Late Chef Fatima Ali's Friends and Family Have Memorial Meal in Her Honor

Four months after "Top Chef" fan-favorite Fatima Ali died of cancer, her friends and family gathered to eat a meal in her honor.

Fellow contestants from the show, host Padma Lakshmi and many others gathered in Brooklyn, New York, last week to remember their friend, who also won "Chopped."

Ali penned an emotional piece in Bon Appetit last September revealing she had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and had just a year left to live. She had previously thought she had beaten the disease, but then doctors found new masses. She died in early January.

Lakshmi shared about the gathering on Instagram Saturday. She said it brought her comfort to be surrounded by those who love Ali, but the night also brought back the "raw feelings" of losing Ali.

Fatima was a quick learner and ambitious as hell. ... As a brown woman in professional life, but especially in the male-dominated field of food, we both connected over feeling like outsiders at times. After last week’s ceremony there is no doubt that there was a place for Fatima at the table," Lakshmi wrote.

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