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4.49 AVERAGE
4.49 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
‘Perhaps if parents could look at their children and ask, ‘Are they kind? Are they giving? Are they honest?’ And finding that they are, feel there’s reason enough to love them, no matter what else they are, then there would be less suffering.’
A heartbreaking and beautiful memoir of food, family, culture, and illness from a woman who lived an extraordinary amount of life in just 29 years, but should have lived and experienced so much more.
Fatima Ali was a Pakistani chef, trained at the CIA and a fan favorite on Top Chef, who passed away from cancer just before she turned 30. This book recounts the many complex threads of her life, from her childhood spent going to bustling food markets in Lahore and Karachi, the abuse she suffered at the hands of a close family friend, her utmost dedication to academics and sports and headstrong decision to carve her own path in the culinary world, her coming up in prestigious New York kitchens, her discovery of the beauty of simple, rich, timeless cultural home cooking in Spain, and so much more. The book also spends many of its initial chapters on her mom's life - at first, I didn't understand why, but it soon becomes clear that their relationship was a complicated but life-defining one for Fatima, and her mom's strong will, independence, and gentle resistance to cultural norms paved the way for Fatima to chart her own path in life as well.
I'm astounded at the "amount of life" that Fatima lived in her 29 short years. She was truly just at the cusp of determining the kind of chef she wanted to be, experiencing so many different types of restaurants and cooking by traveling and working in New York, Spain, Los Angeles, Napa, and Pakistan. She was at her peak when the cancer struck, and her downfall was rapid. She had even bigger dreams - of opening her own restaurant, of truly establishing her cuisine in her own right - but it was unfairly yanked away from her much too soon. When she was told that she only had one year to live, she wanted to spend that year traveling, eating at the best restaurants the world has to offer, immersing herself in the thing that brought her the most joy in life: food. Sadly, her interminable and uncontrollable pain, her body's lack of response to the chemo, and her cancer's metastasis didn't let her achieve this dream.
This book was a beautiful picture of a short life well lived, in addition to important reflections on life, death, identity, and independence. This will surely go down in the canon of other great culinary memoirs, alongside [b:Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly|33313|Kitchen Confidential Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly|Anthony Bourdain|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1433739086l/33313._SY75_.jpg|4219], [b:Notes from a Young Black Chef|40645634|Notes from a Young Black Chef|Kwame Onwuachi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1538695770l/40645634._SX50_.jpg|63156643], [b:My Life in France|5084|My Life in France|Julia Child|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1395564378l/5084._SX50_.jpg|1602216], and many others.
Fatima Ali was a Pakistani chef, trained at the CIA and a fan favorite on Top Chef, who passed away from cancer just before she turned 30. This book recounts the many complex threads of her life, from her childhood spent going to bustling food markets in Lahore and Karachi, the abuse she suffered at the hands of a close family friend, her utmost dedication to academics and sports and headstrong decision to carve her own path in the culinary world, her coming up in prestigious New York kitchens, her discovery of the beauty of simple, rich, timeless cultural home cooking in Spain, and so much more. The book also spends many of its initial chapters on her mom's life - at first, I didn't understand why, but it soon becomes clear that their relationship was a complicated but life-defining one for Fatima, and her mom's strong will, independence, and gentle resistance to cultural norms paved the way for Fatima to chart her own path in life as well.
I'm astounded at the "amount of life" that Fatima lived in her 29 short years. She was truly just at the cusp of determining the kind of chef she wanted to be, experiencing so many different types of restaurants and cooking by traveling and working in New York, Spain, Los Angeles, Napa, and Pakistan. She was at her peak when the cancer struck, and her downfall was rapid. She had even bigger dreams - of opening her own restaurant, of truly establishing her cuisine in her own right - but it was unfairly yanked away from her much too soon. When she was told that she only had one year to live, she wanted to spend that year traveling, eating at the best restaurants the world has to offer, immersing herself in the thing that brought her the most joy in life: food. Sadly, her interminable and uncontrollable pain, her body's lack of response to the chemo, and her cancer's metastasis didn't let her achieve this dream.
This book was a beautiful picture of a short life well lived, in addition to important reflections on life, death, identity, and independence. This will surely go down in the canon of other great culinary memoirs, alongside [b:Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly|33313|Kitchen Confidential Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly|Anthony Bourdain|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1433739086l/33313._SY75_.jpg|4219], [b:Notes from a Young Black Chef|40645634|Notes from a Young Black Chef|Kwame Onwuachi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1538695770l/40645634._SX50_.jpg|63156643], [b:My Life in France|5084|My Life in France|Julia Child|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1395564378l/5084._SX50_.jpg|1602216], and many others.
emotional
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Fatima's zest and motivation in life are both very inspiring. I also greatly enjoyed the mom's story.
Ugh I loved this book. It was heartbreaking and reflective. I loved the inclusion of her mother's perspective. I sobbed at the end of it.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Whenever I read a memoir by someone who is dying I am deeply appreciative of the clairvoyance and honesty that we find. Fatima Ali was so much fun to meet and watch during her stint on Top Chef, and I am so sorry we will never again get to taste her energy and enthusiasm in the food that she makes.
Savor is, as she says, "[her] way of still fighting, of surviving beyond my expiration date; of hopefully helping other small brown girls who feel strange—who kiss their best friends and find they like it, but in doing so hate themselves due to their desires—to forgive themselves and to be themselves."
Her story like so many others is one of promise taken away by a disease that so often wins the day. I am thankful that we got a chance to hear her story from her (and her mother) before she died.
Savor is, as she says, "[her] way of still fighting, of surviving beyond my expiration date; of hopefully helping other small brown girls who feel strange—who kiss their best friends and find they like it, but in doing so hate themselves due to their desires—to forgive themselves and to be themselves."
Her story like so many others is one of promise taken away by a disease that so often wins the day. I am thankful that we got a chance to hear her story from her (and her mother) before she died.