Grant Achatz

Even when I was an unemployed web designer and before I became a food writer, we set aside money and saved to dine at Alinea precisely because we thought there was something more important going on.

There were many reasons to like Obama, but as a food writer, I loved the fact that he was a Frontera/Topolobampo dude while Dubya was still choking on pretzels and chomping on Tex-Mex style burritos as big as his head.

Alinea and Grant Achatz's cooking was even sometimes dubbed soulless. Like me, though, many of these critics had never eaten the food or spoken with the chef. I think maybe, all they needed to do was eat at Alinea once to discover the truth.