IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Would Padma Lakshmi survive 'Top Chef'? Host confesses worst cooking disaster

The Emmy-nominated host and cookbook author dished on her most memorable mess-up in the kitchen.
/ Source: TODAY

Even some of the world’s most famous chefs don’t always get things right in the kitchen.

And when they do get it wrong, sometimes they get it really wrong.

Padma Lakshmi, host of Bravo’s “Top Chef,” recently shared her worst kitchen disaster with People. While the model-turned-cookbook author explained that she hasn’t had a huge cooking snafu in awhile, the last one she did have was a "doozy," she said, admitting that she set fire to a full spice rack while cooking over a hot stove.

"I basically tried to flip something in a frying pan and there was oil, and that oil splashed on the back of my stove," Lakshmi explained.

The runaway oil then caught flame and started to burn a wooden spice rack she had hanging above her stove.

"It just went 'whoosh!' And all of a sudden, there were all these flames coming up ... and thank god nothing happened," said Lakshmi. While she made it out OK, Lakshmi's spice rack likely wasn’t so lucky!

But of course, she's not the only chef to experience a major mess-up.

Even Martha Stewart once botched a dish. On her cooking show, “Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party,” she fessed up that her dog once ate the top off all the pigeon pies she’d made for a party for Paul Newman. Yikes.

And some chefs, knowing their limits, don't even attempt certain dishes.

Ina Garten, who makes everything look so easy in the kitchen, admitted that there are some work-intensive dishes she doesn’t even try to make herself. “I order them in restaurants, like cassoulet. Things that take, like, days to make and they're so good. But they have a whole team of people to help them and it's just me," Garten told TODAY Food.

So the next time you flip an omelet that lands on the floor or burn an entire sheet of cookies, know you’re in good company because even the best of the best screw up sometimes!