Grant Achatz (award-winning chef)
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How did Grant Achatz’s small-town Michigan upbringing shape his love of cooking and early skills?
Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert, Experts on Expert. I'm Dak Shepard. Who are you? Lily Padman. That's me. Today we have a legendary chef on, Grant Ackett. He is the restaurateur who owns Alinea and has won numerous accolades and is one of Wobby Wob's biggest quashes.
It's true. And Alinea, for people who don't know, is basically the United States' best restaurant.
It had been many years in a row. Yeah. It's an incredible place. And he's an incredible chef with an incredible story. Oh, man. Yeah. Yeah. What could be the worst thing that could happen to a chef? And that's what happened. Please enjoy Grant Ackett's.
He's an armchair expert.
I don't know if you know this. Are you so savvy that you know the gold in the Boston matches the trunks almost identical? Well, I mean, I thought. Did you clock that?
Yeah, of course.
Okay, God, you really know what you're doing. How much thought did you put into this? My outfit? Yeah.
I put none.
Yeah. Okay. Okay. Well, it's great. You've surrendered that to someone else? I'm in my swimsuit. Rob, do you know where the sprays are in my house? If I don't have a nicotine spray, I can't continue.
He can't function.
I understand. Have you ever been a nicotine addict? Never. Oh, my God. That seems hard to imagine. We're both Michiganders.
Yeah.
Almost the same age. Yeah. I think you're maybe eight months older than me. Is that right? Thank God, yeah.
You were in Milford.
Milford, Highland, Dearborn, Detroit.
Okay.
You're St. Clair.
Yeah.
Not St. Clair Shores. Not. Everybody gets that wrong. Yes. Big difference. Huge difference. Yes. You would think, Monica, right? St. Clair, St. Clair Shores. What could be the difference?
Yes. This is like Macon, Macon County that happened to you.
Georgia. Yeah.
Yeah, so walk me through St. Clair. I'm pretty sure it's similar to Milford conceptually.
Smaller.
3,000?
Yeah, probably now more than that. But back then, no fast food restaurant. That's how small we were. Every household town.
How many stoplights? Two. And did you go to, like, did they have St. Clair High School? Yeah, just one high school. How many kids were in there, do you know?
In my graduating class, probably not more than 100. Oh, really? It was really small.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
And you drove a fucking GTO in high school? Come on.
A 70? A 70, yeah. Tell me about that car. When I was 14, my father said, what kind of car do you want when you turn 16? And I just said a fast one. As you would. Yeah. And I love muscle cars. In my head, I was like, oh, he's going to buy me a muscle car, right? Right, right. It didn't turn out like that for the better. So he went out and found a GTO that was in boxes. It was off the frame. I mean, it was a mess, right?
Someone had started a restoration and bailed.
$1,400 is what we paid for it. Oh, no. And for two years, we took it all apart and built it all back up.
How did your dad have that kind of mechanical prowess?
I mean, I think a lot of it was just, again, that small town, Michigan, manliness. Yeah. A man had to know how to turn a wrench. Right. And then we bought the manual. Pontiac pushed out all of those little cars. They had manuals on literally how to put them together. Right, right, right. So here we are, like, reading through that and buying the tools. And I can't believe it ran, to be honest with you.
Honestly, me neither.
And were you the king of your high school with that sweet ride? Because in Michigan, if you drove a rad car, it really meant something. That was a symbol. Yes. I had a Mustang GT that I bought similarly for $1,800. And, yeah, I think that elevated me a few notches.
Yeah, I think so. I wasn't very cool.
No, I saw a picture of you. You've got your tight roll jeans. You've got a fucking gorgeous schlong, short, front, long, and back. So that, I should have kept that because that's in. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It would be down to your ankles by now.
It's called a schlong?
That's one of the names for it. Short and front, long and back. Yeah. Pick your poison with that. Exactly.
What kind of dude were you in high school? Super shy. Did not apply myself unless it was with my hands or some sort of art.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
How did Grant Achatz’s small-town Michigan upbringing shape his love of cooking and early skills?
0:00–5:03
2
What was Grant’s experience restoring a GTO with his father and how did it influence him?
5:03–27:05
3
How did training at Charlie Trotter and The French Laundry change Grant’s approach to food and kitchen culture?
27:05–55:18
4
How does smell and texture influence fine dining when a chef loses taste?
55:18–56:57
5
How do seasons and ingredient planning shape a restaurant's yearly menu?
56:57–59:48
6
What is the story behind 'drowning cells' and why is overhydration dangerous?
59:48–1:07:08
7
What do the hosts speculate about robots, automation and Tesla's Optimus in restaurants?
1:07:08–1:47:04