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Chef Maxcel Hardy, a Detroit restaurateur known for his community advocacy and hunger-fighting efforts, has died, publicist David Rudolph said Tuesday morning.
Hardy, 40, owned COOP Caribbean Fusion within the Detroit Shipping Company, Jed’s Detroit, a pizza and wings franchise on Seven Mile Road in Detroit, and the now-closed River Bistro in northwest Detroit.
Last month, Hardy was one of two dozen Black chefs who gathered for the Black Excellence Culinary Symphony 2024 at Table No. 2 in Greektown, a charity event supporting young culinary people.
In 2021, the New York Times named Hardy as one of 16 black chefs are changing food in AmericaHardy also co-authored the Marley Coffee Cookbook with Rohan Marley, son of reggae artist Bob Marley.
An advocate for Detroit, its culinary scene and its efforts to improve the community, Hardy also founded the One Chef Can 86 Hunger Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to combat hunger and raise awareness about food insecurity.
“We have lost one of Detroit’s most celebrated and promising Black chefs, who was recognized nationally as one of the best Black chefs changing food in America.” Rudolph said.
Further:Food fighter: Detroit-born chef Max Hardy never wavered in his commitment to feeding the hungry
Hardy was named a 2021 Food Fighter by the Detroit Free Press when the newspaper recognized chefs who used food to make a positive impact amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When I can go into a kitchen and prepare meals for 500 or 1,000 people, that energizes me and gets me out of the daily grind of the restaurant,” Hardy said at the time. “It’s actually a peace for me to cook for a couple hundred people and give back. And feeds the soul. It feels very good to do it.”
Further:River Bistro Chef Maxcel Hardy Celebrates Black History Month with Dinner Series
Horatio Williams, who runs the nonprofit Horatio Williams Foundation community center just east of downtown Detroit, described an intense period of time in which he witnessed Hardy’s culinary talent and love of Detroit during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Over a period of approximately three months starting in March 2020, we provided over 150,000 meals to people in the community,” said Williams, who was introduced to Hardy by former UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles. “I’ve never seen anyone work in the kitchen like Chef Max. He prepared meals in our kitchen and we took the food to different shelters and community organizations like NSO (Neighborhood Services Organization) and COTS (Coalition of Temporary Shelters).
“The more food donated to us from places like MGM and people in the community who found out about what we were doing, the more we did with it. And we fed all the firefighters of the Eastern Market. It was a true honor for Max to feed the firefighters.”
In Hardy, Williams said he found more than a person who shared a commitment to his hometown: Williams also found a friend.
“Max was like a little brother to me,” he said. “He saw me managing a building and asked me for business advice. And then he would give advice on the business side of his profession to the students he taught in our cooking classes. We had students who were going to college to study culinary arts and who wouldn’t have known anything about the field if it weren’t for Max. He did a lot of wonderful things in our community and I don’t think anyone can do it like him.”
Mark Kurlyandchik, former Free Press restaurant critic, said the local culinary community has suffered the loss of one of its “brightest chefs.”
“Hardy was always working on a dizzying number of projects, whether it was opening two new restaurant concepts (and he always had at least two in the works) or teaching children how to cook or feeding the less fortunate in Detroit and Africa. He never stopped. “Kurlyandchik said.
The cause of death was not released Tuesday.
“At the appropriate time, the family will make further statements,” Rudolph said.