all the time, so I just try to watch what I eat when I'm not working,' she said.

Good genes

She conceded, though, that she has 'good genetics, and a very fast metabolism'.

'I also love to exercise, because mentally, it gets me in a better mood.' She boxes, skips, runs on the treadmill, and lifts weights.

To keep her sanity on the show, where she eats heavily, Padma says she doesn't become 'a slave to the scale'. Instead, she relies on the fit of her clothes to tell her when she has started to pack on the pounds.

She shudders at people thinking she is one of those impossibly skinny types who barf out food when the cameras are off.

'I have two dress sizes on the show, one for the first half of the season, the other for the second half. I do put on about 10 to 15 pounds (4kg to 7kg),' she said.

She never worries about eating 'too much' on the show.

'At the judges' table, we have a lot of empathy for the guys who are cooking for us. I don't say 'Oh, I'm not going to eat this because I'm worried that it's fattening'.'

But when she's not judging amateur chefs, she does get picky.

'I don't like sweet breads or organ meat, especially tripe. I get really squeamish about those things.'

OTHER COOKS WHO LOOK GOOD

Padma Lakshmi isn't the only sexpot good with pots and pans. We list TV's sexiest chefs:

Rachael Ray

On her show, she's brassy and a tad annoying.

But Rachael Ray showed that she had a vixen side when she stripped down to her lingerie for an FHM photoshoot in 2003.

Curtis Stone

This blue-eyed Aussie has been charming the pants off housewives, who dream that he will bump into them at their local supermarket and let them take him home for his show, Take Home Chef.

In 2006, he appeared on People magazine's Sexiest Men Alive list.

Nigella Lawson

'Sensual' is a word often pegged to Lawson, the voluptuous British TV chef, whose cooking shows are often filmed in her own house.

Forever dipping into pots and licking sauce off her fingers, Lawson has been accused of being flirtatious with food.

This article was first published in The New Paper.