All About Padma Lakshmi's Daughter Krishna Lakshmi

Padma Lakshmi's daughter, Krishna, is growing up fast!

The Top Chef host welcomed her mini-me on Feb. 20, 2010, and since then, the mother-daughter duo have shared plenty of sweet moments together, including beach trips and glamorous ball outings — often in coordinating looks.

Padma, who was initially told she may not be able to have children, was overjoyed to become a mother.

"Willing yourself into this world, you've been the greatest joy of my life," she wrote on Instagram in honor of Krishna's 13th birthday. "Of course I love you with all my heart but I also really like you! You have a wicked sense of humor. There's no one I'd rather spend time with, no one I'd rather laugh with or cry with."

The famous foodie praised her daughter's "emotional wisdom" and called her a "rare delight" who lights up a room. "I look forward to watching you grow into the best version of yourself. Light of my life, you keep me grounded and sane and never let me take myself too seriously," she concluded.

Keep reading for everything to know about Padma Lakshmi's daughter.

She was born in 2010

Padma announced Krishna's birth on Feb. 20, 2010.

"Model, author and Emmy-nominated host of Top Chef Padma Lakshmi gave birth to a baby girl named Krishna Thea Lakshmi on Saturday [Feb. 20th]," her rep told PEOPLE at the time.

The celebrity chef had publicly talked about her endometriosis diagnosis before Krishna was conceived and was told she might not be able to have children.

"That put the issue very front and center in my mind and I was devastated. I really didn't know if I was going to be able to have children, and I knew I wanted to have children," she shared on PEOPLE's Me Becoming Mom podcast in 2021.

She continued, "Once I finally got pregnant, it was such a surprise and such a joy. I didn't [think] motherhood would be so fun. I think I was just so elated that my body had come through for me."

Padma also revealed that she was on bed rest for her third trimester due to placenta previa (when the placenta covers the mother's cervix).

"I just did everything from my bed. I would have meetings. We placed a nice, small leather chair at the foot of my bed. And I took meetings with network executives," she shared of the arrangement, adding that her mother, a nurse, was there to help care for her.

Padma initially kept the identity of her father private

Krishna's paternity was a secret at first, ​​though it was eventually revealed that Padma's then-partner, businessman Adam Dell, fathered the child; the couple were together off and on from 2009 until 2021.

Padma found the speculation around Krishna's father "mortifying" and wasn't a big fan of the media attention.

"It certainly was icky when the press started snooping around in various countries — not just America, but in India, England, Australia," she recalled on the Me Becoming Mom podcast.

She was raised by a "village" of family and friends

When her daughter was about 20 months old, Padma shared that while she was essentially a single mom to Krishna, her daughter was being raised by many of the important people in her life.

​​"In truth, I am a single mother. But I don't feel alone at all in parenting my daughter," she explained. "Krishna has a whole other side of her family who loves her, too. And so Krishna is parented by me, but also by her grandmother and aunts and cousins and uncles and friends."

She added: "The more who encompass her, the more different kinds of people who are in Krishna's life, the better off she is."

Padma calls her "Littlehands"

Padma's sweet nickname for her daughter is "Littlehands," which she often uses when referring to Krishna on Instagram.

In December 2022, she captioned a photo of her and Krishna both wearing all black: "Lately, when Littlehands gets home, the first thing she wants to do is cuddle up and watch Wednesday together. I guess I'm not surprised-- she's always had a bit of a goth vibe💀."

Padma struggled with how much to share about Krishna's life

When Krishna was little, Padma would post about her daughter on Instagram but cover her face with star emojis.

As she got older, however, she began to show her daughter's face on social media, partly because of her Hulu docuseries Taste the Nation, in which Krishna appears.

"I struggled with that," Padma told PEOPLE in November 2021 of allowing her daughter to appear on the show. "My daughter gets paparazzi with me all the time in New York City and like any other parent, I'm proud of her, so I want to put her on my Instagram, etc. But I want her to choose when she is old enough about whether she wants to be exposed in that way."

"On the other hand, I'm going into people's homes and I'm in some very intimate situations with all of my participants, asking them to open up and expose themselves to me with my camera crew," she said of her series and filming during the pandemic. "So if I'm not willing to open up my own family and self, I would've felt inauthentic or disingenuous."

She's appeared in several episodes of Taste the Nation

Much like her mom, Krishna enjoys spending time in the kitchen — and appearing on her mother's various cooking series. Krishna popped up in a Hanukkah-themed episode of Taste the Nation, given that her father is Jewish.

"Her father's family, originally, is from New York and is Ashkenazi Jewish and did live on the Lower East Side. And so to do an episode about Ashkenazi Jews in New York and pretend that I have no connection to it would've been disingenuous," Padma told PEOPLE during her November 2021 interview. "It made perfect sense for her to be there at that Hanukkah dinner. And so that's why she's there in that sequence."

Krishna is also not afraid to roast her famous mom from time to time, like when she interrupted a cooking video posted on Instagram in August 2022 and told her mom "nobody cares" about what she was filming.

"My daughter keeping me humble," Padma wrote over the video.

She likes to cook

Krishna appears to already be following in her mom's footsteps. When she was little, her mom gifted her a set of mini-sized cooking tools, like a mortar and pestle, and her skills grew from there.

"The other day she FaceTimed me to ask, 'Mom, how hot does oil have to be to fry chicken' I was like, 'What? That's too dangerous!' But she was adamant about doing it, so I walked her through the steps," Padma shared of Krishna's culinary talents in September 2020. Her daughter had already prepped her tools and ingredients, which really impressed her chef mother.

"When I asked her how she knew how to do it, she said, 'Mom, I've been watching you for years!' " Padma added. Krishna even made her mom a couscous and veggie dish when she was feeling sick.

She celebrated her Bat Mitzvah in 2022

2022 was a big year for Krishna, who celebrated her Bat Mitzvah, got her braces off and got her nose pierced.

"A big year for my baby girl," the proud mom wrote on Instagram alongside a carousel of pics of Krishna looking adorable in a strapless black ruffled dress at her party.

She and Padma love a matching moment

Krishna is a style icon in the making, just like her glamorous mom. Padma and Krishna looked adorable in coordinating black dresses for the 2023 Blossom Ball in N.Y.C, with Krishna in a high-low black mini with a full feathered skirt and Padma in a slinky halter neck gown with a flower in her hair.

Padma has also shared photos of the pair in matching jumpsuits and gorgeous red gowns.

She has accompanied Padma on several red carpets

In January 2024, Krishna joined her mom at the 75th annual Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. She dazzled in a strapless black gown with a thigh-high slit and feather details, while Padma turned heads in a bright green Marchesa dress.