You�re in great shape for somebody who�s been full-time into modelling in New York, Paris and Milan.
Well I�m not a heavy eater. You don�t need to eat fat to get flavour. I eat healthy meals. No dieting. That�s a quick fix. It�s better to change the way you eat on a regular basis. And I work out four times a week, I box in a gym. Nothing heavy, not to gain muscle. Ideally, I would have liked to have been a ballet dancer... long, neat and tight!

You�ve written a cookery book, that means you can cook?
Yes! And everything! Thai, Italian, Mexican, Chinese, French, Spanish, and of course, Indian. My book (Easy Exotic: A Model�s Low-Fat Recipes from Around the World) is not of generic recipes, but of recipes which are my own. I took what I made for myself and wrote them down. I take a recipe and knock the fat out from it. I replace cream with low-fat yoghurt; butter with olive oil; lamb and beef with chicken and fish.

You said Indian food?
Yes, I�m a South Indian, a Keralite who grew up in Tamil Nadu. I�ve been reared as a Brahmin and ate my first meat dish when I was an adult! Now of course I am non-vegetarian, but it�s easy for me to be vegetarian because of my upbringing.

Your kitchen at home, is it Indian?
In LA, it�s small and utilitarian; in New York, my kitchen is much more extravagant. But, yes, it�s very Indian. I have lots of Indian utensils and traditional appliances like a coconut-scraper, mortar and pestle, different sized iron ladles and wooden mallets, and even the �press� to make semiye!

How often do you cook?
Not as often as I�d like because of my film work. But I cook when I have close friends over. I find it more relaxing than going out, even though I�m mostly in the kitchen. I don�t like cooking for strangers and I don�t like doing dinners for more than eight people. The evening loses its intimacy then.

What�s your favourite cuisine and where do you like to go eating out?
Thai! And Thai because it�s so similar to South Indian. I love the hot and sour flavours, the use of coconut, the little dependence on oil. I also like Italian food because I spent five years in Italy. Restaurants I like? Balcazar and Serefina in New York and this little hole in the wall for Sunday breakfast, Las Deeux Gamins. I also like the Las Dos Lunas in Ibizia in Spain.

Salman Rushdie and you share the same tastes?
Absolutely! He loves everything I cook. His tastes are like mine. Which can be irritating when we go to a restaurant and study the menu, because without consent, we always order the same meal. It�s scary. Like a bad joke. I�m often asked whether Salman can cook. Actually, I haven�t tested him, so I don�t know.