Celebrity chef Johann Lafer (68) recently revealed publicly that his lymph node cancer is incurable. In a new podcast, the Austrian chef talks, among other things, about not having excessive fear of death.
"Through saying goodbye to my mother-in-law on her deathbed, I lost this greater fear of death", Lafer explains in conversation with "Bild" newspaper in their podcast "MayWay". We are "guests on Earth. It is finite. There will be nothing that will free us from that." Lafer hopes "that I may remain a guest for as long as possible".
Johann Lafer wants to "live, work, love, continue to have ideas"
Because of the illness, Lafer "no longer takes anything for granted and knows how to appreciate my wife and my children and the life we're allowed to lead even more", he continues. Because nothing in life is a given, neither health and success nor family or food. "I want to live, work, love, continue to have ideas", he says.
Recently, Lafer had spoken in the podcast "Rolling Pin Talks" about the consequences of his therapy and explained that his physical condition is not the most difficult thing for him. The worst thing is: "I have no sense of taste and can't eat anything and have open sores on my fingers." That is "terribly hard. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, whether they're a chef or not."
Shortly before, the TV chef had told the "Münchner Merkur" that his cancer had exploded like an atomic bomb. "I have metastases throughout my entire body, everything is black", he explained. The disease is incurable, but the cancer can be "contained".
Lafer couldn't always be there
The family travels together once a year and even now a trip to Crete is being planned. His wife Silvia and his two children are "the meaning behind everything" for Lafer, even though he couldn't always be there the way he would have liked, he says now in the new podcast. "I regret to this day that I couldn't be there for the birth of our son because Chancellor Schröder was sitting in the restaurant for breakfast", he recalls. Today he still has a guilty conscience about it and would act differently nowadays, because that was "complete nonsense".
He has often been greatly preoccupied by the fact that he also missed other things like school festivals. "That the children would say: Dad, you never had time for us" is his greatest fear. But fortunately that's not the case. "The four of us are very close as a family", he continues. However, when Lafer was there, he was there completely. "If not the quantity of time, then the intensity of time", he recalls.
There have been defeats in his life again and again. But Lafer has always gotten back up. "Also because I always knew: My wife and children really love me", he is certain. What should remain of him once he's no longer here? "Maybe someday a few people will say: When I think of Lafer, I think of his Wiener Schnitzel. Or his Kaiserschmarrn. That would make me happy."
