Max Hardy, who helped create a new level of chef-led yet accessible cuisine in his hometown of Detroit and was widely considered one of the most promising of a young generation of black culinary stars, died Monday. He was 40.
His publicist, David E. Rudolph, announced the death but did not name the cause or location. He said Mr Hardy had been in good health until the weekend.
Although he was born in Detroit, Mr. Hardy and his family moved to South Florida at a young age. As a budding chef, he tapped into the region’s Latin American influences as well as his mother’s Bahamian heritage, mastering dishes such as jerk pork ribs, fried plantains, and ackee and saltfish, Jamaica’s national dish. He combined these influences with a deep love of South Carolina Lowcountry cuisine such as shrimp and grits, fried fish and Hoppin’ John.
After more than a decade as basketball star Amar’e Stoudemire’s personal chef and then working in New York kitchens, he returned to Detroit in 2017 to open a series of high-profile restaurants, including River Bistro, Coop Caribbean Fusion and Jed’s Detroit, a pizza and -Wings store.
He worked continuously and with the energy of an entrepreneur. He had his own collections of cooking clothes and dry spices. He partnered with Kellogg’s to bring plant-based products from the company’s Morningstar Farms brand to restaurants like his. And he appeared regularly on Food Network shows like “Chopped” and “BBQ Brawl.”
Until recently, Detroit was a foodie desert with few options beyond fast food and chains. But in the 2010s, a wave of young chefs like Mr. Hardy began changing the city’s image.
“He had sort of a reputation as a personal chef for a very prominent NBA player, but I found that he came back to the city with very little ego,” said Kiki Bokungu Louya, chef and executive director of the nonprofit Detroit Food Academy. “He was really willing to learn who was already doing the work on site.”
He founded his own nonprofit organization, One Chef Can 86 Hunger, which raises awareness of food insecurity and healthy eating, especially among young people. During the 2019 government shutdown, he offered free lunches to furloughed federal employees; During the pandemic, he opened pop-up food kitchens to feed vulnerable Detroit residents.
“If I can go into a kitchen and prepare meals for 500 or 1,000 people, that empowers me and takes me out of the restaurant routine,” he told The Detroit Free Press in 2021. “It’s actually peace for me.” Cooking for a few hundred people and giving something back. And it feeds the soul. It feels really good to do it.”
In 2017, The New York Times named Mr. Hardy one of the “16 Black Chefs Changing Food in America” (Ms. Louya was one of the others), not only for his skills in the kitchen but also for his willingness to do so Pushing boundaries What makes a successful gourmet chef.
“Growing up in Detroit, I didn’t see chefs and restaurants being so over-the-top,” he told the Times. “It was Motor City, not Food City. Now I can invent a dinner using the recipes of Hercules, a slave who was George Washington’s personal chef, and I can open my own restaurant, and I can teach children in the community. There are so many more ways to strive for greatness as a chef.”
Maxcel Hardy III was born in Detroit on December 5, 1983 and moved to Tampa, Florida as a child. His first love was basketball, but an injury in high school ended his dream of a serious career.
His high school had recently opened a culinary arts program, and he soon found himself under the direction of the principal. After school, he worked at Ruby Tuesday and won a scholarship in his senior year to continue his education at Johnson & Wales University in North Miami.
At 21, he was the executive chef at a country club in the Miami area and within a few years he started his own luxury catering company. From 2009 to 2014, he was the full-time personal chef for Mr. Stoudemire, who played primarily for the Knicks during those years. The two released a cookbook called “Cooking With Amar’e” in 2014.
Survivors include his mother and two daughters.
Mr. Hardy’s first Detroit restaurant, River Bistro, closed after a few years, but by then he had opened two more. When he died he was working on a third work, specializing in fish.
“My goal is to always open restaurants downtown to keep the community busy while providing great food,” Mr. Hardy told the website Eater Detroit in 2022. “I think it might be easier to open in a larger suburban area.”, it’s typical and would only serve myself.
“Food is at the heart of everything,” he continued, “and I want to create restaurants that help support communities in need. I’m also trying to show that you can open successful restaurants in your hometown.”
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2024-03-09 14:06:32
www.nytimes.com
