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Grant Achatz, founder of Alinea restaurant in Chicago, begins his memoir with a reminiscence of the evening in 2008 when he won the James Beard Foundation Award for "Outstanding Chef in America", and by thanking Thomas Keller, one of his first employers and the man who taught him "the push": "the discipline, the dedication, the intensity, the tenacity, and the drive that both the chef and all [of The French Laundry] cooks possessed." What follows is an exploration of a childhood that led him into the restaurant industry and of a passion for food that has led him to redefine the way visitors to Alinea experience gastronomy. Have you ever tried "candy cap mushroom ice cream with spun sugar muscovado sugar and maple syrup" presented on an antenna? 

However, Achatz and his business partner, Nick Kokonas, who co-authors this memoir with him, are also telling the story of Grant's life, literally, "on the line". In June 2007, Achatz was diagnosed with stage IV tongue cancer and started down a treatment path that would, eventually, save his life and preserve his ability to speak and swallow, but would also rob him of his sense of taste. In an interview-style text that moves back and forth between Achatz and Kokonas's voices, the narrative of Grant's "push" to find the discipline, dedication, intensity and tenacity to survive cancer and recover his senses is impossible to read without emotion. As an editorial in the Chicago Tribune the morning after the "Outstanding Chef" awards asserted, "We'd venture to say that many people who have never unfurled a napkin at Alinea are cheering Grant Achatz," 

The alinea symbol is what editors use to mark the beginning of a new paragraph; it is the symbol that connotes a break in a previous chain of thought, or a new chapter. Readers of Achatz's memoir are going to to want to taste the world, and their food, deeply, and to discover Alinea. 

Review by Holly Nickel

Life, on the Line: A Chef's Story of Chasing Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining the Way We Eat (Hardcover)

By Grant Achatz, Nick Kokonas

$27.50

ISBN-13: 9781592406012
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Gotham, 3/2011

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