Chef Julia Sullivan Struggled to Breathe For 8 Years Due to Nasal Polyps: ‘Feels Like An Elephant On My Chest' (Exclusive)

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10-07-2025

Julia Sullivan was strolling through the garden of her Nashville home in August 2021 when she suddenly caught the strong scent of fresh basil in the breeze.
'I was astounded by how much I could smell it,' she says. 'It was like being able to see in color for the first time in years.'
Incredibly, it had been nearly a decade since the award-winning chef and successful Nashville restaurant owner had been able to taste or smell much of anything. For the past eight years she'd been struggling to breathe daily until finally, in September 2020, she was diagnosed with severe nasal polyps—soft,­ teardrop-shaped clusters of tissue that grow in the nose and sinuses, causing congestion, headaches, a loss of taste or smell and difficulty breathing.
'Not being able to breathe normally makes your whole day feel like a struggle,' says Sullivan, 42, who's one of 13 million people in the U.S. who suffer from the incurable condition. 'It feels like there's an elephant sitting on your chest. Your nose is closed up, and it makes you feel like you're underwater. I was pretty miserable.'
Sullivan tried multiple nasal rinses, inhalers, ibuprofen and ­ antibiotics — before a CAT scan finally revealed her polyps. Her doctors initially suggested surgery, but she worried the procedure might permanently affect her career. 'I'm a chef, and I'm not sure I want something scraped out of the inside of my nose,' she says.
Fortunately, the James Beard Foundation finalist was able to find ongoing relief through­ medication — and with her health problems behind her, she's been thriving ever since.
'Now that I'm a few years out from it, I kind of forget how bad it was,' Sullivan says from the dining room of her oyster bar and restaurant Henrietta Red in Nashville. 'I remember going out for meals, spending all this money on food and wine — constantly blowing my nose at the table — and not being able to enjoy any of it. Now everything tastes better.'
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Sullivan was born and raised in Nashville, where she was the younger of two kids to Jimmy Sullivan, 78, an endocrinologist, and Stephanie Potts, 73, a nurse.
'It was such a great place to grow up. I always loved living on such a big rural piece of property. We had two donkeys, and I just loved to be outside, where we had a tree house,' says Sullivan, who grew up in a blended family with four siblings after her parents divorced in 1988 and both remarried.
An avid track and cross-country runner throughout her teen years, she remembers struggling with periodic allergic reactions and wheezing as a kid — at times while she was on the track. 'As I got older, it kind of resolved itself. I've always carried an inhaler, but in my 20s I never really needed to use it.'
After her junior year in high school she spent six weeks in France as part of an immersion program, where her host-mother introduced her to the culinary culture of Burgundy — igniting a passion for food and cooking.
'It was intoxicating. I really got into it,' says Sullivan. Her interest intensified during her undergrad years at Tulane University in New Orleans — where she was captivated by the city's rich culinary heritage and historic restaurant scene. 'It got me interested in the restaurant business,' says Sullivan, who worked doing food prep at a local restaurant during her junior year.
She graduated in 2005 with a degree in finance and management and soon landed a job as a line cook at the Wild Iris restaurant in Brentwood, Tenn., under a female chef who prioritized seasonal cooking. 'It was my first real chef-driven restaurant experience.'
In the fall of that same year, Sullivan enrolled at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. — which led to jobs at two­ Michelin-starred restaurants in and around New York City — Per Se and Blue Hill at Stone Barns — and, later, private-chef positions in Manhattan and the Hamptons. 'It was an incredible experience,' says Sullivan, who moved back to Nashville in late 2013 with dreams of opening up a restaurant. 'I always saw myself coming back and having a small business in some way, shape or form.'
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Unfortunately, her return to the greener surroundings of Nashville also triggered a resurgence of her breathing problems. She initially took a job as a sous-chef in a new restaurant, where the long hours and stressful kitchen atmosphere wreaked havoc on her sinuses. 'My head would just close up, and my nose constantly ran, and I had a lot of coughing,' recalls Sullivan. 'I was always dealing with something.'
In the years that followed, she endured a relentless roller-coaster ride of symptoms. 'I was always in this persistent cycle of wheezing, issues with asthma and allergic reactions of varying degrees of severity. You don't want to be blowing your nose in a restaurant,' she adds. 'I would have to lie down and then have pretty serious fatigue for 24 hours.'
Her doctors prescribed regimens of ­steroids — which offered temporary relief at best. 'Everything worked somewhat but not fully,' she says.
Meeting the demands of her burgeoning career while feeling constantly exhausted added to her challenges. 'When I was a sous-chef, I would often just try to work through it,' says Sullivan, who more often than not was fighting to breathe while standing on her feet all day. 'I remember having to go home several times and not really understanding what was going on.'
By the time she opened Henrietta Red in 2017, she'd lost most of her senses of both taste and smell. 'I could probably taste salt, acid and spice more than anything, but I really did struggle in that regard,' recalls Sullivan, who was forced to rely on her sensory memories. 'Luckily, I had other chefs who could taste and help season things so I could work normally. But it took a lot of the fun out of cooking for a long time. It really burned me out.'
In the meantime, Sullivan's doctor had encouraged her to keep exercising and to maintain her lifelong active lifestyle despite her breathing problems.
'I've always done marathons and triathlons and bike races; the health stuff was just kind of happening alongside of that,' says Sullivan, whose last half Ironman competition (which includes a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1-mile run) was in 2019. 'Swimming underwater was one of the only things that would release the pressure in my sinuses,' she adds.
Finally, in September 2020, her pulmonologist recommended a CAT scan — which confirmed her nasal polyps. 'My sinuses were completely blocked off,' she says. 'At that point no one had told me [that was a possible cause] even though I'd been struggling for years.'
After ruling out surgery, a common treatment for nasal polyps, her doctor prescribed a bimonthly injection — and within two months she was breathing more freely. 'I haven't had any problems since,' she says. 'I can breathe normally.'
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Now, nearly four years later, Sullivan still marvels at how far she's come.
'Walking around not being able to breathe is exhausting. Before, I could be in bed for days,' she says. 'Now I've almost forgotten all that happened.'
Last fall she opened a second restaurant, called Judith, in Sewanee, Tenn., in the southern Appalachian Mountains about 90 miles outside Nashville.
'I just love being able to take advantage of the peace and quiet and natural beauty out there,' says Sullivan, who enjoys gardening, tennis, hiking with her two mixed huskies, June and Mack — and hosting dinner parties for friends when she has the time.
'I went through a time when I was really miserable — and I'm so grateful not to be stuck in that place anymore. 'I love cooking,' she adds, 'and seeing ingredients being turned into something that everyone can enjoy. Ultimately it's about bringing people together — it's the enjoyment of it all that keeps me in it.'
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