Former “Top Chef” contestant Shirley Chung is pausing operations at her Culver City restaurant, Ms. Chi Cafe, while she undergoes treatment for stage 4 tongue cancer.
The 47-year-old Beijing-born celebrity chef revealed her diagnosis on Friday. Instagramsharing a video of herself shaving her head in preparation for chemotherapy. In the clip, she jokes about what type of egg she most resembles and then quips about her buzz cut: “It's kind of sexy.”
Since December, Chung wrote in the caption of the post, she has had a “series of dental issues” that she initially attributed to her “excessive teeth grinding.” Then, in May, she developed mouth ulcers, leading her oral surgeon to discover a tumor hidden under her tongue.
Chung was diagnosed with stage 4 tongue cancer, she said, “as the cancer cells had also spread to my lymph nodes.”
“In light of Chef Shirley's diagnosis, we have made the difficult decision to close Ms Chi Restaurant so she can focus on her recovery,” Chung and her co-owner husband, Jimmy Lee, announced Friday on the restaurant's website. InstagramThey also said their last day of operations will be this Sunday, and their popular delivery orders through GoldBelly will stop taking place on August 15.
“We are incredibly grateful to each and every one of you – our staff, supporters, and fans. We have truly enjoyed spreading the dumpling love over the past few years and calling Culver City home!” the post read. “This is a temporary pause on orders and we will be back!”
They did not reveal a reopening date, though Chung said she wasted no time in beginning treatment once she received her diagnosis.
“I was very calm when the doctors gave me the news, as a chef I have always thrived. [sic] “I was under pressure,” she wrote on Instagram. “I was extremely focused on getting all the tests and scans done as quickly as possible so I could start treatment plans.”
But when she began discussing treatment plans with her oncologist soon afterward, she said, “she broke down, cried, tried to gather her thoughts and ask questions, but physically couldn't.”
He was presented with two options, he said: “total removal of the tongue” or “another option, which was a unicorn case, at the University of Chicago, they cured a patient (a chef!) with radiation and chemotherapy.”
“Higher survival rate or keeping the language?” she asked. “I chose to keep the language, I am a fighter, I am a chef, I can be that unicorn too.”
Undergoing chemotherapy is a “full-time job,” Chung said, but after six weeks of treatment, her tumor is shrinking, her speech has improved and she can eat most foods again.
“I’m learning to lean on others, to let go, to be more vulnerable,” she said. “I can be strong 98% of the time, it’s okay to not be okay.”
She concluded: “I have a long and hard road ahead of me to recover. Your love and support will help me through it. Cheer me on, Shirley Chung 2.0 will be reborn in 2025!”
Several of Chung's peers commented in support, with Food Network's Alex Guarnaschelli advising her not to “be a chef right now,” but to “be a person who is open to support and love.”
“This cancer clearly hasn’t met Shirley Chung,” echoed Aarti Sequeira, winner of season 6 of “The Next Food Network Star.” “Seriously, why would you even try?”
Chung, who immigrated to the U.S. at age 17, left his graduate career in high tech to pursue his passion for food, according to his websiteShe appeared on seasons 11 and 14 of Bravo’s “Top Chef” and opened Twenty Eight Restaurant and Bar in Irvine in 2014. Ms. Chi Cafe opened in 2018.
