Easy Exotic: A Model's Low-Fat Recipes from Around the World is the cookbook by Padma Lakshmi, the new host of Bravo TV's Top Chef series. The book was originally released in 1999, and features recipes that Padma cooked or ate when she traveled the world as a working model. For the home cook, this translates into healthy dishes that are easy to prepare - not always completely "authentic," but with enough flavor to spice up your daily cooking routine. It includes about 60 recipes, some of which are more traditional, and some of which are simply influenced by the traditional. All are easy to prepare and make liberal use of fresh herbs and spices. The countries touched on are Spain, France, Italy, Morocco and India, and there is also a generic Asian category, which is more about general flavors than specific dishes. Some of the other dishes include Chicken Tagine (Morocco), Chole (India), Rajma (India), Spanish Tortilla Cake, Sauteed Steak in Red Wine (France) and Penne all' Arribbiata (Italy). A half-dozen or so dessert recipes wrap up the book, because models have sweet-tooths, too.

We closely followed Bravo's culinary reality show Top Chef all through its first season earlier this year, and when we heard that Katie Lee Joel would not be back to host the upcoming season, we were quite sad. Just kidding. We couldn't wait to see who they brought in as a replacement.

The new host is Padma Lakshmi, an Indian supermodel, actress and fashion writer, as well as the author of two cookbooks (one is still pending release) and host of a now-defunct show on the Food Network. She has more presence and perhaps more culinary experience than Katie Lee, but hopefully she will prove to be a bit more expressive in her delivery of her lines.

The new season is already filming and it is set in Los Angeles, as opposed to San Francisco. The episodes are scheduled to begin airing in October of this year.