Speaker: Grant Achatz (Alinea)
Location: Science Center B
This public lecture series discusses concepts from the physical sciences that underpin both everyday cooking and haute cuisine. Each lecture features a world-class chef who visited and presented their remarkable culinary designs: Ferran Adria presented spherification; Jose Andres discussed both the basic components of food and gelation; Joan Roca demonstrated sous vide; Enric Rovira showed his chocolate delicacies; Wylie Dufresne presented inventions with transglutaminase. The lectures then use these culinary creations as inspiration to delve into understanding how and why cooking techniques and recipes work, focusing on the physical transformations of foods and material properties.
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Who
is Grant Achatz?
Grant Achatz (born April 25, 1974) is an
American chef and restaurateur often identified as one of the leaders in molecular gastronomy or culinary physics. His Chicago restaurant Alinea
has won numerous accolades, and Achatz himself has won numerous awards from
prominent culinary institutions and publications including the "Rising Star Chef of the Year Award"
for 2003, "Best Chef in the United
States" for 2008, and a 2012 "Who's Who Inductee" from the James Beard Foundation.
Books
In October 2008, Grant
Achatz and co-author Nick Kokonas published Alinea, a hardcover coffee table book
featuring more than 100 of the restaurant's recipes. The book's narrative
follows life in the kitchen for Achatz and his crew, and includes more than 400
behind-the-scenes photographs by Lara Kastner.
In June 2009, Achatz
and Kokonas sold Life,
on the Line: A Chef's Story of Chasing Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining
the Way We Eat,
their dual-voiced recount of their collaboration on Alinea and Achatz's battle
with cancer to Gotham Books. The book was released on March 3, 2011.
Early
life and career
Achatz's early
culinary career included time spent working in his parents' Michigan restaurants
as a teenager, followed by enrollment in The Culinary Institute of America in
Hyde Park, New York. Following graduation, Achatz landed a position at Thomas
Keller's highly acclaimed restaurant, The French Laundry, in Yountville,
California. Achatz spent four years at The French Laundry, rising to the
position of sous chef. In 2001, he moved to the Chicago area to become the
Executive Chef at Trio, in Evanston, Illinois, which at the time of his arrival
had a four-star rating from the Mobil Travel Guide. Over the next three years,
with Achatz at the helm, Trio's reputation soared, and in 2004 the restaurant
was rewarded with a fifth star from Mobil, becoming one of just 13 restaurants
so honored at the time.
In 2005, Achatz went
out on his own, opening Alinea in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. The
restaurant is located up the block from the famed Steppenwolf Theatre Company
and is housed in a modest gray brick building which bears no external markings
beyond its street number. Inside, the restaurant has no bar, no lobby, and
seats just 64 guests. Achatz serves diners a small-course tasting menu, running
approximately 18 courses. After less than two years of operation, the Mobil
Travel Guide bestowed its Five Star Award on Alinea, making Alinea one of just
16 restaurants nationwide to rate five stars for 2007.
In October 2006, Gourmet
magazine named Alinea the best restaurant in America in its feature on
"America's Top 50 Restaurants".
In 2007, Restaurant
magazine added Alinea to its list of the 50 best restaurants in the world at
number 36, the highest new entry of the year. In 2008, that publication moved
Alinea up its list 15 spots, to number 21 in the world. Alinea cracked the top
ten in 2009, moving up to number 10 in the world, and advanced to number 7 for
2010, when it was also the highest ranked North American restaurant honored.
Alinea maintained its top North American Ranking for 2011, while moving up one
position overall to 6th best restaurant in the world. In 2012, Alinea came down
one spot on the list. Per Se gained the 6th place, thus making Alinea the 2nd
best restaurant in the U.S. and 7th overall.
In November 2009,
Achatz and his Alinea team designed the menu for Ikarus, a restaurant in
Salzburg, Austria which brings in a top chef from a different restaurant each
month to design the menu for that month and train the staff.
Alinea was awarded
three stars in the 2011 Michelin Guide for Chicago. It was repeated
in 2012 when Alinea was the only restaurant to receive three stars in the 2012 Michelin
Guide for Chicago.
Achatz's other
restaurants include Next, a restaurant that uses a unique ticketing system in
Chicago, and Aviary, a bar.
Reservations for
Achatz's restaurant, Next, are so sought after, that tickets could be found on
Craigslist for up to $500 per person. In February 2012, Achatz held
a Dutch Auction for tickets to Next's elBulli-inspired menu, raising over
$275,000 for charity in just two days. Auction prices ranged from
$4000 – $5000 for parties of two.
Personal Life
On July 23, 2007,
Achatz announced that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 squamous cell
carcinoma of the mouth, which may have spread to his lymph nodes. Some of his
colleagues and friends have expressed worry that radiotherapy or surgery may
impair his sense of taste.
On December 18, 2007,
Achatz announced that he was cancer-free. He credited an aggressive protocol of
chemotherapy and radiation administered at the University of Chicago Medical
Center for driving his cancer into full remission. The treatment regimen,
administered under the direction of Drs. Vokes, Blair and Haraf at U of C, did
not require radical invasive surgery on Achatz' tongue.
Awards
1. Best New Chefs,
Food & Wine Magazine, 2002
2. Top Service Award
(Chicago), Zagat Survey, 2006
3. Best Restaurant in
America, Gourmet Magazine, 2006
4. 40 Top Chicago
Restaurants Ever, Chicago Magazine, #1, 2010
5. AAA Five Diamond
Award, AAA, 2007–2011
6. Mobil Five Star
Award, Mobil Travel Guide, 2007–2010
7. Jean Banchet Award
– Best Celebrity Chef, 2007
8. Jean Banchet Award
– Best Fine Dining, 2007
9. The S. Pellegrino
World's 50 Best Restaurants, #36, 2007
10. The S. Pellegrino
World's 50 Best Restaurants, Highest New Entry, 2007
11. The S. Pellegrino
World's 50 Best Restaurants, #21, 2008
12. The S. Pellegrino
World's 50 Best Restaurants, #10, 2009
13. The S. Pellegrino
World's 50 Best Restaurants, #7, 2010
14. The S. Pellegrino
World's 50 Best Restaurants, The Acqua Panna Best Restaurant In North America,
2010
15. The S. Pellegrino
World's 50 Best Restaurants, #6, 2011
16. The S. Pellegrino
World's 50 Best Restaurants, The Acqua Panna Best Restaurant In North America,
2011
17. James Beard
Foundation Award – Rising Star Chef of the Year, 2003
18. James Beard
Foundation Award – Best Chef: Great Lakes, 2007
19. James Beard
Foundation Award – Outstanding Chef, 2008
20. James Beard
Foundation Award – Book Award: Cooking from a Professional Point of View, 2009
21. James Beard
Foundation Award – Outstanding Service Award, 2010
22. Zagat Guide
"Excellent" Ratings. 2008
23. Gayot Rating
18/20.
24. 3 Michelin Stars,
2011, 2012
25. The 2011 Time 100
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