The late “Top Chef” star Fatima Ali succumbed to cancer before she was able to take the culinary world tour she’d dreamed of taking. Now, Chef Fati’s mom, Farezeh Durrani, and other loved ones the 29-year-old left behind in January are beginning to take that trip in her honor as a way of connecting to her and ensuring that her sources of inspiration live on. A post on Fati’s Instagram page this week showed Farezeh arm-in-arm with chef Massimo Bottura and his wife Lara Gilmore, whom the group visited at Massimo’s restaurant Casa Maria Luigia in Modena, Italy. “This was meant to be Fati’s first stop, a seat at Chef @massimobottura’s table,” the post begins. “She talked passionately about wanting to see Italy, and of course, eat her way through it. We wrote a long list of all of the different food adventures she would have from each country she could get to — Denmark, Peru, France, her beloved Spain, and countless others. To remember Fatima and honour her is to remember to share love and joy with the world, and to soak up all of the incredible experiences you can, while you can 🌼” The post goes on to describe an unforgettable evening during which “Lara and Chef Massimo both paid special tribute to our Chef Fati, who was no doubt gleefully watching over her mom as she tried to decipher all five of the ages of parmigiano reggiano. 💫,” and calling the experience a “precious opportunity, to go on a journey Fatima was looking forward to against the intensely challenging odds she was facing, and in some way represent and share a part of her with Chef Massimo,” who apparently “talked about how deeply moved he was by her story, her writing, and the gesture he could see our mother making.” The post closes with: “The entire experience was truly food for the soul, connecting two beautiful memories in a place which was made to honour and pay tribute to the love for a mother, and a journey taken there for the love of a daughter 💖💕.” Fati died in January, much earlier than the end of the year doctors predicted she had to live once her cancer returned in October 2018.
