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Most foodies have a favorite breakfast that they return to time and again. For Giada De Laurentiis, it’s a healthy serving of brown rice with a drizzle of olive oil. For Guy Fieri, it’s a classic Southern dish of grits with ham and red-eye gravy. Meanwhile, Ina Garten has started her day with the same breakfast for 10 years: a bowl of oatmeal, typically topped with sweet add-ons like maple syrup and dried fruit. As for Padma Lakshmi, the long-time host of “Top Chef” enjoys yogurt most mornings.
Appearing in Harper’s Bazaar’s Food Diaries series, Lakshmi revealed that she prefers vanilla yogurt and often eats it with a sprinkle of cinnamon and some sliced banana mixed in. Known for sharing recipes on social media, she also showed her Instagram followers how to make a yogurt bowl topped with pomegranate seeds, salted pecans, and maple syrup. The cookbook author and Food Network star didn’t divulge the particular brand of yogurt she likes best, but some of the most popular brands of high-protein yogurt on the market include Chobani, Fage, and Stonyfield. Lakshmi’s also a brand partner of DAH!, an Indian-inspired yogurt brand. We’re also left to guess what style she likes out of the different types of yogurt, from tangy Greek to milder French. However, we do know that she prefers a low-fat formula, as it’s what she used in her recipe shared on Instagram.
Yogurt is not her only go-to breakfast
In the same video for Harper’s Bazaar, Padma Lakshmi shared that while she often kicks the day off with a sweet breakfast, such as her go-to bowl of vanilla yogurt with fruit, she’ll have a savory breakfast a bit later. For that second meal, the “Taste the Nation” host is a fan of avocado toast with sliced cheese for breakfast. However, another one of her favorite savory morning meals is an egg-in-a-hole.
Also sometimes called bullseye toast, the classic breakfast dish is made by making a hole in the center of a slice of toast and then cracking an egg into it to cook. Lakshmi said she uses sourdough bread and prepares it in a frying pan on the stove, though you can also cook the simple meal in the oven for a more hands-off approach. “All the white has to be cooked but the yolk has to be at least jammy, if not runny,” she said. She then finishes it off with a drizzle of olive oil, a dash of Maldon flaky sea salt for subtle texture, and Maggi hot and sweet sauce, which she describes as, “if ketchup and hot sauce had a baby.” Between both her sweet and savory favorites, breakfast at Padma Lakshmi’s house sounds like a delicious feast.
