Padma Lakshmi’s friendship with a Top Chef winner has sent the internet swirling with rumors of romance but she is clearing up the confusion.

The author of upcoming cookbook Padma’s All American told PEOPLE about her friendship with chef Melissa King while talking about her latest campaign for Soma’s 2025 Holiday Cool Nights Collection.

Fans have paid particular attention to Lakshmi and King’s friendship in recent months as the pair frequently post pictures together.

Followers commented sentiments like “OMG, I’m shipping this so hard!!!! ❤️🥲🥲🥲🥲,” “let this be a soft launch” and “MOVE OVER BROOKE AND BOBBY 👏👏👏” on a post that the author of Cook Like a King cookbook shared over the summer. Just last week, King shared a video of Lakshmi singing “Happy Birthday” to her during a Diwali celebration, sparking comments like, “even if y’all are just friends, I totally ship your love for each other ❤️” Most recently, King posted a collection of photos of the pair at an Interview Magazine event and captioned the Monday, Oct. 27, post, “Date night.”

Despite the online speculation, Lakshmi says her friendship with King is solid. “Melissa is somebody whose cooking I always loved, and she’s fun. She’s great company,” Lakshmi, who worked with King as a Top Chef season 12 contestant and season 17 winner, said. “There’s not really more to it than that.”

She continued, “She tends to be my plus one, sometimes, so people will see us on the red carpet together, or things that are more public-facing.”

Lakshmi, who hosted the Bravo cooking show for 17 years before leaving in 2023added that she doesn’t “stay in touch with every Top Chef alumni, obviously,” but that there are several friendships that she has sparked with former contestants after “the contest is finished.”

“But I’m also very close to Gregory GourdetI’m also close to Kwame (Onwuachi). I’m also close to Kristen (Kish),” Lakshmi said. “There’s quite a few of them, but these guys seem to be in New York the most.”

Back in June, some outlets reported that fellow Top Chef season 17 contestant Nini Nguyen “hard launched” her and King’s relationship with an Instagram Stories post though there has not been more recent news on their status.

While King may be Lakshmi’s plus-one at some events, the celebrity chef had a different person by her side for her Soma venture.

The pajama line was shot with 15-year-old daughter Krishna Lakshmi-Dellmarking the second photoshoot the mother-daughter duo has done together in recent months (last month, they were Vogue India’s September-October 2025 issue’s cover stars).

The pair had a “wonderful” time while being photographed in the striped, plaid, floral and jewel-toned pajama sets, which are available online and in stores nationwide now, according to Lakshmi: “Krishna had a ball, I had a ball,” she said.