NEW YORK (AP) - Former "Top Chef" Fatima Ali says she has a year to live. The 29-year-old underwent surgery to remove a tumor in January.

However, Ali wrote Tuesday in an essay for Bon Appetit that the "cancer cells my doctors believed had vanished are back with a vengeance in my left hip and femur bone." Ali says her oncologist told her she has a year to live, "with or without the new chemotherapy regimen."

I just want to take a moment to thank each and every single person who has ever sent love my way. Here is another update/article about my life. Head to the link in my bio. This is my… https://t.co/RHCkCryQie

— Fatima Ali (@cheffati) October 9, 2018

She writes she used to dream of owning her own restaurant. Now she has a growing list of restaurants to visit and is "sketching a plan" to eat her way through New York. Ali says "every day is an opportunity for me to experience something new."

Ali appeared on Season 15 of the Bravo series.