On Tuesday morning Steve Jobs will take the stage to deliver one of his singular infomercials. He’s expected to introduce a new iPod, but the only thing I care about is how healthy he looks. Sod the iPod, how’s Steve Jobs?
Jobs’ health has been the burning issue surrounding Apple this year. The company is firing on all cylinders (except the odd glitch like MobileMe) but the CEO’s health is an ongoing issue of extreme concern that will not go away. All eyes on Tuesday will be looking to see how healthy Jobs looks –and fingers crossed he’s OK.
After the jump: did Jobs treat his cancer at Greens veggie restaurant in SF?
Earlier this year, Fortune magazine revealed that after Steve Jobs discovered he had pancreatic cancer in October 2003, he tried to treat it by undergoing a special diet. But after nine months, when this failed to be a cure, he underwent surgery in July 2004. Four years later, he appears to be cancer free.
It now appears that Jobs’ special diet was conducted in part at Greens, a popular vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco, and he was often accompanied by Dr. Dean Ornish, the bestselling author of “Eat more, Weigh Less” and a clinical professor of medicine at University of California, San Francisco.
According to two staff who worked at Greens, and who asked to remain anonymous, Jobs regularly met Dr. Ornish at Greens about four years ago. Both staffers said they got the impression Jobs was trying to treat his cancer with meals eaten at Greens.
“Steve Jobs was always in there with his doctor,” said one.”He was treating his cancer.”
Amazing though this is — I’m a little skeptical. Neither staffer could have known at the time that Jobs had cancer: his condition was a closely-guarded secret. Both staffers must have learned about Jobs’ cancer from press reports, and then formed their conclusions.
In addition, both staffers said Jobs frequently ate at the restaurant, often with Dr. Ornish, but sometimes with his wife and sometimes as part of a larger party. Both stuck to their cancer treatment stories, however.
On one occasion Jobs told the server he wanted his meal prepared without pans.
“No pans,” he told the waiter. Puzzled, the waiter asked how the meal could possibly be prepared without pans?
Jobs said he didn’t know, but repeated that he wanted his meal cooked without pans. Nonplussed, the server simply put the order through to the kitchen without mentioning the “no pans” instructions. Luckily, when the meal was served, Jobs ate it without question, the staffer said.
“He was assertive, but not an asshole,” the staffer said.
Jobs ordered food from Greens’ standard menu, both staff said, and rarely had special requests, except for “no pans” of course. Neither staffer could remember him drinking.
Another San Francisco restaurateur, who works at a popular eatery in the East Bay, said he’s frequently served Jobs at his restaurant and catered parties and events.
Jobs is polite, courteous and tips well.
“He’s always a perfect gentleman,” the restaurateur said.
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
iPad and iPadOS
Mac and macOS
Apple Watch and watchOS
Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
13 responses to “Steve Jobs Treated His Cancer At Veggie Restaurant?”
the “no pans” is most surely about Steve trying to avoid the Teflon coating (polytetrafluoroethylene) on non-stick pans. that stuff has been shown to cause cancer. But, do not try and get info like that out to the masses or John Dupont and his hi-powered rifle will some after you!
Obviously they misunderstood. They thought Jobs said “no pan” when in actuality he said “no pot” – and he wasn’t referring to utensils.
Now I know certain people on cancer treatment believe pot works for them, and I’m sure that is true, but Steve Jobs doesn’t do it. Not anymore.
“Steve Jobs was always in there with his doctor,†said one. â€ÂÂHe was treating his cancer.â€ÂÂ
Heh. Nothing to do with the fact Steve doesn’t eat meat and may actually like this place. (Well, ‘liked’ might be more accurate now, clearly.)
Lookin’ forward to the announcement of the iPan Touch tomorrow.
Clearly Dr. Ornish was a failure in this case. He is wishy washy at best but he has enormous support from the medical profession. Steve’s diet was out of balance and nobody put it staight. Sad.
So have broccoli and olive oil
Dr. Ornish is controversial for trying to push flawed scientific studies as evidence
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