It has been a year since Top Chef sweetheart Fatima Ali lost her battle to cancer. The Pakistani-American chef passed away on January 25, 2019, at the age of 29. She had been diagnosed with the rare bone and soft-tissue cancer Ewing’s sarcoma in 2017. After surgery in 2018, doctors declared the Brooklyn-based chef cancer-free, but in September that same year Ali revealed that her cancer had relapsed.
Many TV viewers from around the world remember Ali from Season 15 of the reality competition TV series Top Chef, where she skillfully incorporated elements of Pakistani cuisine to her dishes. She also made a legendary appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show where she candidly talked about her condition, treatment and recovery.
Top Chef Fan Favorite Fatima Ali
With a charming personality and playful sense of humor, combined with her talents in the kitchen, Ali became an instant favorite among Top Chef viewers. Though she did not make it to the finale, Ali was voted Top Chef Fan Favorite for the season. Her fun personality and outstanding cooking skills left a lasting impression on fellow Cheftestants, the show’s judges, and of course the viewers.
Ali announced her condition as the show was still airing and continued chronicling her battle on social media afterwards. In October 2018, her co-stars set up a GoFundMe page to help finance her culinary travels around the globe. In January of 2019, just before Ali passed away, the cast of the show re-assembled to rally around her.
When news spread that Ali had passed, many celebrities paid tribute to her:
Goodbye lil’ sis. One of our brightest stars has fallen from the sky…. I have no words, but here are some of hers: “I dream of being better. I dream of being myself again, but I know I’ll never quite be the same, and that’s okay. I look forward to meeting that woman one day.” pic.twitter.com/JThpUIbtk7
— Padma Lakshmi (@PadmaLakshmi) January 26, 2019
Fatima Ali Rises as a Chef in New York City
Born in Lahore, Pakistan, Ali moved to New York City at the age of 18 to pursue a culinary career. Her brother Mohammad Ali recalls that his sister loved to watch culinary shows on television even as a child.
Ali earned her culinary degree in 2011. Although her mother initially wanted her to return home, Ali stayed an extra year to work in the culinary field. She quickly became the youngest executive sous chef at Stella 34 Trattoria at Macy’s in Herald Square.
Even prior to her appearance on Top Chef, Ali became the first Pakistani woman to win on the cooking reality show “Chopped.” According to her brother, Ali hopes this spotlight would help cast people like her in a new light: “Pakistan gets a bad rap when it comes up in the media… Fatima wanted everyday people to associate Pakistan with other things and change the narrative.”
Chronicling Cancer and Recovery
After Ali learned of her condition, she underwent aggressive chemotherapy and posted candid updates on social media about her battle. She also wrote two essays for Bon Appetit discussing how chemotherapy changed her relationship to food and how she hoped to live the rest of her life:
“There are days that I’m exceptionally afraid. There are days I sit alone and cry, because I don’t want to do it in front of my family. And there are other days that we all sit down and cry together, because it is such a scary thing. But at the same time, you can’t let that fear cripple you. It’s harder being miserable than it is to be happy.”
Until the very end, Ali remained positive and retained her playful personality, saying that “an odd sense of relief has settled inside” her, knowing that she “can finally live for” herself:
“When we think we have all the time in the world to live, we forget to indulge in the experiences of living. When that choice is yanked away from us, that’s when we scramble to feel. I am desperate to overload my senses in the coming months, making reservations at the world’s best restaurants, reaching out to past lovers and friends, and smothering my family, giving them the time that I so selfishly guarded before.”
Fans, friends, co-stars and supporters around the world remember Ali’s life today.
