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Top Chef's Padma Lakshmi's naked shoot reveals 'favorite' scar

By April MacIntyre Apr 13, 2009, 16:51 GMT

Top Chef Season 7 The 17 new cheftestants come face to face in the nation\'s capitol for the ultimate power play that will determine just who has the chops to become Top Chef. This season captures the varied tastes of Washington D.C. and features appearances by some of the town\'s top names including Apollo Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, White House chef Sam Kass, MSNBC host Joe ...more

Padma Lakshmi's favorite part of her body is a seven-inch scar on her forearm from a car accident at the age of 14 that occurred in Malibu Canyon.

"I love it because it makes me a person who has an interesting past, and it reminds me that I can survive any pain," the Top Chef siren reveals in the May annual nude issue of Allure magazine.

Sharing her ordeal in a past Vogue 2001 magazine issue, Padma writes, "The accident happened on a Sunday afternoon filled with sunshine. I was fourteen years old and on my way back with my parents from a Hindu temple in Malibu. The traffic was quite heavy for a Sunday. I remember thinking how strange that was. Then there was a loud bang, and I looked out the windshield and saw nothing but the prettiest blue sky. I thought I was dreaming because I'd been nodding off, but then I realized we were part of that blue sky. Our red Ford Mercury sedan was airborne. Flying in a car felt like an exhilarating hallucination, an unbelievable ride that oddly remains one of the most beautiful images in my memory. "

Lakshmi, 38, says she has no problem being photographed in such a way. "I didn't feel any more naked without my robe. I don't have any stigma attached to my body. When I'm in my own private space, I have very little on."

Other stars participated in the magazine's layout including chat show host Chelsea Handler, Dollhouse's Eliza Dushku, actress Sharon Leal and Lynn Collins, from X-Men Origins: Wolverine, also posed. All five say they were comfortable being nude.

"I'll strip down to my underwear and my Ugg boots when I eat lunch in my trailer," Dushku, 28, says.

Handler, a comic who lights up late night chat shows with her spirited roundtables and unique approach to interviewing, was particularly proud of her breasts:  "My boobs are good," says the Handler, 34. "They're real and perky. Even if you can't see them, the important thing is that I know about them, and the guys I've slept with know about them."