🇺🇸 United States · American cuisine · b. 1974
Chef-owner of Alinea; one of the leading figures in American progressive cuisine.
Grant Achatz is an American chef and restaurateur from St. Clair, Michigan, who grew up working in his family's diner before pursuing fine dining. He attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, graduating in 1994, then took the highly unusual step of writing directly to Thomas Keller asking for a job at The French Laundry in Yountville, California. He was hired and spent four formative years there, eventually rising to sous chef and absorbing Keller's precision-driven, ingredient-led approach.
In 2001 he traveled to Spain to stage at Ferran Adrià's elBulli in Catalonia, an experience that reshaped his understanding of what a tasting menu could be. He returned to the United States and took the executive chef position at Trio in Evanston, Illinois, in 2001. Within three years he transformed it into one of the country's most discussed restaurants and was named Food & Wine Best New Chef (2002) and James Beard Rising Star Chef of the Year (2003).
In 2005 he partnered with restaurateur Nick Kokonas to open Alinea on Chicago's Halsted Street. The restaurant pioneered a multi-sensory tasting-menu format — edible balloons, tableside aromatics, courses served on custom-designed equipment — and within months was being discussed as one of the best restaurants in the world. Alinea earned three Michelin stars in 2011 (the first year the Michelin Guide covered Chicago) and has retained them every year since. It was named the World's 50 Best Restaurants' Best Restaurant in North America multiple times.
In 2007, at the height of Alinea's rise, Achatz was diagnosed with stage-four squamous-cell carcinoma of the tongue. He underwent an experimental treatment at the University of Chicago that preserved his tongue but eliminated his sense of taste for nearly a year, during which he continued to run Alinea using the palates of his sous chefs. He recovered fully and wrote about the experience in his 2011 memoir Life, on the Line.
With Kokonas he co-founded The Alinea Group, which now operates Alinea, Next (a thematic restaurant that changes its entire menu every quarter), The Aviary (a cocktail bar treated as a restaurant), Roister, and the St. Clair bakery/coffee project. Achatz and Kokonas also pioneered the use of pre-paid digital reservation ticketing in fine dining, an innovation now used by restaurants worldwide.
A restaurant should not be a service for the comfortable consumption of food — it should be a site of provocation, surprise and emotion. Achatz designs courses to engage smell, sound, temperature and memory as much as taste, and rejects the idea that a tasting menu must follow a single linear arc; Next changes its concept entirely every three to four months precisely to prevent the format from becoming a routine.
Three-Michelin-star flagship opened in 2005. Widely considered one of the most influential restaurants of the 21st century.
Opened 2011 with Dave Beran; a thematic restaurant whose entire menu changes every three to four months (Paris 1906, Thailand, El Bulli tribute, Childhood, etc.).
Cocktail bar designed as a kitchen — drinks built with the techniques of progressive cuisine.
More casual open-kitchen restaurant in the West Loop, opened 2016.
Bakery and supper-club concept, part of The Alinea Group.
These recipes from our database reflect the american cooking tradition that Grant works in. They are not direct reproductions of Grant's copyrighted recipes, but traditional dishes inspired by the same culinary heritage.
“When you eat a meal at Alinea, the goal is for you to feel something you have never felt before in a restaurant.”
— Interview, Eater
“Losing my sense of taste taught me that cooking is not really about taste at all — it's about memory, emotion and surprise.”
— Life, on the Line (2011)
Graduates from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.
Joins The French Laundry under Thomas Keller; rises to sous chef.
Stages at Ferran Adrià's elBulli in Catalonia; becomes executive chef at Trio in Evanston, Illinois.
Named Food & Wine Best New Chef.
Wins James Beard Rising Star Chef of the Year.
Opens Alinea on Halsted Street in Chicago with Nick Kokonas.
Diagnosed with stage-four tongue cancer; treated at the University of Chicago.
Wins James Beard Outstanding Chef; publishes Alinea cookbook.
Alinea earns three Michelin stars in the inaugural Chicago guide; opens Next and The Aviary.
Closes original Alinea for a complete renovation; reopens as Alinea 2.0; opens Roister.
Alinea named Best Restaurant in North America by World's 50 Best.
Grant Achatz is an American chef and the chef-owner of Alinea in Chicago, a three-Michelin-star restaurant widely considered one of the most influential restaurants of the 21st century. He also co-owns Next, The Aviary, Roister and other restaurants under The Alinea Group with business partner Nick Kokonas.
Alinea has held three Michelin stars continuously since 2011, when the Michelin Guide first covered Chicago. It is one of only a handful of restaurants in the United States to hold this rating.
Yes. In 2007 Achatz was diagnosed with stage-four squamous-cell carcinoma of the tongue. The experimental chemotherapy and radiation treatment he received at the University of Chicago preserved his tongue but eliminated his sense of taste for roughly a year. During that time he continued to run Alinea using the palates of his sous chefs. His sense of taste eventually returned in full.
Alinea pioneered a multi-sensory tasting-menu format — edible helium balloons, tableside aromatic pillows, custom-designed serviceware, courses painted directly onto a silicone tablecloth — designed to surprise and provoke as much as to nourish. Achatz often describes the restaurant as closer to theatre or art than to traditional service.
Next is Achatz's second Chicago restaurant, opened in 2011 with chef Dave Beran. Its entire menu and concept changes every three to four months — past concepts have included Paris 1906 (a recreation of an Escoffier menu), Thailand, an elBulli tribute, Childhood, and Vegan. Reservations are sold as pre-paid digital tickets, a ticketing model Achatz and Kokonas invented and that is now widely used in fine dining.
Achatz graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1994, then spent four years at Thomas Keller's The French Laundry in California, rising to sous chef. He also staged at Ferran Adrià's elBulli in Spain in 2001 — an experience that profoundly shaped Alinea's progressive style.
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