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Magic and a love of experimentation: How Grant Achatz enchants molecular cuisine

By: Reading Time: 8 Minutes

Grant Achatz is one of only 13 top chefs in the USA with three Michelin stars. The fact that he has turned his Alinea in Chicago into one of the world’s best addresses for avant-garde molecular cuisine is thanks to the tireless pursuit of perfection and the courage to reinvent himself every day – even though he once lost his sense of taste.

For Grant Achatz, making dishes levitate is not enough. No, his edible balloon made of wafer-thin apple toffee must also be filled with helium. “That way, if people inhale the gas before eating the balloon’s shell, they get that funny Mickey Mouse voice for a little while.” For the chef and co-owner of the Chicago-based Alinea Group, this epitomizes an essential point of his cooking philosophy. “The original idea of molecular cuisine in the 1990s was to creatively advance the dining experience and challenge conventions. This type of cooking uses emotions as a spice. Thanks to newly developed technologies, you can manipulate food in unexpected ways and imbue it with luck, magic and nostalgia.”

Grant Achatz in front of a small airplane in a chef's jacket

Image: Helge Kirchberger-Photography, Red-Bull-Content-Pool

Is he pulling my leg?

Let’s take a step back to where it all began in St. Clair. Grant Achatz was born in this small town in eastern Michigan in April 1974. With Canada on the other side of the St. Clair River, the town’s close to 5,000 inhabitants enjoy its picturesque waterfront, an annual amateur bicycle race (Blue Water Rambles) as well as an annual classic car rally.

Grant was four when his parents opened a diner. “I spent more time there as a child than at home,” he recalled in a 2017 episode dedicated to him in the Netflix documentary series “Chef’s Table”. He was particularly taken with his uncle Norm, who not only worked as a cook in that diner, but also sparked his nephew’s curiosity. “With him, you never knew if he was pulling your leg or if he was being serious. One day, I saw him wrap a slice of cucumber around some French fries and put it in his mouth. What I thought was, “He is only doing this so that I will imitate him and he can laugh at me.” But what I said was, “I want to try that too…”

Grant Achatz in the kitchen, talking to several chefs

Image: David Ditzler, Red-Bull-Content-Pool

Grant Achatz recalls that the result of this first culinary experiment was groundbreaking. “I dared a hesitant bite and was amazed! How could something that didn’t look right to me taste so good? Uncle Norm explained it to me quite simply. He said, You have starch, fat, acid, salt – and everything is in balance.” It was probably this inspiration that shaped the career of future star chef Grant Achatz, because, as he himself says, “at that moment I fell in love with cooking.”

Grant Achatz – from CIA, via the molecular kitchen to Ferran Adrià

At 17, Grant Achatz relocated to New York. And, like Anthony Bourdain before him, he successfully graduated from the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), one of the most prestigious culinary schools in the USA. “I went to CIA when I was very young, with no training in fine cuisine, no formal training at all. But the school taught me all the basics I needed.”

Gran Achatz and further chefs discuss the molecular menu in a professional kitchen

Image: Peter Sorel, Netflix

After an unsuccessful short stint with three-star chef Charlie Trotter, he found a mentor in Thomas Keller (The French Laundry), also decorated with three Michelin stars, who understood Grant’s quest for perfection perfectly and encouraged his joy of experimentation. “He was an avant-garde, a forerunner – but I still wanted to go one step further. So he arranged a week for me with Ferran Adrià.”

At the turn of the millennium, the journey to the world’s most famous and best restaurant at the time finally opened Grant Achatz’s doors to the universe of molecular cuisine. “When I arrived at El Bulli, Ferran was the first to take me to the dining room and let me taste a clear risotto. And he said, “Eating isn’t just about satisfying your stomach, it needs to stimulate your brain too.”

86 ingredients? Sure, why not!

Grant Achatz developed his own approach to molecular cuisine according to a system he himself calls “flavor bouncing”. To this day, he is still developing new dishes with an ingredient of his choice, for example white beans. “Then I think about what goes with beans and first think of ham and bacon. It continues from there: What goes with beans and ham? Apples. What goes with both beans and ham and apples? Maple syrup And that’s how it keeps going.”

A fancy presented dish, next to a small fire

Image: Peter Sorel, Netflix

But aren’t these combinations naturally limited? Well, in the name of one of his creations, Lamb/Lamb 86, the number of harmonizing ingredients is proudly stated. But despite his attention to detail, Grant Achatz never forgets a fundamental truth. “You can be as creative as you like, but if it doesn’t taste good, you’ve failed.”

Achatz’s first restaurant, Alinea in Chicago

In 2005, at just 31, Achatz (with the help of investor and entrepreneur Nick Kokonas) opened his first restaurant in Chicago, Alinea. It owes its name to a typographical special character: The paragraph mark – in Latin “a linea” (“away from the line”) – visually symbolizes the end of a paragraph and at the same time the beginning of the next section in the text. “The term perfectly describes the philosophy of my cuisine We are at the beginning of a new way of thinking. What we do is new and then it’s going to be new again and again and again and again…”

Alinea’s opening was celebrated by the prestigious James Beard Foundation: After being named Rising Star Chef of the Year in 2003, Achatz won the Best Chef award in 2007 and was even named Outstanding Chef in 2008. His creations, such as pheasant with burning oak leaves, monkfish with banana, onions and lime, or candied salmon, caused just as much of a stir as the idea of not serving dishes on plates, but, rather, to arrange them directly on the table in a bold, sweeping fashion, like an experimental painter.

Grant Achatz arranges a dish directly to the table

Image: David Ditzler, Red-Bull-Content Pool

Diagnosis: incurable!

But his luck was short-lived: Having written off pain in his mouth for a long time as a sign of stress and overwork, Grant Achatz discovered he had squamous cell carcinoma at just 33.  Tongue cancer – at an advanced stage – is truly a nightmare diagnosis for anyone, but especially for a top chef and representative of avant-garde cuisine such as Grant Achatz. “They wanted me to remove three quarters of my tongue and large parts of my lower jaw right away – there was even a 70% chance that I would soon die.”

Grant Achatz, then father of two, was hit very hard by the disease. He would rather pass away with dignity than give up his core identity as a chef as a result of this intervention. However, the University of Chicago immediately responded to an official statement and offered a treatment that promised good results in experimental clinical trials at that time. And in fact, Achatz was able to overcome the cancer after a series of intensive chemotherapies. “The problem was I lost my sense of taste.”

A portrait of chef Grant Achatz

Image: David Ditzler, Red-Bull-Content-Pool

But he kept his ambition and creativity, as well as his mentally stored knowledge of tastes and flavors. And so he and his kitchen brigade developed a special communication system. “We have defined scales, for example for the acidity of a dish where bread was 1 and pickled cucumber 5. This allowed me to explain what I imagined and take Alinea further without being able to taste the dishes myself.”

Redefinition and comeback

His sense of taste gradually returned. “I was bursting with energy. I got a second chance and I didn’t want to mess it up.” Therefore, he became even more creative and radical in his urge not to repeat himself. This went so far that he even discontinued popular dishes such as the legendary Black Truffle Explosion and the contrasting Hot Potato, Cold Potato creation with no regard for the consequences. He constantly changed the menus. And after 10 years, he even closed Alinea for an extended period and completely remodeled it. “You can’t be creative without taking risks! You can’t become a museum piece, you have to repeatedly start from scratch to create something new.”

Grant Achatz as he arranges a dish on a table

Image: David Ditzler, Red-Bull-Content-Pool

Today, Alinea, which combines three spatially separate culinary worlds (The Kitchen Table, The Gallery and The Salon), is one of only 13 restaurants in the USA that have been awarded three stars by the Michelin Guide.  Achatz was awarded the highest ranking for the first time in 2010. The founders of the jury talk about “strange, sometimes experimental” dishes and ingenious olfactory experiences – for which guests are happy to accept months-long waiting lists and menu prices between 325 and 495 dollars. So no one is surprised by the excellent and extraordinary review, which states: “Chef Grant Achatz is bursting with new ideas in this ingenious, rewarding and festive temple. Eating here is partly theater and pure pleasure.”

Four restaurants, two bars – Achatz’ gastronomic empire

But of course, Grant Achatz, who has been married to marketing expert Samantha Lim since 2023, doesn’t settle for just one gastronomic mainstay. Over 300 employees currently work for the Alinea Group under the management of Grant Achatz. In addition to the parent company Alinea, these include three other restaurants in Chicago. The Next restaurant, Roister designed as a casual a-la-carte alternative to Alinea and the St.Clair Supper Club – as well as the cocktail bars The Aviary and The Office (an intimate bar with 14 seats in the basement of the Aviary).

 

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Since 2016, Roister has been revisiting the roots of traditional cooking techniques, but with a modern slant. It offers its guests a “combination of unassuming dishes and vibrant flavors,” The St. Clair Supper Club just below is Grant Achatz’ tribute to Midwest cuisine – think prime rib!

 

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Ein Beitrag geteilt von St. Clair Supper Club (@stclairsupperclub)

 Next, which bears a Michelin star, holds a special position. Opened in 2011, it sees itself as a constantly revolving carousel of ideas. The focus changes regularly and presents special menus such as culinary cuisine in ancient Rome or Paris in 1906. Tributes to great kitchen heroes such as Ferran Adrià, Heston Blumenthal and Charlie Trotter, who died in 2013, are also very popular.

In addition, Next was conceived as an experiment for a new type of reservation system. The idea behind the online platform Tock, developed by Grant Achatz ‘ partner Nick Kokonas in 2014, was revolutionary. To avoid annoying no-shows, reservations are sold in advance at full price, like tickets for the theater or opera. After this idea was quickly adopted by a number of other fine dining restaurants, Nick Kokonas sold the platform for 400 million dollars to web giant Squarespace in 2021 (and retain his place on the board).

Molecular cuisine, and also molecular cocktails

Grant Achatz is not only considered one of the most creative and economically successful chefs in America. The Avery cocktail lounge, which opened in 2011, also sets new standards. The drinks (which can be ordered in the form of multi-course “menus”) are also the result of meticulous research. Unlike most ordinary bars, they are not prepared at the bar itself, but rather behind closed doors. Creations such as the Jungle Bird enchant with finely layered liquids of different densities (rum, Campari, pineapple-lime syrup) and the rum pearls floating in them.

Chefs preparing Grant Achatz molecular cocktails

Image: Netflix

But despite all the secrecy, Achatz does not keep his inventions a big secret. He rather turns them into an extra business model. There are already three books with his cocktail recipes (including ZERO: A New Approach To Non-Alcoholic Drinks) to buy, brought out by his own publishing house. He also has a series of cookbooks. But they are just as out of stock as his biography Life, On The Line published in 2012…

2025 will be even more magical

“Creativity is the result of hard work and constant learning,” says Grant Achatz, looking optimistically to the future. In a recent podcast with food critic Michael Nagrant, he ventures a glimpse at what will one day be seen as his legacy in the world of gastronomy. And this is not about individual dishes he has created. “I would like people to talk about my pursuit of originality and innovation.” Not to mention the work ethic and discipline that were needed to continually surpass what he had already achieved. “It was a lonely, difficult journey. But that’s exactly what drove me from the start.”

Grant Achatz is talking to another cook in the kitchen

Image: David Ditzler, Red-Bull-Content-Pool

In fact, Grant Achatz, who recently made a guest appearance in the successful streaming series “The Bear”, is all about the here and now. “I’m still in the kitchen five days a week and have just bought three new “toys” that allow me to develop new techniques and ideas. I’m always looking for new cooking systems and new opportunities for collaboration.”

One of them could enchant guests in one of his restaurants as early as 2025: Grant Achatz is close friends with the world-famous magician David Blaine: “After dining at Alinea once again, he went into the kitchen and spent two hours showing the crew his tricks as a small token of thanks. I hope that we will set up a real collaboration in 2025.” But in Grant Achatz’s world, magical evenings are guaranteed even without tricks.

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