Padma Lakshmi writes heartfelt tribute to Fatima Ali after 'Top Chef' alum reveals she has a year to live
Padma Lakshmi is supporting Fatima Ali during an emotional time.
On Tuesday, the 29-year-old former Top Chef contestant revealed in an essay for Bon Appetit that she has one year to live. In 2017, Ali was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare form of cancer, and last month, despite chemotherapy and radiation treatments, she was informed of its fatal return. Lakshmi, 48, shared a link to Ali’s moving article, along with the photo above, showing the two of them in the hospital.
“I have seen @cheffati grow and blossom every day I walked into the @bravotopchef kitchen. I have seen her ambition sharpen over weeks of competition, seen Fatima soar along with all of you,” Lakshmi began in a Twitter thread. The pair met on Season 15 of Top Chef, and have grown very close over the last year. “Most of you will read @cheffati’s writing for the first time in this @bonappetit piece. Since her diagnosis I have been fortunate enough to get to know her deeper and in a new light. Over these months, I have come to know her family.”
Lakshmi said she is so “inspired” and “proud” of her friend, whom she leaned on last month after revealing in an op-ed for the New York Times that she was raped at age 16. Lakshmi shared how Ali “cheered me on by holding my hand from the hospital bed, assuring me I had not flayed myself in vain.” She added, “I hope that this year brings her as much as she can hope for. … I love you.”
I have gotten to know most of her family and in them I see my own. I was in the hospital with her the morning she had surgery months ago and witnessed her courage. The day after my @nytimes piece came out, I went to see her, and she cheered me on by holding my hand
— Padma Lakshmi (@PadmaLakshmi) October 10, 2018
You’ve said on @BravoTopChef that growing up I inspired you. But Fati, now, it’s you who inspire me. Everyday. I love you, @cheffati.
— Padma Lakshmi (@PadmaLakshmi) October 10, 2018
Ali wrote in her essay that her cancer is “back with a vengeance in my left hip and femur bone.” She added, “I was looking forward to being 30, flirty, and thriving. Guess I have to step it up on the flirting. I have no time to lose.”
“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,” she continued.
Ali concluded, “I think back to my favorite movie of all time, American Beauty. ‘I don’t think that there’s anything worse than being ordinary,’ Mena Suvari says as she sits with Kevin Spacey’s lecherous character. I was always deathly afraid of being average in any way, and now I desperately wish to have a simple, uneventful life.”
The New York City chef has been flooded with messages of support and love after Tuesday’s story.
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