The book's subtitle is "A Chef's Story of Chasing Greatness, Facing Death and Redefining the Way We Eat", which is a good summary of this memoir although in a different order of events. Grant Achatz is the subject and primary author of this memoir. Nick Kokonas' contributions are in the final two-thirds when he and Grant become co-owners of Chicago's Alinea restaurant. The memoir recounts Grant Achatz' journey beginning with his early aspirations to become a chef to his rise to become one of the world's renowned chef and ends with his successful battle with tongue cancer.
This is the second memoir written by a chef that I have read. The first was Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential". I by far prefered Grant Achatz's memoir. Both memoirs begin with each chef's fascination with cooking at an early age and follow them in their early career as they gain their bearings in the culinary world. The similarities end here. While Anthony Bourdain shares some fascinating tips for foodies regarding what to order and what to avoid, his recount of his early career is superficial,only touching the surface at best, and it appears his main objective is to propogate his "bad boy" image. He wears his hard-core drug-use and womanzing as a badge of honor. Grant Achatz, on the other hand, provides a candid, in-depth description that allows readers to not only understand his ladder to success but also gain a wonderful insight into the inner workings of gourmet restaurant kitchens.
After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, Grant worked at the Michelin-starred restaurant, Trotter's in Chicago, owned by world -renowned chef Charlie Trotter. While he was initially excited to receive a job offer with such a prestigious restaurant, the intense working environment and arrogant chef/owner "managed to drain all the confidence and drive that I had built up over the years of cooking and thinking about food." His aspirations and passion for cooking were renewed when he then began working at The French Laundry in Napa. Chef/owner, Thomas Keller, a polar opposite of Charlie Trotter, became a lifelong friend and mentor. Reading about The French Laundry's dedication towards perfection and decadent dishes, convinced me that sampling the cuisine is worth the splurge before leaving the Bay Area.
Thomas Keller taught by example and fueled Grant's creativity. He generously encouraged Grant to take a leave of absence from The French Laundry and spend a summer in Spain working for a restaurant which focuses on moleular gastronomy, a creative, multi-sensory approach to cooking. Grant returned from this experience, freshly inspired and rejuvinated to create his own "out of the box" recipes resulting in his resignation from The French Laundry to take on the head chef position at a restaurant in an outer-Chicago suburb. His unique approach to cooking brought widespread attention to this relatively small, unknown restaurant and led to meeting his future business partner, Nick Kokonas.
Together, Nick and Grant created the world-famous Alinea, meaning "new train of thought". The authors share a detailed account of the birth of Alinea including its business plan, search for investors and retail space, interior design vision and plans, sample menu and opening night. Within six months of opening, Alinea earned the highly-respected title of Gourmet magagzine's best restaurant in North America. (recently in 2010 it was named number one in Gourmet magazine's best restaurants of the world).
Much to Allen's chagrin (the current price for a 22-course prix fixe menu is $300 per person), the book definitely wetted my appetite to sample Alinea's unique and extraordinary cuisne. Each dish listed and described in the book fueled my temptation, some enticing dishes included: lobster with rosemary vapor, proscuitto with passion fruit and mint, olive oil popsicles and candy cap mushroom icecream. Earlier in the book he stated his mission as a chef: " I want people to be excited, happy, curious, intrigued and even bewildered during the meal." This is probably a dream most foodies aspire to achieve and after reading his memoir, Grant Achatz (and later reading satisfied diners' reviews on Yelp) convinced me that a dining experience at Alinea will satisfy all of the above emotions in its diners.
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