Max Hardy, 40, deceased; Helped bring chef-driven cuisine to Detroit

Max Hardy, who helped bring a new level of chef-driven yet accessible cuisine to his native 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 provide a cause or location. He said Mr Hardy was in good health as recently as this weekend.

Although born in Detroit, Mr. Hardy moved to South Florida with his family at a young age. As an aspiring chef, he drew from the region’s Latin American influences, as well as his mother’s Bahamian heritage, and mastered dishes such as roasted pork ribs, fried plantains, and ackee and saltfish, Jamaica’s national dish. He married those influences with a deep love of South Carolina Lowcountry cuisine, such as shrimp and grits, fried fish and hop John.

After more than a decade as a private chef for basketball star Amar’e Stoudemire, followed by a few years working in the kitchens of New York City, he returned to Detroit in 2017 to open a string of high-profile restaurants, including River Bistro , Coop Caribbean fusion and Jed’s Detroit, a pizza-and-wings shop.

He worked continuously and with the energy of an entrepreneur. He had his own lines of chef’s clothing 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 regularly appeared on Food Network shows like “Chopped” and “BBQ Brawl.”

Until recently, Detroit was a gastronomic desert, with few options other than fast food and chains. But in the 2010s, a wave of young chefs like Mr. Hardy to change the city’s image.

“He had something of a reputation as a personal chef for a very prominent NBA player, but I noticed he returned to town with very little ego,” he said. Kiki Bokungu Louya, a chef and executive director of the nonprofit Detroit Food Academy. “He was very willing to find out who was already doing the work on site.”

He founded his own non-profit organization, One chef can satisfy hunger, which raises awareness about food insecurity and healthy eating, especially among young people. During the 2019 government shutdown, he offered free lunches to laid-off federal workers; During the pandemic, he opened pop-up food kitchens to feed Detroit’s at-risk residents.

“When I can go into a kitchen and prepare meals for 500 or 1,000 people, it energizes me and takes me away from the daily grind of restaurants,” he told The Detroit Free Press in 2021. “It’s actually peace for me. to cook for a few hundred people and give something back. And it nourishes the soul. It feels really good to do this.”

In 2017, The New York Times named Mr. Hardy one of the “16 Black Chefs Changing Food in America” (Ms. Louya was among the others), not only for his skill in the kitchen but also for his willingness to push the boundaries of to renovate his kitchen. what defines a successful fine dining chef.

“Growing up in Detroit, you didn’t see chefs and restaurants as elevated,” he told The Times. “It was Motor City, not Food City. Now I can create a dinner based on the recipes of Hercules, a slave who was George Washington’s personal chef, and I can have my 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 on December 5, 1983 in Detroit and moved to Tampa, Florida as a child. His first love was basketball, but an injury in high school ended his dreams of a serious career.

His high school had recently opened a culinary arts program, and he soon found himself under the mentorship of the principal. He worked at Ruby Tuesday after school and won a scholarship his senior year to continue his education at Johnson & Wales University in North Miami.

By age 21, he was a chef at a country club in the Miami area, and within a few years he had his own luxury catering company. From 2009 to 2014, he was Mr.’s full-time personal chef. Stoudemire, who played mainly for the Knicks in those years. The two published a cookbook in 2014, ‘Cooking With Amar’e’.

Survivors include his mother and two daughters.

Mr. Hardy’s first restaurant in Detroit, River Bistro, closed after a few years, but by then he had opened two more. He was working on a third one, specializing in fish, when he died.

“My goal is to always open restaurants downtown to help serve the community while providing great food,” Mr. Hardy told the website Eater Detroit in 2022. “I feel that while it may be easier to open in a larger suburban area, it is typical and would only serve myself.

“Food is at the center of everything,” he continued, “and I want to create restaurants that help support communities in need. I also try to show that you can open successful restaurants in your hometown.”