Life, on the Line - Grant Achatz

By 2007 chef Grant Achatz had been named one of the best new chefs
in America by Food & Wine, he had received the James Beard Foundation
Rising Star Chef of the Year Award, and he and Nick Kokonas had opened
the conceptually radical restaurant Alinea, which was named Best
Restaurant in America by Gourmet magazine. Then, positioned firmly in
the world's culinary spotlight, Achatz was diagnosed with stage IV
squamous cell carcinoma-tongue cancer.

The prognosis grim, Grant undertook an alternative treatment of
aggressive chemotherapy and radiation that ravaged his body and left
him without a sense of taste. Tapping into his profound discipline and
passion, he trained his chefs to mimic his palate and learned how to
cook with his other senses. As Kokonas was able to attest, the food was
never better. Five months later, Grant was declared cancer-free and
went on to achieve some of the highest honors in the culinary world.
Life, on the Line is not only a chef's memoir, it is also a book
about survival, about nurturing creativity, and about profound
friendship.