Bryan Plummer

Won the Chef’s Jacket signed by Chef Grant Achatz
by cracking the code to get into SPACE BAR

Bryan (left) and his husband Tyler.

How did you hear about the game?

I received an email from Alinea that explained the upcoming series of puzzles in honor of their 15th anniversary. I was quickly able to decipher the clues within that email and thought this would be a positive change to the monotony of life during the pandemic. I mentioned this game to my friend group the day before I won and was hoping someone I knew would win something. When I saw the email notifying me that I won this prize I was confident one of my friends was playing a trick on me.

Walk me through your experience with solving the SPACE BAR puzzle.

This one took me about an hour to complete and I stared at my screen for forty minutes before something clicked. The space bar clue made me think about utilizing the keyboard to find the letters of the password. Once I saw what letter was created from tracing the first letter of each word in each bullet point (XZQW) it all clicked and I was able to finish up the rest of them pretty quickly. I initially interpreted 8-spice kosher lentils as 8SKL and struggled to correspond that tracing to a letter. Once I realized the hyphen eliminated the use of S I was able to quickly complete the password.

What will you do with the jacket?

I want to be completely extra and wear it every time I am cooking, but the rare opportunity to have a one of a kind piece from Chef Grant Achatz makes me not want to ruin it. Can I solve another puzzle to get one from Alinea that's not signed for me to use without fear of ruining it?! If I end up getting an extra one I will definitely wear it every time I cook. One of my really good friends was the Gold Blogger for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and he received a full length gold jacket to wear during the events. I feel like I finally have a jacket that is of equal importance.

How do you spend your days?

I was an emergency department registered nurse in Chicago before we became expats in Japan but visa complications prevent me from working here. I became a full time graduate student to pass the time and just finished my Master of Science in Nursing last week. The timing of these puzzles has filled the time void that finishing school created. I would greatly appreciate it if these puzzles continued until at least Christmas. Living abroad has allowed me to make sure that my communications with friends and family are more meaningful due to the time zone challenges. We have a small window of time each day to talk during normal waking hours and it's one of my favorite parts of my morning routine over coffee. We're also very active with CrossFit and have truly enjoyed experiencing the vast culinary offerings that Japan has. We recently went to Narisawa and the experience reminded us of our time at Alinea (one of the plates was an actual dead sea snake).

How are you keeping healthy and sane during *waves hands around* all this?

My husband and I have always cooked the majority of our meals at home and we've used this opportunity to cook a variety of things we've not yet tried before. Being in Japan during this pandemic has been a blessing in disguise since life still feels somewhat normal over here compared to what we're reading about and hearing from family and friends in the US. We don't have a large network of friends here and have always utilized FaceTime and phone calls to stay connected with everyone back at home in the US. I'm minimally embarrassed to admit that I've started playing video games at the age of 35. We purchased a Nintendo Switch when the pandemic started in case we got bored and we're thankful to have this escape. Animal Crossing has allowed us to forget about all the things going on in the world and it's fun to play Mario Kart in real-time with our friends around the globe.

What other kinds of puzzles or games do you play?

My six year old nephew got me addicted to Blokus last year and I really enjoy predicting future moves to beat everyone (including my six year old nephew).

Have you been to Alinea or any of our other restaurants?

We used to live a few blocks from Alinea in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood and were fortunate to experience Alinea, Next, The Aviary, and Roister while living in Chicago. I was scheduled to take my mother to Alinea for Mother's Day next week, but that experience was cancelled due to the pandemic. I'm looking forward to returning after things settle down.

Bryan is on Instagram @imaplummer