Source: NY Times
Author: Sam Sifton

Jimmy Bradley, the chef and an owner of the Red Cat and the Harrison, two restaurants in Manhattan, said he is recovering from oral cancer, and will not be moving forward with plans to open J & S Food Hall in the Nolitan Hotel.

“It’s a bad break,” he said in a telephone interview on Tuesday morning, his voice only slightly thicker than its usual laconic drawl. “But long-term the prognosis is pretty good. I just think at this point the best thing for me is to concentrate on my health and on the livelihood of the 100 people I already have working for me, not on hiring 50 people for a new business.”

Mr. Bradley, 43, said that in late October his dentist spotted a tumor in the center of his tongue. He sought four subsequent opinions from oncologists, and underwent surgery to remove the growth at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan on Nov. 17. Three days later, he said, he returned to the kitchen of the Harrison, where he had recently started cooking again. Radiation treatments for the cancer are ongoing.

“I was super bummed for the first month or so,” Mr. Bradley said. He struggled to regain his ability to speak, and was terrified that he would lose his ability to taste. Some of his palate has already returned, he said. “Every day is a little better,” he said. “It’s like being a little kid and learning again what coffee tastes like, or Scotch.”

Grant Achatz, the chef and an owner of Alinea in Chicago, has also battled oral cancer. He announced the diagnosis in July, 2007. In December of that year he announced he was cancer-free. His memoir, “Life, on the Line: A Chef’s Story of Chasing Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining the Way We Eat,” will be published in March by Gotham Books.

Mr. Bradley said that he had not spoken to Mr. Achatz. “I didn’t really want to talk about it at all with anyone outside of my family,” he said. “But at this point, I feel I probably ought to explain what’s going on. This business with the hotel isn’t really about business. It’s about concentrating on my health, and my employees’ well-being.”

Mr. Bradley said he will remain in the kitchen at the Harrison as much as possible, assisted by the chefs Steve Dustin and Justin Smillie. Bill McDaniel remains the chef at the Red Cat, which opened 12 years ago.

On Oct. 26, the Harrison turns 10. The restaurant is on Greenwich Street, nine blocks north of Ground Zero.

“We opened six weeks after 9/11,” Mr. Bradley said. “We know how to persevere.”