Entries tagged with 'Alinea'
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Usually, I can devour a new cookbook in the space of one or two evenings—reading all the front matter and back matter and giving a few thorough skims (and then some) to all the recipes in between. Not so with the recently released Alinea cookbook. Consuming this one has been a more protracted commitment, spanning a few weeks, filling the majority of my free time, and still, I feel as though I should pore over it a few more times. This is no ordinary cookbook. This is a culinary tome. Before any recipes are introduced, there are several lengthy pieces—replete with heady analogies to art and philosophy and written by such heavy hitters as Jeffrey Steingarten,—set forth to frame...
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Mustard ice cream on braised pineapple with coconut foam, pineapple tuille, and mustard sauce at wd-50 in New York. Photograph from roboppy on Flickr. Molecular Gastronomy doesn't have to be scary as it sounds. As our Chicago correspondent Michael Nagrant points out at Hungry Mag, frying an egg in a skillet "southern grandmother style" is molecular gastronomy. The egg proteins get friendly with other molecules. The runny yolk solidifies. Molecular gastronomy—in action! Done. Then you have Alinea chef Grant Achatz and his idea of molecular gastronomy. Before dining at Alinea, Nagrant thought the experimental foams and mousses might "reinforce or mimic the alienation of the world, leaving us more cold and unsettled than we were before." Cold and unsettled:...
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With Carol Blymire, first it was French Laundry at Home, cooking and blogging about each recipe in Thomas Keller's French Laundry Cookbook. Almost done there, she recently announced her next herculean task: cook-blogging the Alinea cookbook. MenuPages Chicago has a revealing Q&A with her. Will she be duplicating the quirky serving pieces chef Grant Achatz employs at Alinea? So, will I buy every single service piece on the Crucial Detail web site? No. Will I spend some time at kitchen stores and even the hardware store trying to figure out how to make it work on my own? You bet. Because finding a way to make my guests stop in their tracks and suspend the day-to-day noise in all our...
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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,...
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This is a really great update to a story we really didn't like hearing when it broke in late August, but it turns out that Chicago "molecular gastronomist" Grant Achatz (Alinea) has successfully finished his scheduled chemotherapy and has good news. Frank Bruni's got the statement from Achatz on Diner's Journal: "Through the use of a new and rigorous chemotherapy and radiation protocol, they were able achieve a full remission while ensuring that the use of invasive surgery on my tongue was not needed. Onward."...
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Grant Achatz (pictured), the acclaimed chef-owner of Alinea battling cancer (his spokesperson just announced that nearly 80 percent of his tumor has been shrunken by chemotherapy), is writing a cookbook. No man-bites-dog news there. But that's where the similarity to a traditional cookbook publishing model and arrangement ends. In a move that looks to the movie business for inspiration, Achatz and his business partner, Nick Kokonas, have produced a trailer for the book that shows us just how far they're willing to push the publishing envelope in the direction of the internet....
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Today's Wall Street Journal provides an update on Alinea's Grant Achatz and his battle against cancer. He was recently found to have cancer of the mouth and is following an alternative treatment in the hopes of saving his tongue (and sense of taste) and life: Saving his tongue hinges on whether a team of doctors at the University of Chicago can cure the cancer using an atypical method of treatment. Instead of the standard therapy—removing the tumor surgically, followed by radiation and chemotherapy—his doctors are starting with a course of chemotherapy that adds a drug called cetuximab to two more conventional drugs. Then they will follow that with a combination of radiation therapy, more chemotherapy, and drugs. Achatz still spends...
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A few minutes ago, New York Times Dining section editor Pete Wells broke the sobering news that 33-year-old Alinea chef-partner Grant Achatz has an advanced form of cancer of the mouth. Here is Achatz's statement released by his publicist: I wanted to personally report that I have been very recently diagnosed with an advanced stage of squamous cell carcinoma of the mouth. I have consulted several prominent physicians and will likely begin aggressive treatment within the next few weeks. I remain, and will remain, actively and optimistically engaged in operations at Alinea to the largest extent possible. Alinea will continue to perform at the level people have come to expect from us—I insist on that. I have received amazing support...
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Among the toughest tables to book in the U.S., according to ForbesTraveler.com, are: Rao's: Unless you've already got a table reserved there, don't bother. The address and phone number follow, but it's not like you'll be using them anytime soon. 455 East 114th Street, East Harlem, New York 10029; 212-722-6709 Minibar: Six seats here, where Forbes Traveler says, "It’s not uncommon for the staff ... to find people banging on the door at 8:30 a.m., trying to beat the 9 a.m. opening of the phone reservation line for its 30-day-in-advance seats." 405 8th Street NW, Washington DC 20004; 202-393-0812 Alinea: "Books up to two months in advance for a weekend spot." 1723 North Halsted Street, Chicago IL 60614; 312-867-0110 Downcast...
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Chicagoist has a really fantastic interview with Grant Achatz of Chicago's highly-acclaimed Alinea, talking about all sorts of things like his philosophy as a chef and restauranteur, and how his creative process works in his kitchen and with his colleagues. This was my favorite thing to read: C: What food-related websites or media do you keep an eye on, for ideas and feedback?GA: I do it a lot less now, but I used to be really into all the blogs, like eGullet, LTHForum, all of those. I don’t read them so much anymore, I don’t know why. I feel that some of it is that they’re losing some credibility. There’s a lot of good, honest material there, then there’s a...
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