The Wizard Chef

This chef has pure talent... and it's very inspiring.

This is quite an inspiring story. My mother currently has stage 4 cancer, and she's going through a rigorous course of chemotherapy. She also owns a restaurant. She's being treated in Thailand right now, and her restaurant is in NYC. (Being treated in Thailand for the family support). Life's crazy people. Just eat and be what ever you want. Work hard.

truly amazing art/chef...a phenomenal story of self-discovery and exploration. Proof that passion for what you love...is really an art of producing something and putting it out there for others to see,enjoy, & appreciate. I want to eat there!

I think experimental cooking, is fantastic, I wish there were more places practicing such things, amazing.

what grant produces is absolute perfection. Its simply amazing and tastes great too.

Grant is one of America's greatest chef and my favorite. One of the Gods among todays chef, and now an author. Check out the new Alinea cookbook its amazing!!!

This was an awesome pod.

I'm very interested in cooking / the chef occupation. When I heard that Grant trained at the French Laundry I was interested and then captivated by the fact the he was diagnosed with cancer.

Truly inspiring!

whoa... i love the idea of placing the food on top of the vapor filled pillow... ima try it out if you dont mind.

Me too! May I share?

I, also, am a cook with no taste. I joke that I am "The Tasteless Cook." After 11 Years with an abusive husband, and 3 years more in a post divorce, ptsd, dirt broke, eating disorder, unhealthy, sleepless coma, I finally woke up May 2008 and knew my calling was cooking. Teaching green, tasty, waste free, cooking along with taking on the cause of community farming, rural, suburban and urban, and supporting simple in season produce, dairy and meat grown locally, battling the necessity of the under waged, poor and/or destitute to choose a dollar double cheeseburger. I had an entire mission statement planned out in my head that even included legislation. I was going to move Northern, California, slowly earn money to go to culinary school, and change the world at age 40.

In July I caught a cold and then a sinus infection - partial due to too many broken noses. A weeks later I lost my taste and smell. It came back briefly, then went away again. I had no money for doctors. I just hoped. I never heard of this so bad. I couldn't smell meat or fish to see if it was good or bad. I couldn't taste seasoning, nothing. All I had was memory. I thought this is the worst thing that could have happened. I finally found a viable path for my life, and what the f*** ?!

But it's okay.

I still cook, in the beginning, getting family or friends to taste my food as I went along. And then I found the instinct was still there. I remember how things taste. In fact, I am glad this has happened to me. I now feel food - the substance as it enters my body. I feel the nourishment different foods achieve, and how they affect my well being and happiness just from their molecular components. Sometimes, I think I can taste it all alright, but really, I can't. Like phantom taste. Some taste has come back, slightly: pungent and umami. Somethings are dull sweet or dull sour, but basic meat freshness and seasoning still eludes me.

This has been an enlightening affliction. Now, I eat based on nourishment alone. I have no guilt nor taste/smell affiliated emotions and therefore no more eating disorder. I am much healthier. I would recommend a temporary dose of this affliction to all chefs. Feel a beet. Feel an orange. Feel breads and oils. I'm now tuned into to texture more than ever, a culinary aspect that previously eluded me. If I get my taste back, I'm gonna rock.

It's been 5 months, now, and I did move to Northern California last month, and I still hope my taste will come back. Maybe culinary school will be a little difficult, but my passion to cook, cook for people and teach cooking is stronger than ever. It's going to be a bit of a slower path, but I'll get there with or without taste.

I loved this story. It's inspires me to continue. I will keep my eyes open to the progression of Grant Achatz.

- The Tasteless Cook