All Attention on Achatz

By Karl Klockars in Food on May 7, 2008 5:36PM

What's with the sudden level of attention on Grant Achatz? Chicago Magazine has a couple new pieces out about the Alinea superchef (and Chicagoist Grills interviewee), Men's Vogue has a piece, and the New Yorker has a gargantuan profile about Achatz. Is it because of the Alinea Cookbook coming out in the fall? No, it's because more and more of the national press are picking up the story about Achatz looking tongue cancer in the eye and kicking its fucking ass.

Many Chicagoans and foodies world-wide have been following this story since it started, including the news from a couple months ago that the disease was in remission, but the Tale of the Growing Tongue Cancer is just crossing the radar of a lot of people. Which is not to say that it's not worth reading for us locals - if you have 20 minutes to kill today at work, check out the above stories and be prepared to whisper a "holy shit" or two. From Jennifer Tanaka's "Burned:"

During his hours-long chemotherapy sessions at the U. of C. hospital, he tapped away on his laptop, e-mailing and working on the text of his cookbook-in-progress. He went straight from the hospital to the restaurant throughout his chemotherapy and all but the final week of his radiation treatment, often closing up the place well past midnight. He also insisted on driving himself to and from his appointments, occasionally needing to pull over on Lake Shore Drive to vomit.