Chef Jack takes fight to leukemia again
Chef Jack Witherspoon preparing for the launch of his book Twist It Up. Photo by Cheri Giblin
In early June, John and Lisa Witherspoon were struggling mightily to absorb the awful news that their son, Jack, had for the third time in his 11 year-old life been diagnosed with leukemia. And then they got a little help.
It came, as it so often had before, from Jack himself. Seeing how distraught his parents were after they received the shocking news from his doctor, he reassured them that this time he’d kick leukemia for good.
“The third time is the charm,” Jack told his parents.
“John and I just kind of looked at each other,” Lisa said. “Jack is so grown-up.”
Jack was first diagnosed at age 2. He beat back the disease after a three year fight and then suffered a relapse in 2006 at age 6. It was during the long stints in Miller Children’s Hospital in Long Beach that followed Jack’s relapse that he started tuning into the Food Network and developing a keen interest in cooking. In between his treatments, back at the family’s South Redondo home, Jack started helping his father on the BBQ and his mother in the kitchen. It turned out he had a surprisingly sophisticated palate, and soon he was spicing up his mother’s recipes and helping put into practice recipes he saw on the Food Network. The two of them became culinary adventurers, going to lunch at local restaurants, where Jack paid careful attention to what went into each dish.
By the age 7, he was a full-fledged foodie. Lisa’s former boss, Paul Hennessey, caught wind of both Jack’s battle with cancer and his passion for food and helped put together a “Cooking Up Dreams” gala at H.T. Grill to raise money for leukemia research at the Children’s Hospital. Jack designed the menu and served as executive chef.
A year later, the legend of little Chef Jack had grown. A second Cooking Up Dreams event attracted widespread media attention, and landed Jack on the Jay Leno show – where he sternly, if comically, instructed Leno to eat his peas – and on the Bonnie Hunt Show.
Most importantly, after battling leukemia 28 months, he had triumphed. By the beginning of 2009, he was declared in full remission. The leukemia was gone.
Jack resumed childhood. He’d missed first grade and half of second grade. But by this year, he’d fully caught up, earning all A’s and B’s in fifth grade. He wrote a stellar research paper on the great chef Julia Child and excelled in his standardized testing. He played baseball, earned his black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and, with his mother’s help, succeeded in the ultimate extracurricular project – Jack and Lisa co-wrote a cookbook called Twist It Up. The book will be published this fall by Chronicle Books.
Jack's book, Twist It Up, will be released this fall nationwide and already available online for preorder.
Twist It Up, which will be available in stores and online nationwide, provides 60 of Jack’s favorite mom and kid-friendly “comfort food” recipes while telling his story.
“It has breakfast to dessert and everything in between,” Jack said in an interview this week. “There’s a good frittata for breakfast. We have a lot of things for dinner – school night dinners, and weekend lunches and dinners. All that stuff – a little bit of everything.”
The part that didn’t go according to plan is that Jack was talking about his book from his hospital bed. The book is expected to garner a lot of national attention, and Jack had been looking forward to getting his cooking skills in tip-top shape this summer as he prepared for a book-signing tour and demonstrations. None other than Bobby Flay, one of Jack’s culinary heroes, endorsed the book with a back-cover blurb.
“There’s a lot to find admirable about Jack Witherspoon,” Flay wrote. “Not only is he a fellow fan of breakfast…but he possesses a love of food matched only by his incredible fighting spirit. I feel lucky to have played a part, small though it may be, in the culinary journey of this incredible young man.”
Jack has spent the last month at Miller Children’s Hospital undergoing chemotherapy in order to get his leukemia back in remission. In mid-August, he will undergo his most aggressive treatment yet – a bone marrow transplant. But typical of his approach to everything – life and cooking – Jack has even found a way to take this challenge and “twist it up” a bit. As he told his mother one day in the hospital, “Mom, this is only going to make my story bigger.”
It hasn’t dampened any of his passions, either. Jack has already raised more than $100,000 for pediatric leukemia research through his various events and appearances – he’s been the mop-haired little blond kid racing around various kitchens in the area as a guest chef for the last two years – and has established a permanent endowment at the Children’s Hospital.
Jack Witherspoon reading his new Julia Childs book at Miller’s Children’s Hospital. Photo by Lisa Witherspoon
On July 27, Jack will help raise more money towards research with a daylong event at Tapas & Vino restaurant in Redondo’s RivieraVillage. From 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., 15 percent of food and beverage sales will be donated to Jack’s endowment. And at some point in the early evening, Jack himself will make an appearance – he will be home from the hospital for a few weeks and doubtlessly looking forward very much to a good meal.
Of course, Jack has managed to find good food even in the hospital. As he noted in his short interview, his mother recently brought him a meal from Chez Melange that included a pulled pork sandwich and truffle potatoes. Various friends and neighbors have routinely brought him meals from all his favorite RivieraVillagerestaurants. And after being horrified by hospital food at first, even the cooks at Miller Children’s Hospital have come around to his way of cooking.
“I had the hospital chefs Will and Baltazar come and visit me today,” Jack wrote one day on his blog, which can be found at www.chefjackwitherspoon.com. “They made me filet mignon with béarnaise sauce, mashed potatoes and a delicious medley of asparagus and mushrooms. I couldn’t believe this was hospital food… it was amazing!”
Jack’s blog has found interested readers far and wide, it turns out. Susy Davidson, the executive director for the Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts, came across the blog and discovered that Jack was studying Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” She promptly sent Jack several more of Child’s books and pre-ordered his own. Likewise, the author Alex Prud’homme, Child’s great-nephew, sent a copy of the book he co-authored with his great-aunt, “My Life in France,” and a note saying he was “mightily impressed with Jack’s dedication to food. “Julia would approve,” Prud’homme wrote.
“It was such a wonderful little sparkle, all this stuff happening,” Lisa Witherspoon said.
Jack has also used his blog to reflect on what his third bout with leukemia has taught him.
“You know getting leukemia for a third time has been really enlightening for me,” he wrote. “It’s kind of like seeing how people would react if I died or something… I see how much people care and love me….I didn’t really know it before…. I wish I didn’t have to get leukemia to find it out.”
“Mom made me oatmeal this morning, it wasn’t as good as when we make it at home but it reminded me of being in my kitchen again,” he wrote in another entry. “I miss playing with my brother and seeing my friends. I didn’t know how good I had it. I will never take a healthy day for granted again. When I had leukemia the two times before I was younger, this time I know exactly what’s going on and I will remember everything. I hope I will be able to help other kids more now with my book and my fundraising. I think God made this happen to me to remind me why I am doing all this.”
Lisa Witherspoon said that Jack never once has expressed anger or despair. In fact, when she struggles, she turns to her son for encouragement.
“He is so optimistic,” she said. “He is always happy and so whenever I have my doubts I just talk to him and ask him, ‘Jack, is everything going to be okay?’ And he’s like, ‘Oh, Mom, yeah – I’m going to be fine.’ He has no hesitation….He’s just so grown up. I don’t know – he doesn’t have any fear, either. He is just so good-natured. I guess he’s an old soul.”
The Witherspoons are also amazed at the outpouring of support. Local restaurants have given hundreds of dollars of certificates, his classmates and teachers at Riviera Elementary have visited and offered their love and support, and his neighbors have provided a steady stream of good meals and offered to continue to do so while he recovers at home this fall.
“People are so inspired by him,” Lisa said. “You know, that is what makes this whole thing have a purpose, I think. Otherwise I don’t understand why it is happening, but people are really supportive and inspired by him. We as a family are so blessed to live here, and the community has rallied around Jack. Our friends and all the families here have pitched in a bought Jack an iPad and an Xbox for all the time he’ll have to stay at home…We live in such a loving, compassionate community, and we are so thankful for that.”
For more information, see www.chefjackwitherspoon.com or come to Tapas & Vino (1729 S. Catalina, Redondo) between 11 a.m. and 10 p.m. July 27 for Chef Jack’s Fundraiser. ER