Chef Grant Achatz: Honoring Charlie Trotter, Celebrating Alinea at 20 & Finding Balance
The three Michelin-starred chef opens up about healing old wounds, Alinea's 20th anniversary plans, and learning to prioritize life beyond the kitchen
Alinea, a restaurant that helped change modern dining, will celebrate 20 years this May. Chef Grant Achatz and now-former business partner Nick Kokonas had a vision to open a restaurant in the heart of Chicago’s Lincoln Park to push the boundaries for something the city previously had not truly experienced.
Achatz, now 50, and Alinea have earned the highest accolades in the culinary world — three Michelin stars, James Beard Awards, and consistent placement among the world's best restaurants. Like many chefs of his caliber, Achatz has a drive to be the best, is highly competitive, and famously creative. It’s gotten him where he sits today, but not without some bumps.
In 1994, Achatz worked in the kitchen at Charlie Trotter’s, considered at the time to be one of America’s, if not the world’s, best restaurants. After some time, the young Achatz told Trotter he would be leaving. The veteran chef became angry and told Achatz he wouldn’t amount to anything if he departed. While we know how Achatz’s career unfolded, he didn’t hold a grudge against Trotter — even through Trotter never once dined at Alinea before dying from a stroke in 2013.
This continued admiration and respect toward Trotter found Achatz building an entire seasonal menu to honor him at his Fulton Market one Michelin-star restaurant Next, famous for changing the concept three times a year. To end the series, Achatz and his team worked with Trotter’s son, Dylan, to host the final weeks inside the long-shuttered Charlie Trotter’s restaurant, a mere 10-minute walk from Alinea.
For Achatz, this was a way of mending that division and healing a wound. It offered him closure. He took delight in working with Dylan Trotter. Most of all, it allowed him to honor Charlie Trotter in his own home, a place that introduced a level of fine dining in America people had never before seen. Case in point: A vegetarian tasting menu that shocked a city so used to eating hefty steaks. Case in point two: Putting a table in the kitchen where diners could see the action.
When chef Carrie Nahabedian (Naha, Brindille), who served as a culinary mentor to Trotter, dined at one of the final dinners at 816 W. Armitage, Achatz told me she said, “Charlie would've loved this,” before pausing and asking with a laugh, “Would Charlie have loved this?” Only Charlie himself could know, and maybe he was even there the whole time.
I sat down with Achatz recently at Next, a few days before he and his team would launch their new menu: Alinea Year 1. Even as that launched, he told me they were extending the Trotter menu at Charlie Trotter’s for another two weeks. During our hourlong casual conversation, we discussed his desire to honor Trotter, the future of the Alinea Group, what excites him to cook and stay creative, his health, and more. Read on.
