'The New Yorker' Profile on Grant Achatz
The New Yorker has a lengthy and inspiring profile of Grant Achatz, chef at Chicago's Alinea, who's on the comeback after fighting tongue cancer. If you've been following this story, you'll know that Achatz wanted a line of treatment that would preserve his sense of taste. Well, after irradiation of his tongue, he lost that sense, but it's slowly returning.
Because his ability to taste has come back over time, Achatz feels that he is understanding the sense in a new way—the way you would if you could see only in black-and-white and, one by one, colors were restored to you. He says, “When I first tasted a vanilla milkshake"—after the end of his treatment—“it tasted very sweet to me, because there’s no salt, no acid. It just tasted sweet. Now, introduce bitter, so now I’m understanding the relationship between sweet and bitter—how they work together and how they balance. And now, as salt comes back, I understand the relationship among the three components."
Related: Grant Achatz's Cancer in Remission [Diner's Journal]
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4 Comments:
This is way better than the profile of a certain NYC chef they published a month or two ago. Achatz is inspring; the other chef, not so much.
charm city cupcake at 9:45AM on 05/05/08
Tongue cancer is a real bitch and hard enough to battle, let alone if you are an accomplished chef whose tongue is the center of his universe. Best of luck with your recovery. I guess the silver lining here is in your "rediscovering" individual flavor components and how they interact.
Boscompb at 2:06PM on 05/05/08
In other exciting Alinea news, access to the Alinea Mosaic website became available today to those that pre-ordered the Alinea Cookbook. If you have ever wanted to see recipes that call for anti-griddles here is your chance.
chasgoose at 2:50PM on 05/05/08
Great profile, brilliant man.
baboo at 11:27PM on 05/05/08