title: Overcoming Obstacles in Cooking
author: Matthew W. Miller
description: Matthew W. Miller has mild cerebral palsy. It took him longer to learn to cook. He currently works as a sales associate at Wal-Mart. Before that, he was a cashier. He has also worked as a special education teacher, teacher assistant, and substitute teacher. He is a graduate of Culpeper County High School and earned an Associate of Arts and Sciences degree in education from Germanna Community College. He has a BS degree in special education and an MA degree in human relations. During college, he volunteered his time as a peer academic adviser, a student grader, and gave presentations on transition planning in special education and test-taking strategies. Like his mom did, he likes to bake desserts.
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  **Life never tasted so good.**
  
  
  Miller Sykes’s meteoric rise to award-winning chef is the stuff of culinary
  dreams, but it’s all crashing down around him. He’s been given a diagnosis
  that could cost him something even more precious than his life: his sense of
  taste. Rather than risk the very thing that defines him, Miller embarks on a
  last tour of his favorite meals while he still can.
  
  
  But there’s a catch: he needs a financial backer to make it happen, and he
  doesn’t want anyone to know he’s sick.
  
  
  Dr. Clancy Rhodes has two weeks to come to terms with putting aside oncology
  to work at his father’s thriving plastic surgery practice. When the
  opportunity to travel with a Michelin-starred chef presents itself, the foodie
  in him can’t believe it. It doesn’t hurt that Miller’s rugged good looks are
  exactly Clancy’s cup of joe.
  
  
  As Clancy and Miller travel from coast to coast and indulge in everything from
  dive bars to the most decadent of culinary experiences, t