Gone, but never forgotten.
Almost a week has passed since Top Chef contestant Fatima Ali lost her battle with cancer, and on tonight’s episode of the cooking competition, Bravo paid special tribute to the rising culinary star.
At the end of Thursday night’s episode, the show shared a photo of the chef in memoriam.
Fatima’s family shared the news of her death last week, revealing in a heartfelt statement that the 29-year-old was at home with her loved ones and “beloved cat Mr. Meow” when she passed away. It read in part, “This has been a truly humbling experience for us all and even in her last chapter as she began to leave us, Fatima showed us how we should live.”
Only two weeks prior, Fatima took to social media with a request for prayers as her health rapidly deteriorated.
In the hours and days after her death, Fatima’s Top Chef co-stars and fellow celebrity chefs shared memories of their time together.
Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi also penned an essay honoring her close friend.
“You couldn’t know Fatima without falling in love with her,” she wrote. “Her self-awareness, strength and humor were boundless, even until the very end. She showed me that life is truly beautiful and fleeting. She made me appreciate sunlight on my face, the sound of laughter, the smell of cake baking. Fatima’s life was short, but her imprint on me will be there forever.”
Fatima was diagnosed with a Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare type of cancerous tumor that grows in the bones or the soft tissue around the bones, in 2017. She briefly went into remission, but revealed in Oct. 2018 that the cancer had returned. At the time, doctors told her she only had a year to live.
Top Chef airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on Bravo.
(E! and Bravo are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)