PHOTOS: 'Decoding' The World's Best Avante-Garde Cuisine With Alinea's Grant Achatz

LIFE:

Grant Achatz's mission is simple: He wants to make you throw out your preconceptions of what restaurants do and what meals should taste like. Achatz, among the most celebrated chefs in the U.S and the man behind Chicago's award-winning Alinea restaurant, knows a thing or two about taste: In 2007, the chef underwent a battle with tongue cancer that left him unable to taste anything. After aggressive treatment, he declared himself cancer-free later that year, and began regaining his ability to taste. Achatz recently sat down with LIFE to explain the thinking behind the most spectacular, most mind-bending dishes served at some of the world's best restaurants. Pictured: Achatz at in the kitchen of his Alinea.

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Comments

[EveryCliche]

11:51 PM on 09/25/2010

What Chef Grant and everyone at Alinea does is amazing. My best friend and I ate there for our birthdays last year and it was the best meal of my life and there really isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about it. I'm impatiently waiting until I can go back to Alinea or try his new restaurant Next when it opens this fall.

[thole489]

01:17 AM on 09/23/2010

This stuff is really pretty to look at and I'm sure he is extremely talented. But is it still cooking if you have to use tweezers to plate?

[zingdaddy]

01:34 PM on 09/26/2010

YES!! :^) Try the food. Drop everything and go try the food. Never mind the tweezers, they're just another kind of spatula.