Chef grant achatz biography book

Search the Wayback Machine Search icon An illustration of a magnifying glass. Sign up for free Log in. Life, on the line : a chef's story of chasing greatness, facing death, and redefining the way we eat Bookreader Item Preview. It appears your browser does not have it turned on. Please see your browser settings for this feature. EMBED for wordpress.

Want more? A prestigious demo in Hawaii begins with Keller and his small crew scrubbing down the kitchen because it does not meet his standard. A three day stint in elBulli finds Achatz learning from the Spanish chef de cuisine via translations through an Italian chef, to a French speaker to a French and English speaker from Copenhagen. Prior to reading this book, I must confess, I held a dismissive attitude toward Achatz's culinary vision some call it molecular gastronomy, a name which fails to do it justice.

It's not just about marrying technology and food creativity. The sensory connection between memory and odors, and the sequential altering of taste sensation by previous sensations seem obvious once they are pointed out. Achatz uses this information to shape a new sense of tasting. I'm still not a convert, but I now understand the logic much better.

The second half of the book deals with the building of Alinea. This part will interest anyone who ever contemplating opening a restaurant. Considerations of design, logistics, and ambience confront the realities of cost. A surprising network of contacts becomes essential to the process. Finally, there is an endless stream of inspections to be navigated.

Much of this section is told by Nick Kokonas, who offers some interesting observations of Grant. The final chapters are extraordinarily moving. They deal with Grant's struggle against cancer, and offer an interesting insight into the mechanics of the health care system. Achatz assesses himself objectively; his courage is again matched by extraordinarily good luck.

This is a book for anyone interested in the creators and innovators of haute cuisine. Even if you never have the privilege of eating at one of these restaurants, you can still appreciate the discipline and guiding vision behind them. A final aside -- I read this in hard cover. It is an extraordinarily beautiful book. The clean typeface, the framing margins, the tastefully contrasted pagination and chapter heads all reinforce the aesthetic that Achatz strives for in Alinea.

Gotham Books and designer Elke Sigal deserve a round of applause. I really loved this book. I agree with my fellow friend-reviewers that the sudden insertions of narrative from the business partner were sort of odd after reading the first two-thirds of the book in Achatz's voice, but the oddness didn't detract from the enjoyment.

In any case, by that point I was invested enough in Achatz's story, and liked him enough, to appreciate seeing him through other eyes as also pointed out by a fellow friend-reviewer. It's hard to describe why I loved the book so much I've been asked twice now and failed both times but it has something to do with having vision, working like a dog, and executing it well.

Reading about the evolution of Alinea and Achatz's vision for food made me want to experience molecular gastronomy apologies to Achatz for calling it that -- something I've never been curious about before -- no mean feat. Reading about this kind of passion and achievement was also enriching in that it is blessedly far, far removed from what I and many do for a living with such little fulfillment.

So much so that Achatz's survival and recovery are even more poignant. It's hard to imagine someone recovering from a grueling bout of cancer and feeling excited that at the end of it all, they get to go back to work at their Shortly after opening Alinea, Achatz discovers that he has oral cancer and is faced with the possibility of never tasting again.

I really wanted to like this book. My husband is a chef and I work in oncology, so I thought it was a book that blended our often very separate occupations. I however left this book not a huge fan of Achatz. I really wanted to know more about his hectic work schedule impacted his family life and how his diagnosis impacted the restaurant and staff.

I also have to admit I am a little biased, as I am not a fan of food that is not accessible to the masses. I actually really like the Soul of a Chef, which also featured Achatz as a young chef, but I will not be recommending this one. This is a peculiar book. One part culinary coming of age, one part how to set up a world-class restaurant, complete with detailed investor reports, one part cancer survival story.

Five stars for parts one and three, three stars for part two. Honestly, does anyone beyond an investor or interior designer need that much detail about the sourcing and pricing of chairs? This memoir is also confiding and distancing. Still, the book is enjoyable for learning first- and secondhand about the evolution of a highly creative culinary mind.

Overall, this is a tale of commitment to a vision and doing whatever it takes to achieve that. Emily Hiram. One of the most entertaining food memoirs I have read. He talks a little about his childhood working in the family restaurant and his relationship with his parents. He gets to the good stuff quickly. And there is a lot of good stuff. It talks about all the restaurants he works in and his short time working on a winery.

He tells us about all the Michelin star restaurants he visits in Europe. I love how he talks about his process for coming up with new dishes. And the whole process of starting his own kitchen and then eventually his own restaurant. Once he starts working with his business partner to open his own restaurant the narration sometimes switches between Grant and his partner.

But there was no indication of when it was switching. So that was a bit jarring. Sometimes I would read a few pages before I figured out which one of them was talking. Overall a great read if you want to vicariously enjoy a lot of food and wine :. If you are interested in teeny tiny food and really huge egos, read Life, on the Line. The first paragraph of the letter that I received with this book says: " At the age of 36, Grant Achatz has already achieved the kind of success that most chefs, and indeed, most people, only dream of.

In fact, he was literally at the top of his profession by the age of 32, when his Chicago restaurant, Alinea, was named the 1 restaurant in America by Gourmet magazine. Within months, however, Achatz's world would crumble when he learned he had Stage IV squamous cell carcinoma -- tongue cancer. The diagnosis couldn't have been worse. As Achatz notes, there is no Stage V.

At best, doctors told him, he would lose his tongue and the ability to talk and taste, but live for a couple more years -- maybe. Instead, with the unflinching determination he has demonstrated time and again, Achatz opted to do things differently, and better. After the first pages I was starting to understand his motivation but was not warming up to him or his business partner, Nick Kokonas.

Reading a description of why Achatz's first interpretation of PBJ I wondered if I was going to make it through the book at all. This course consisted of a single grape with the stem still attached, peeled, coated with peanut butter and wrapped in a tiny brioche then lightly broiled. It failed to measure up to his standards until he found a vendor who could supply single grapes on a stem with a leaf still attached.

Nonetheless I slogged through the next pages of blatant advertising for his restaurant, Alinea, and his six-month totally loveless marriage and divorce. Finally on page Achatz gets cancer. Like a rocket he skims over his initial diagnosis, second opinion reacting exactly the same way that I did showing none of the unflinching determination that was promised , third opinion, chemo, breaking out in Erbitux zits, losing his hair, constipation, radiation, losing his sense of taste, burns, throwing up, losing weight, recovering his sense of taste, surgery to remove lymph nodes and getting back to normal.

It is interesting that Achatz used Dr. Singh's real name and that the publisher's lawyers didn't make him use "Dr. Assuming that anyone can make Achatz to anything. Penguin obviously knew that all the publicity Achatz has already had was much more important to sales than a well-written book.

Chef grant achatz biography book

Achatz has also bragged in several interviews that he fired his ghost writer -- as if it weren't obvious. This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers. Show full review. I heard about Achatz from my ex-caterer husband. My current husband, who used to be a caterer, I mean. He's still a foodie, and tends to come up with the oddest trivia- in this case, he was all excited about Achatz's cold griddle, which freezes foods the way a hot griddle cooks them.

Then my stepmom, who is something of a connoisseur of memoirs by people who are facing some terrible medical issue, read and loved this book. So I sought it out. Achatz is an interesting character- intense, driven, and not the kind of guy you'd want to date. Paraphrasing: "It's Wednesday, I've been here for 17 hours and have 70 hours in this week already" His philosophy of food is fun to read about, as is his relationship with Thomas Keller of The French Laundry.

Some of the things he does with food sound purely goofy- and he's aiming for goofy, so that's okay. There's a playfulness about the food I'm reading about here that makes me want to taste it and see for myself. The part about his tongue cancer treatment was less engrossing for me, but I'm glad it seems to have worked out well for him. Cecily Black.

I would love this book to get made as a movie. I have a fascination with the culinary world, and if I had a better palette, in the sense of not being so picky I totally would have loved to become a chef. I love the tv shows, and the movies I have watched but something about this story and these people and how Grant was able to beat cancer was a beautiful story.

Great Read! Didn't think I would enjoy this book as much as I did. I think the ending was a bit too abrupt, but besides that, a fun read. Linda Reminger. Really enjoyed this memoir about one of the worlds gifted chefs. Achatz and the money-man This is not so much a book review as random thoughts from a person who would be interested in eating at Alinea.

Besides reading the New Yorker article on him and his horrific tongue cancer, I hadn't really paid too much attention to Grant Achatz. From a cursory glance, his style of cuisine - most easily described as molecular gastronomy - reminded me a lot of that of New York chef Wylie Dufresne. When I sampled the latter's food, I found to it to be more intellectually stimulating than emotionally satisfying, and after reading how oriented some MG chefs are to technique rather than refinement of flavor in dishes, I sort have written off the whole movement to something I would enjoy if I were exponentially more wealthy and would like to try something adventurous Wednesday night.

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Archived from the original on October 30, Archived from the original on October 24, Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants". Archived from the original on February 28, Archived from the original on September 18, Archived from the original on September 22, Archived from the original on March 18, Archived from the original on October 6, Archived from the original PDF on July 13, Retrieved January 13, Archived from the original PDF on May 20, Skin peeled from the inside of Grant's mouth and throat, he rapidly lost weight, and most alarmingly, he lost his sense of taste.

Tapping into the discipline, passion, and focus of being a chef, Grant rarely missed a day of work. He trained his chefs to mimic his palate and learned how to cook with his other senses. As Kokonas was able to attest: The food was never better.