'Top Chef' judge Padma Lakshmi serves on Person of the Year panel for TIME magazine (Video)

Padma Lakshmi is known for her well-respected palette, but she was recently part of group debate about who should receive a well-respected award from TIME magazine.

According to Bravo, the Top Chef judge shared her thoughts about the 2012 nominees for TIME Magazine's Person of the Year Award. Lakshmi was joined by four other notable panelists: speaker Newt Gingrich, Today Show host Matt Lauer, Breaking Bad actor Bryan Cranston and the mayor of Philadelphia Michael Nutter.

An avid women’s rights activist, Lakshmi expressed her firm support of two nominees, Malala Yousafzai and Aung San Suu Kyi. The mother/activist wrote on her website of the two women, “Both Malala and Suu Kyi strive to affect change without violence, leading them to suffer at the hands of opposing forces.”

Of 15-year-old Malala, Padma says “Malala is a 15-year old girl who was shot at point-blank range in the head by the Taliban on her way home from school in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. After she started a blog documenting life under Taliban rule in Pakistan and expressing a longing for women’s rights and education, the Taliban began to track her movements. Malala and her family were continually threatened, and eventually the Taliban issued a fatwa against them. The Taliban tracked her down, and a gunman was assigned to assassinate her for speaking out against Islam, thus breaking Sharia law. Malala fell into a coma after being shot and was eventually transported to a hospital in Birmingham, England where she continues on the road to recovery.”

Lakshmi goes on to express how each panelist had great arguments for their nominees, but her support stood strong with these two ladies.

TIME magazine is still actively deliberating who will be named Person of the Year. TIME is set to release a poll where the public can vote for the nominees. The official choice will be announced in December.