When a Chef Can't Taste His Food

In the fall of 2007 I lost all sense of taste perception due to radiation therapy I was undergoing for stage four tongue cancer. I was told from the beginning by everyone on the medical team that they were going to take me low, almost kill me, while trying to rid the cancer. This included weeks of intensive targeted radiation treatment on my tongue, jaw, and neck that would burn the inside of my mouth and throat like a scorching sunburn. The skin covering my tongue and throat peeled off like sheets of wrapping paper, taking with it my taste buds. Of all of the side effects of treatment, this is what I feared the most. If I could not taste, could I really be a chef?

Read the rest of my article on The Atlantic