his name is chef hans rufort. whole thing changed everything about him, including how he eats. >> reporter: hans is a chef without a stomach or much of an esophagus. >> i've had 11 surgeries in last six years. >> reporter: you was diagnosed with gastric cancer just weeks after appearing in the 2005 season of "the next food network star." >> there was a tumor sitting right at junction of the stomach and esophagus. >> reporter: his treatment was painful. he had half his stomach and most of his esophagus removed immediately after his diagnosis. then more options, chemo, radiation. that's when the headaches began. >> they saw 10 to 12 lesions and i was told, this is it. you're on your way out. >> reporter: it wasn't cancer, but it was a serious brain infection caused by his newly constructed digestive system. >> i ended up springing a leak at that junction where the esophagus and stomach were connected and that leak actually almost killed me. >> reporter: antibiotics got rid of the infection. but a year later, a secon