• 7/24/2007
  • Chicago, IL
  • Phil Vettel and Robert Mitchum
  • ChicagoTribune.com

Chemotherapy treatments could rob Chicago’s rising culinary star of his ability to taste.

Grant Achatz, the 33-year-old superstar chef whose Lincoln Park restaurant, Alinea, is ranked among the very best in the world, is facing a medical challenge with a painful twist.

On Monday, Achatz announced that he has been diagnosed with Stage 4 squamous cell carcinoma of the mouth.

The cancer, which doctors believe has spread to Achatz’s lymph nodes, is life-threatening. The lesions are on the chef’s tongue.

If chemotherapy is successful, there remains a possibility that Achatz will lose all sense of taste.

“It’s Shakespearean,” said Nick Kokonas, Achatz’s friend and co-owner of Alinea. “This is like a painter whose eyes are taken from him, a pianist who has his fingers cut off.”

An optimistic-sounding Achatz doesn’t quite see it that way.

“People confuse the role of the chef,” he said. “A lot of what I do is conceptualize. I’m not the guy who cooks everything every night; it’s impossible. I’ve got a really strong team (at Alinea), and their response has been amazingly positive. They’re going to rally around this.”

Achatz burst on the dining scene in 2001, when, after four years working under Thomas Keller at the acclaimed French Laundry in Yountville, Calif., he was hired as executive chef at Trio in Evanston. Not only did Achatz maintain the restaurant’s four-star status, but a year later he made Food & Wine magazine’s list of Best New Chefs in America. In 2003, he was named the Rising Star Chef of the year by the James Beard Foundation.

Alinea, the restaurant opened with Kokonas in 2005, quickly received worldwide attention and acclaim, along with four-star reviews from the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Magazine. Restaurant patrons were awed by Achatz’s innovative style, which challenged people’s notions of food and flavor. An early dish, called “PB&J,” presented a single peeled grape, covered in peanut butter and wrapped in thin-toasted brioche — a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich compressed into a single bite.

He presented a dish of ham and peas on a pillow filled with lavender-scented air, which wafted out from the weight of the plate. Trio fans clamored for his miniature ravioli squares filled with liquid truffle, which burst in the mouth on the first bite.

“I’m not dwelling on the possibility that I’ll never be able to taste again,” Achatz said. “Beethoven composed one of his greatest symphonies when he was deaf.”

While it is less common for this form of cancer to appear in people as young as Achatz, it is not unheard of, oncologists said. “More and more over the last several years, we’re seeing younger and younger patients with this kind of cancer, specifically in their mouth,” said Dr. Mark Agulnik, medical oncologist, at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

The most common risk factors for squamous cell carcinoma in the mouth are smoking and alcohol consumption, but these behaviors do not appear to contribute to most cases of the disease in younger people.

A Stage 4 cancer means that the cancer cells have spread to the lymph nodes, located in the neck. As long as the cancer has not traveled beyond this point to other organs of the body, it usually remains treatable, the oncologists said.

“With aggressive treatment, these cancers are highly curable in more than the majority of patients,” said Dr. Tanguy Seiwert, instructor of medicine in hematology/oncology at the University of Chicago. “But as soon as it spreads beyond lymph nodes, it’s no longer curable. You can only alleviate symptoms and prolong life.”

Treatment usually involves a combination of chemotherapy, radiation and, if necessary, surgery to remove afflicted regions. These treatments may affect Achatz’s salivary glands and ability to taste.

What might be more difficult for the chef, a notorious workaholic, than chemotherapy is staying away from the restaurant when the effects of the treatments make him too ill or tired to work.

“People close to me know that the biggest problem will be keeping me away,” Achatz said. “But it’s medically inevitable. But you go with that — you engage as much as you possibly can engage, then trust the people who you’ve been training for six years.”

“The news is just devastating, shocking,” fellow chef Charlie Trotter said. “He’s a great guy, a huge talent who has been great for the city. Our whole staff talked about it, and there were a lot of watering eyes.

“I think everybody is pulling for this guy. Not just in our little culinary community, but throughout the city.”

After consulting with specialists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, one of three groups with whom Achatz consulted, the chef broke the news to the kitchen staff at Alinea.

“He gave an amazing talk; he was very much the leader,” Kokonas said. “Personally, I could not have given that speech, and did it not just with dignity but with optimism. The thing we most want to do for him is ensure that absolutely nothing changes at Alinea.

“I went through my period of pessimism. He can beat this.”