"...now I desperately wish to have a simple, uneventful life."

October 11, 2018 4:26 PM

"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." Top Chef alum and Season 15 Fan Favorite Fatima Ali writes for Bon Appétit magazine about being diagnosed with terminal cancer and being told she has less than a year to live.

Prior to this diagnosis, "Fatima Ali and her doctors thought her cancer had vanished." She had previously written in Bon Appétit about her original diagnosis and how it changed her relationship to food and cooking while she was undergoing her initial treatment. One of Bon Appétit's editors calls the new piece "One of the Toughest Stories We've Ever Run."

posted by primalux (17 comments total)

Cancer breaks the heart.
posted by SPrintF at 4:32 PM on October 11, 2018 [6 favorites]

Fucking hell.
posted by saladin at 4:33 PM on October 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

Fati is my all-time favorite Top Chef contestant. This is heartbreaking.
posted by catlet at 4:59 PM on October 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

Damn. I like her and adored her moxie on Top Chef. She'll always be cool; she'll always be beautiful. I'm so sorry to read this.
posted by but no cigar at 5:05 PM on October 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

I think it would be fine for you to link that, primalux.
posted by killdevil at 5:29 PM on October 11, 2018

Damn. I liked her on her season. Fuck cancer
posted by rtha at 5:32 PM on October 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

Aw, no. I really liked her.
posted by praemunire at 5:38 PM on October 11, 2018

Fuck cancer.
posted by bendy at 8:42 PM on October 11, 2018

Shit. She was my favorite to win that season. Everything about her, right down to how sweetly important it was to her to impress Padma. Fuck cancer indeed.
posted by nightrecordings at 9:08 PM on October 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

What grace.
posted by SLC Mom at 11:46 PM on October 11, 2018

My best friend met Ali while they were both receiving treatment for different bone cancers at the same hospital. My friend is in remission, now. This hurts to read.
posted by i_am_a_fiesta at 2:01 AM on October 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

I've been following her on Instagram since her season, and she's faced her treatment (at least what she posts on social media) with as much moxie and character as her fans would expect. This is heartbreaking to me - as many "villains" as that show has produced, she seemed to truly be a good soul. I hope she savors every bite she can at every single restaurant. And fuck cancer.
posted by librarianamy at 5:30 AM on October 12, 2018

Yeah, this keeps popping up in my news feed, and it's fucking gutting every time. I was so sad at her first diagnosis, and so hopeful when things seemed to turn around -- she seems like such a great person.

Fuck. Cancer.
posted by tocts at 6:05 AM on October 12, 2018

Oh how awful. She was great on Top Chef. I just happened to watch the 2012 episode of Chopped she's on, I think it my have been her first appearance on TV. (She graduated from CIA in 2011). She was hilarious and cooked very well; she wins in part with a "Chicken Intestine Pâté with Miso Cabbage" that looked awfully good. Mostly she just seemed a natural to be on TV. Funny, wry, smart, excellent chef.
posted by Nelson at 6:44 AM on October 12, 2018

I could really use a “major breakthrough in cancer research” article right about now. We need to get rid of this.
posted by CottonCandyCapers at 8:04 AM on October 12, 2018

They did find an Australian spider venom that kills cancer, recently. As far as GoFundMe's go, this seems entirely appropriate!
posted by fragmede at 9:41 AM on October 12, 2018

Sorry to ask about something so tangential, but I keep bumping up against this exact issue: Does this article end with the words "and now I desperately wish to have a simple, uneventful life"? Because it does for me, in both Safari and Chrome, and it doesn't seem like the end, but I don't see a link to more.
posted by HotToddy at 10:15 AM on October 12, 2018