If you can believe it, Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi was once a vegetarian. I know, right?

These days Padma absolutely adores sinking her teeth into veal chops, foie gras and just about every other cruel, environmentally-destructive meat product available. And now Lakshmi is taking her disregard one step further by becoming the new face of the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. Western Bacon Cheeseburger.

Blaming the burger for breaking her vegetarian lifestyle, Padma writes in her 2007 cookbook :

“I…started wolfing down bacon Western cheeseburgers after school at Carl’s Jr. The sublimely pleasurable taste of bacon…was further enhanced by its mingling with the barbecue sauce, greedily licked off as it dripped down my teenage fingers.”

In the new ad, Padma stares longingly at the dead cow sandwich as she sits next to a massive Hardee’s bag and a HUGE soda. While most probably find the desperate advertisement revolting, Padma thinks “it’s a beautiful love song to food.”

I don’t really know if I’d call fast food burgers “food,” but obviously Padma cares more about quantity (AKA all the money she’s making) than quality.

How do you feel about this new ad? Will you be less inclined to watch Top Chef now that it’s clear Lakshmi is excited about peddling global warming wrapped up in a shiny foil wrapper? Chime in and share your thoughts!

[Update: Now with video.]