Chef's Choice

OA helped Chef BEN BEBENROTH find the recipe for a balanced life.

- Michele Cohen Marill

Eight days before he is due for a total knee replacement, Ben Bebenroth is nailing shingles onto a wooden walkway to his barn in the pouring rain. Mid-winter warming has turned the snow into muck, and a bride is on her way to check out the event space at his Spice Acres Farm. The centerpiece of his commitment to locally sourced food, the farm is an outgrowth of his popular Cleveland, Ohio, restaurant, Spice Kitchen & Bar.

Becoming a top chef and local food advocate posed a brutal challenge for Ben – but not in the way you might expect. He thrived on the intensity in the kitchen, where he created dishes that one reviewer called “food magic.” And a year after it opened in 2012, Cleveland magazine named Spice Kitchen the city’s best new restaurant. But throughout frenetic days and nights as a restaurateur and caterer, Ben was coping with constant pain from osteoarthritis (OA) in his left knee.

At the end of his typical 16-hour day, he could barely walk. And after Saturday – an intense shift wrapping up a 60to 80-hour week on his feet – the aching turned into burning and stabbing, which made him “grumpy” on Sunday –

family day. “Sometimes I think my kids get the worst day of my week,” he says. “I limp everywhere by Friday, and by Saturday I’m dragging a limb.”

Pushing the Limits