Grant Achatz -

       

      Grant ACHATZ is a Michelin Stars chef. He is 47 years old and he has different story. He grew up in St. Clair Michigan (1) and he worked with his family where he started to learn basic work for cooking life. He was successful but sometimes he was not nevertheless he never gave up in any situation. Also, he had a stubborn, patient and convincing personality. He had a life with ups and downs. He graduated from CIA (The Culinary Institute of America) (1) one of the best culinary, bakery and pastry schools in the world. He wrote four books about his experiences. Also, he worked with famous chefs such as Thomas KELLER  (3). He has four Michelin Stars (4). He opened Alinea, who has been in Chicago since May 2005, with Nick KOKONAS (3). Furthermore, he has many prizes from, Elite Traveler Top 100 Restaurants in The World, Michelin Stars, James Beard Foundation Awards etc. I see it worth examining his education life, career and turning point of the life. I believe that he is one of the chefs that many cooks take as an example in their lives.  

       Grant Achatz started his education life by working in the kitchen with his family and then continued by graduating from the Culinary Institute of America (3). After graduating in Chicago in 1994, He took a position with Carlie Trotter and left unsuccessfully (1). He persuaded Thomas Keller to hire him. In his words, he learned “How to cook and how to live,” while working with Thomas Keller for four years at The French Laundry. After becoming a sous chef in his second year here, he took a one-year break from his job. He worked at Joto Vineyards as an assistant wine producer (2). If you take a look at what he has done so far, you can see that he knows himself in his character. After receiving his education, you can understand how ambitious and persuasive he is when he convinced Thomas Keller and proved himself, even if unsuccessfully. You can also understand how well he knows himself and that is incredibly good at setting goals when he takes a break from his profession and decides that he needs his own education while working with Thomas Keller, because his interruption here does not negatively affect his career life and education life, on the contrary, it helped him to become a successful and one of the most famous chefs. The summary of all this actually shows us how successful Grant Achatz will be. Thanks to all these features, the chef takes his place among the famous and successful chefs today and inspires the new generation. 

        Grant Achatz's career took off with his arrival in Chicago. He first started working at the Trio in Evanston as the first executive chef, and that made the reputation of the Trio rise. After staying there for 4 years, Achatz not only received a lot of praise, but also caught the attention of  Nick Kokonas. Nick Kokonas played a significant role in the creation of today's Alinea and is also a partner of Achatz. He opened Alinea in Chicago in May, 2005 with Grant, and played a key role in the rise of Chef Achatz while revolutionizing Alinea Chicago. Alinea entered the list of The S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants in the world' and made her name known to the world by winning Chef Grant James Beard's outstanding chef award. Alinea has always continued to rise during that period. With its 64-person capacity, it offered its guests only a tasty menu. Alinea was awarded 3 Michelin stars in 2011 and became the only restaurant to receive 3 stars in 2012 in Chicago. After this success of Alinea and the great interest it received, the restaurant named Next was created in Chicago with a hugely different ticket system. Due to the system difference, it attracted great attention and Achatz started to earn enormous amounts of money. Also, he coached for the Bocuse d'Or in France. To innovate right after, Achatz and Nick Kokonas closed Alinea in 2016. During this period, the Alinea team launched two pop-up experiences in Madrid, Spain and Miami, Florida. He took part in Netflix Chef Table in 2016 and we watched Achatz as a jury member in The Final Table in 2018. 

          Achatz’ Alinea was also best known for its exceptionally good pairing of tastes. Chef Grant was always creating gastronomic products that no one could say no to, combining unexpected flavours with the unexpected, until he lost his sense of taste in 2007. He was diagnosed with stage 4 tongue cancer in 2007, and doctors said they would cut out his tongue and make a new one out of body muscles. With this operation, the probability of Achatz’s surviving more than two years was 50% and he did not accept it. Achatz, on the other hand, said that he was afraid of losing his ability to taste. He later received radiation and chemotherapy, which burned his entire tongue and Achatz was unable to taste, but he got back his ability to taste after the end of his treatment. From that day forward, Achatz said that he had started his business again and that he had a better understanding of how flavours work. This highlights that this is a turning point for him (5). 

        After digging into all these details, Achatz has a life that really inspires me as one of the chefs. In fact, the first chef to change my mind. I wanted a Michelin star and the sentence he said in Chef Table made me give up on this decision. According to Achatz, if you want a Michelin star, your life will be cooking, “Do you need to take out the trash, you better hire someone for it because you won't even have time for that.” One of my turning points is getting to know Grant Achatz, as he helped me finding myself.  

 

 

 

 

(1) https://www.britannica.com/biography/Grant-Achatz 

(2) https://www.starchefs.com/chefs/grant-achatz/html/index.shtml  

(3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Achatz 

(4) https://www.finedininglovers.com/people/grant-achatz  

(5) https://www.npr.org/2011/03/03/134195812/grant-achatz-the-chef-who-lost-his-sense-of-taste  

(6) Netflix - Chef Table – Season 2