Terrible ironies

Way back before Nigella Lawson became NIGELLA, I interviewed her for a USA Today article. She had written a popular U.K. cookbook called "How to Eat" and it was being published in the United States. No one here in America had really heard of her yet and when she told me her next book was called "How to be a Domestic Goddess" I began laughing. She was so glad I got the joke - it wasn't going over so well in the U.K. - and we hit it off.
Nigella was as lovely in manner as she is in appearance even though she was going through a difficult period of her life. Her then-husband, John Diamond, a popular London newspaper columnist, had throat and mouth cancer and his situation was dire. It was the height of terrible ironies that the husband of one of Britian's up and coming cooks couldn't eat or enjoy his wife's food. I liked Nigella so much that, after our interview, I began reading John Diamond's on line diary about his daily struggles and his eventual death.
How difficult would it be to lose your sense of taste and be unable to enjoy the pleasures of food?
Too horrible to imagine.
I thought about Nigella and John Diamond after reading a story in The Wall Street Journal about Chicago chef Grant Achatz's battle with tongue cancer. Achatz is one of the owners of Alinea, which Gourmet magazine has called one of the best restaurants in the country. The foodies I know who respect and admire Achatz are pulling for his recovery.