THE PEARL IN THE OYSTER

Chef Jonathan Olson’s tale of adversity, perseverance and transformation
 

Life can be hard more often than it’s easy. It can be hard in tedious, everyday ways—the co-worker who has it in for you, the credit card you can never quite pay off, the spouse who snores in your ear—or in cosmic, unexpected ways, like finding out at age 33 that you have a rare and potentially fatal cancer. What makes people admirable is their response to challenges like these, so I was curious to interview Chef Jonathan Olson of The Keep about his battle with the disease.

At 38, Chef Olson is tall (six feet four inches) and slim and as blue-eyed and light-haired as you might expect of a man with a Swedish surname. Raised in Gahanna on food his mom cooked from scratch, he graduated from Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Culinary Institute in 2002.

For the next 10 years, Olson cooked in the hotel kitchens of the Ritz-Carlton empire in Cleveland, Philadelphia, Boston and New Orleans, winning awards and rising in the ranks, then moving to the new Sheraton on Capitol Square as executive chef in 2011.

In 2013, he went west to learn more about “really fresh food” at the Calistoga Ranch Auberge Resort in Napa Valley. “I had never smoked, didn’t drink much, ate well.”

Despite his apparent good health, less than a year later he was on a jet back to Columbus, doubled up in his seat, “in terrible pain” after an earlier emergency room visit and hospital stay for stomach pain. The diagnosis was Burkitt lymphoma, and Chef Olson was headed back home for treatment.

He checked into The James in March 2014, shuttling home to his mom and stepdad between hospitalizations.

Burkitt lymphoma is a fast-growing cancer of the lymphatic system, fatal if untreated, which demands aggressive chemotherapy. Despite the rigors of this treatment, Olson counts himself as “incredibly fortunate,” because his doctor, Dr. Kristy Blum, was “one of the top specialists in the disease.”

Four months in, he had experienced multiple side effects and allergic reactions to the drugs. Worse, the chemo was damaging his heart and kidney function, accompanied by memory loss so severe that he could not remember the name of his 3-year-old son.

He moved to the Ross Heart Hospital and consulted “every kind of specialist and neurologist.” Ultimately he was treated with a massive infusion of his own stem cells in July 2014 and declared cancer free in June 2016.

On the starter menu at The Keep, Chef Olson’s lump crab cake, served with a tomatillo-avocado sauce seasoned with cilantro, mint and charred jalapeño, with chow chow relish and fried hominy

ONE STEP AT A TIME

After 18 months in “survival mode,” the focus turned to recovery, which Olson calls “almost harder” than treatment.

He weighed only 140 pounds, down from 180. He couldn’t pick up his feet enough to walk on carpet or grass. Given the long hours and physical demands of the kitchen, he wondered whether he would ever be able to work again in the profession he loved.

“I’m a generally positive person,” he says. “But it was hard.” Therapy helped, both the mental and physical varieties. “There’s no shame in going to a therapist, needing to talk, to get a different perspective. I think you should seek help when you need it.”

He also attended the cancer survivor support group Livestrong. Today Chef Olson is “perfectly healthy,” with only a slight numbness in his toes and a somewhat lower white blood cell count as souvenirs of his ordeal.

Although initially concerned about the year-and-a-half hole in his otherwise strong resume, he was able to return gradually to the culinary world, becoming executive chef for The Keep restaurant when it opened in August 2017.

Today Chef Olson is clearly back. He rides in Pelotonia, an annual cycling event that raises funds for cancer research at The Ohio State University. He is part of the James Care for Life program for cancer overcomers. In August, he and The Keep will host a first-ever event for the group that includes a cooking demo. “I’m in such a fortunate position now. I’d like to be able to share my story and inspire others.”

THE PEARL IN THE OYSTER

Chef Olson marvels at what life has given him since cancer: his fiancée, Ashley; his return to health and profession; his baby son, conceived after doctors told him his cancer treatment would leave him infertile.

Being able to again be a father to his sons, Anders and Julian, Chef Olson says, is “reason enough to make me feel that life has its own path laid out, and no matter how hard it may be at times, there are equally and exceedingly wonderful moments ahead.”

Sample Chef Jonathan Olson’s culinary skills at The Keep, 50 W. Broad St. in Columbus, on the second floor of Hotel LeVeque. Reservations at thekeepcolumbus.com.