When Grant Achatz was diagnosed with stage 4 tongue cancer, it wasn’t the 50 percent chance of death that scared him—it was losing his ability to taste.
With over 25 years of culinary excellence and four Michelin stars, Achatz is known for trailblazing molecular gastronomy. Outgrowing his parents’ small-town restaurant, Achatz attended the Culinary Institute of America in New York, graduating in 1994 and moving to California to work at Charlie Trotters. He then trained under now seven-Michelin-star chef Thomas Keller, his lifelong mentor, at French Laundry before moving to Evanston, Illinois, where he worked at Trio before opening his establishment. Despite his humble origins, many recognize Achatz as one of the best chefs in the world. He now owns restaurants in Chicago and New York and has received numerous awards from the James Beard Foundation, including “Best Chef,” “Best Restaurant,” and several other accolades for his innovation.
Alinea, opened in 2004, is Achatz’s most well-known creative endeavor.
As the only three-Michelin-star restaurant in Chicago, meals cost visitors at least $750 per person, each with 23 courses full of experimental, immersive, and theatrical whimsy. From their iconic Table Dessert, an artistic swirl of saucy desserts painted on the table in real-time, to the clear pumpkin pie, which is exactly as it sounds, Alinea deconstructs familiar smells and flavors and Frankensteins them, resulting in unforgettably unique dishes. Achatz seeks to create unexpected experiences—whether through food on scent-releasing pillows or an entryway filled with pine trees and pumpkins—pushing patrons to rethink how they perceive food.
As his menu reflects, Achatz is no stranger to reframing his perception, especially within his creative process.
Chemotherapy wiped away Achatz’s taste and passion, and his entire career, built on dissecting and reconfiguring flavors, was uncertain. Achatz completely lost his ability to develop menu items for Alinea. Yet, rather than turning his back on his passion, Achatz rebuilt his palate piece by piece. Regenerating his taste revitalized Achatz’s perception of flavor and, in turn, his process of creating new culinary experiences. Achatz suddenly saw flavors in a profound, altered way, with a better understanding of how they worked together. Since his remission from cancer, Achatz has opened restaurants such as Next, Roister, The Aviary, and The Office. When Achatz’s world flipped upside down, it did not set him back—it refreshed his perception of creativity to see his work in a new way, motivating him to pioneer unique projects.
Nick Cave’s transformative experience mirrors how Achatz’s loss of taste shifted his perception of creativity.
As detailed in his novel, “Faith, Hope, and Carnage,” the musician’s son passed away in 2015. Since then, Cave has faced unexplainable, immeasurable grief. Nevertheless, Cave felt he could still make music; “it just seemed like everything had altered...It’s not so much that I had to learn how to write a song again; it was more I had to learn how to pick up a pen.” Like Achatz, this great loss led to a complete shift in Cave’s perception of his work and his creative process—he could no longer write songs as he had for about the last fifty years. So, with his following record, Ghosteen, Cave shifted from solo writing third-person stories to collaborative improvisation. Cave speaks on his passion for this album, explaining that his music still tells a narrative, though his newfound grief has shaped his perception of creating music, and it’s a “radically different” narrative from any of his previous songs. Much like Achatz, Cave didn’t let his grief get the best of him. Instead, he took his altered perception of his creative process and reimagined what was possible, resulting in music more meaningful to him than ever before.
It’s incredible how Cave and Achatz overcame such significant losses.
Witnessing how they transformed traumatic experiences opened my eyes to the creative value of loss. Rather than seeing failures as an impassible roadblock, I now realize we can see failure as a chance for new, better ideas. Whether it’s deconstructed cuisines or ambient rock music, it is through loss that we have the chance to push through the darkness and come out the other end with new perceptions. Now, will you give up on your dream the next time you face an unimaginable setback—one that flips your passion on its head? Or will you transform your altered worldview into new opportunities? Let me hear your comments below and join me in this conversation to transform our view of creativity!
https://www.npr.org/2011/03/03/134195812/grant-achatz-the-chef-who-lost-his-sense-of-taste
https://www.ciachef.edu/blog/grant-achatz/
I love that other people are also focusing on chefs! IDuring research for my post on Rene Redzepi, I found an interview in which he talked about some other chefs he admires, Grant Achatz was one of the many people he named. I also enjoy how you chose to focus on a Chicago-based chef. I'd love to experience his food sometime (although its a bit out of my price range).
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