Chicago chef named nation's best at food 'Oscars'
By J.M. HIRSCH
|
(AP)
Chef Grant Achatz, of Alinea restaurant in Chicago, poses
for a photo after being named Outstanding... |
NEW
YORK (AP) - A Chicago chef known for his ethereal cooking -
as well as the tongue cancer that nearly ended his life - was
named the nation's top chef Sunday by the James Beard Foundation.
The
award marked another victory in a tumultuous year for Grant
Achatz, who last July was diagnosed with Stage 4 tongue cancer,
underwent aggressive treatment to save his life and sense of
taste, and by December was cancer free.
Achatz
told the crowd of food world elite gathered for the awards he
credits lessons learned when he was 22 and working at The French
Laundry in Yountville, Calif., with teaching him not just how
to cook, but also how to survive.
Those
lessons were going to "make me a good cook and ultimately
a great chef. What I didn't know was that it was actually going
to save my life," he said.
"That drive, that tenacity, that dedication that I took
in at that restaurant ... it became a part of who I am 12 years
later and helped me get through a pretty ridiculous battle."
Achatz'
cooking at his 3-year-old restaurant, Alinea, has come to define
the so-called molecular gastronomy movement, an approach to
eating about as similar to home cooking as particle physics
is to a junior chemistry set.
His
ultramodern style has crafted menus that read like the shopping
list of a culinary mad scientist, with items such as "black
truffle explosion, romaine, parmesan" and "transparency
of raspberry, rose petal, yogurt."
Achatz
thanked the many chefs in the crowd for their offers to help
during his battle with cancer.
"I
didn't let any of them come to the restaurant and cook as they
suggested. I couldn't do that to the cooks," he said with
a laugh.
|
(AP)
Chef Grant Achatz, of Alinea restaurant in Chicago, poses
for a photo after being named Outstanding... |
Alinea
was named the nation's top restaurant by Gourmet magazine
in 2006, and Achatz previously won Beard awards for rising star
chef in 2002 and 2003, and for best chef in the Great Lakes
region last year.
The
James Beard awards are known as the Oscars of the food world,
and honor those who follow in the footsteps of Beard, considered
the dean of American cooking when he died in 1985.
Business
partners Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich also were honored at
Sunday's ceremony as the nation's top restaurateurs. They oversee
a cadre of restaurants, including New York's Babbo Ristorante
e Enoteca and Del Posto.
New
York's Gramercy Tavern was named the nation's Outstanding Restaurant.
Gramercy Tavern, which since opening in 1994 has been nominated
for and received numerous Beard Awards and cemented the careers
of culinary luminaries such as Tom Colicchio, is known for its
contemporary American cuisine.
|
(AP)
Danny Meyer, owner of Gramercy Tavern in New York, poses
for a photo after his restaurant was named... |
"If
you can judge a restaurant based on the quality of its alumni,
I don't think there's a richer restaurant that I could have
dreamed of being a part of," said owner Danny Meyer.
Gavin
Kaysen of New York's Cafe Boulud was named Rising Star Chef,
while the award for Outstanding New Restaurant went to Michel
Richard's Central Michel Richard in Washington. Richard was
named Outstanding Chef by the foundation last year.
Frances Moore Lappe, whose nearly 40-year-old book, "Diet
for a Small Planet," has been the blueprint for eating
with a small carbon footprint since long before the term was
coined, was named Humanitarian of the Year.
Described
as the Earth's champion, Lappe was honored for her work to highlight
the need for affordable, quality food for all, and for promoting
the notion that small-scale, not industrial, agriculture is
best at providing it.
"I'm
hoping that food can be one of the great openings for people
to say 'No! No! No! No! No! We're in the wrong place,'"
she said. "That's what keeps me going, the realization
that things could quickly go in the right direction."
Among
books to be honored was British import Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's
"The River Cottage Meat Book," which took two awards,
Cookbook
of the Year and Single Subject.
Paula
Wolfert's 1973 cookbook "Couscous and Other Good Food from
Morocco" was named to the foundation's Cookbook Hall of
Fame, and Barbara Kingsolver's account of eating local food,
"Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life,"
received an award for general food writing.
The
organization's Lifetime Achievement award went to microbrew
pioneer Fritz Maytag, of San Francisco's Anchor Brewing.