Celebrity chef Shirley Chung, well known for her memorable performances on Top Chef and Tournament Of Champions, recently announced that she was battling stage four tongue cancer. The forty-seven year old released a touching video shaving her head, as well as an extended written update on her treatment and relocation to Chicago. I assumed the social posts would have gotten some hearts and comments from former contestants on the cooking shows she’s been apart of, but I was blown away by just how many people reached out.
Between the primary post announcing her diagnosis and a follow-up post announcing the closure of her beloved Los Angeles restaurant Ms Chi, I spotted more than two dozen comments from former Top Chef contestants including Richard Blais, Stephanie Izard, Jen Carroll, Adrienne Cheatham, Brother Luck, Melissa King, Leeann Wong, Nini Nguyen, CJ Jacobson, Casey Thompson, Gregory Gourdet, Buddha Lo, Sara Bradley, Carrie Baird, Dale Talde, Katsuji Tanabe, Tiffany Derry, Chris Scott, Leah Cohen, Tanya Holland, Claudette Zepeda and even longtime host Gail Simmons and frequent judge Hubert Keller, among many, many others. Extremely likeable former contestant Sam Talbot even gave a shoutout to her new hairstyle…
We are all making sure you were covered in prayers, and by the way you look so fucking radical with your hair like that bravo girlfriend.
Top Chef, of course, isn’t the only competition show Shirley Chung has had success in. The dumpling queen has also been a mainstay on Food Network’s Tournament Of Champions. She competed in Seasons 3, 4 and 5, winning at least one round every year and getting to the quarterfinals once. You can tell from her interactions on the show that she’s well-liked by many of the other chefs. Not surprisingly, quite a few reached out to offer their support, as well including Brooke Williamson, Mei Lin, Antonia Lofaso, Tiffany Faison, Maneet Chauhan, Jet Tila, Tobias Dorzan, Michaeol Voltaggio, Mark Murphy, Crista Luedtke, Joe Sasto, Brian Malarkey, Britt Rescigno, Elizabeth Faulkner, Amanda Freitag as well as interviewer Simon Majumdar and judges Andrew Zimmern, Alex Guarnaschelli and Lorena Garcia.
You can check out the social media post below and look through the comments yourself, where you’ll no doubt spot other famous chefs and food personalities, as well as numerous fans sending their love to Shirley, who has brought so much joy to so many people over the years with her food.
Perhaps the most important comment of them all is a follow-up from Shirley herself. She said she was “overwhelmed” by all the love and support and thanked everyone for all the comments they left. You can read her comment below…
I am overwhelmed with all your love and support. I Will be the unicorn. I am reading each and every one of your comments, taking everything in, thank you for sharing your stories with me, we will take on the fight together
The unicorn is a reference to Chung’s treatment plan. Doctors offered her the option to have her tongue removed or move to Chicago and undergo a more experimental treatment that worked on a previous “unicorn case.” Doctors were able to fight off the cancer using radiation and chemo, allowing the patient to keep his tongue. That’s what she ultimately decided to do, and by her estimation, it’s been going very well so far, as she’s six weeks into treatment.
Our thoughts go out to Shirley and her husband Jimmy, as they give cancer hell and hopefully get back to making delicious food in the near future.
