Chrissy Teigen Fangirls Over Padma Lakshmi After She Shares Stunning Bikini Photo: 'My Hero'

Count Chrissy Teigen as one of the many people swooning over Padma Lakshmi.

Lakshmi, who is returning to host the seventeenth season of Top Chef this spring, posted a stunning photo of herself in a bikini on Twitter while she was on vacation in the Dominican Republic. “Feelin’ fine at 49,” Lakshmi wrote in the post on Saturday.

The photo quickly garnered attention from adoring fans, including Teigen, who revealed her affection for the chef dates back to a decade ago. The Instagram account @Commentsbycelebs spotted Teigen’s reply to Lakshmi’s photo.

“I remember seeing you at a party in Miami like 10 years ago,” wrote Teigen. “Everyone was miami decked out but you were in a long dress and barefoot with barely any makeup on, and just floating like you were on skates. I was like ‘that. is my hero.’ ”

Lakshmi confidently showing off her toned physique comes just months after she said she’s over the obsession with dieting.

“At the end of the day it’s just about feeling comfortable,” she said on the Emmy’s red carpet. “I am done trying to squeeze my bum into something that is too small. I don’t care — it shouldn’t be about what I look like at this point in my career.”

Though Teigen quietly ogled over Lakshmi way back when, they’ve since formed a friendship more recently. In 2014, Teigen and her husband, John Legend, attended a dinner party at Lakshmi’s house, where they apparently had major PDA in her backyard.

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During an appearance on Busy Philipps’ show Busy Tonight in 2018, Lakshmi commented on the two lovebirds: “They’re so cute, those two. They came to dinner at my house once, and I have a terrace off my living room and you know, at one point I looked over and they were just out on the grass making out. Her legs were like everywhere and I was like, there are other people here.”