by KATHRYN MAIER, Culture Trip, SEPTEMBER 29, 2017
Meet Grant Achatz, America’s Most Creative Chef
Grant Achatz, the chef of Alinea and several other Chicago restaurants, as well as two new bars in NYC, dazzles diners with his innovative approach to food and drinks.
It might seem a cliché to say that Grant Achatz, the Chicago-based chef of Alinea, Next, The Aviary and The Office, and Roister, is as much an artist as he is a chef […] He gets plating inspiration from art museums; his primary motivations are pushing boundaries and eliciting emotions—notions you hear about much more often in the art world than when talking about restaurants.
He was making purely basic, utilitarian food, though; his parents discouraged even the simplest of garnishes. It wasn’t until he, at the goading of an uncle, ate a pickle wrapped around a bundle of French fries, that he fell in love with food—with the interplay of flavor elements (starch, fat, acid, salt). “It wasn’t about physical cooking,” Achatz says on Chef’s Table. “For me it was about curiosity. It was about toying with things.”
He was full of questions: Why can’t you eat off of a tablecloth? Why do you need to use a fork or spoon, or serve a dish in a plate or bowl? Is there a better way to do things? He was determined to break—or, at the very least, question—every existing rule of dining […] At Alinea, we’re actually trying to curate an experience […] “We treat the emotional component of cooking food as a seasoning. You add salt, you add sugar, you add vinegar, you add nostalgia,” he says.
Analysis: Grant Achatz is an interesting chef who integrates the emotional side of food really well into fine dining. He’s famous for integrating play with his food, and I think this is extremely valuable for drawing people to food and remind them to curate their bond with it.
