The James Beard Award has been given posthumously twice to Pakistani-American chef Fatima Ali, who died in 2019 after a protracted fight with cancer.
Ali, the daughter of Ashtar Ausaf Ali, a former Pakistani attorney general, was well-known for her performances on Chopped and Top Chef and for receiving a James Beard Foundation Award for an essay she wrote about coping with sarcoma.
She wrote a book titled Savour, A Chef’s Hunger for More while she was on her deathbed. After she passed away, her writing was published, and within a short period, it received critical praise.
She received the second James Beard Award, which was a significant honor for both her and Pakistan, during an event in Chicago, Illinois, attended by many notable figures in the food industry. Even in death, she lives. Her accomplishments are well known, and her most recent work will outlast all of us, according to a statement from her father. In addition to mourning her passing, he continued, “We must also celebrate her life and her accomplishments.” Ali, who relocated to New York City when she was 18 years old, first gained notoriety on Bravo’s Top Chef, where she finished seventh in season 15 but was named Fan Favourite when the season ended in early 2017.
She was praised for her “fun personality and superb cooking.” With her essay I’m a Chef with Terminal Cancer, she was given the honor. Writing for Bon Appetite magazine in October 2018, I’m Doing This with the Time I Have Left. Ewing’s sarcoma, a bone, and soft tissue cancer, was the type of cancer Ali was given the news about at the end of 2017. In January 2018, she underwent surgery and chemotherapy to have a tumor in her left shoulder and surrounding cells removed. She later had a decline in health.
