Beloved Detroit chef Maxcel Hardy passed away unexpectedly Monday evening.
David Rudolph, who worked as Hardy’s PR agent confirmed the death to Metro Times, though the cause is still unknown. Hardy passed away somewhere between 9 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., which came as a shock to Rudolph, as he appeared to be in good health.
“I just saw Chef Max on Friday,” Rudolph recalls. “He and I were at Eastern Market for the Jack Daniel’s Arts, Beats + Lyrics and he was going to be going down to Charleston for a food festival soon, so this was a surprise, no doubt. If there was anything wrong, it wasn’t something that was known or visible and he has always been fairly fit and active.”
Hardy was behind Caribbean-fusion restaurant Coop Detroit inside Detroit Shipping Co. and Eastside pizza and burger joint Jed’s. His forthcoming seafood restaurant What’s Crackin’ on the Avenue of Fashion was slated to open in anticipation of the 2024 NFL Draft, according to Rudolph.
Hardy, who is a Detroit native, saw mainstream success as a celebrity chef in New York and Miami. Former NBA player Amar’e Stoudemire was one of his private clients and the two authored a cookbook together, Cooking with Amar’e. Hardy returned to Detroit to open River Bistro in 2017 in Detroit’s Grandmont-Rosedale neighborhood, which closed a year later.
Beyond his Caribbean-inspired food, the chef was also known for his work in the community. His non-profit organization One Chef Can 86 Hunger offered culinary classes to youth and donated meals to essential workers when restaurants were closed in 2020 due to COVID-19. Hardy, Rudolph, and other chefs also provided meals to the homeless through an initiative called Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen for Good.
“Chef Max was the kind of guy that would give you his last dollar to a fault,” Rudolph says. “If he could help, he would… He tried to use his celebrity [status] to elevate the game in Detroit as well as to elevate Black chefs. When he first came back to Detroit, he had already made a name for himself and it just kinda took off. With River Bistro, he was trying to do something very special in an area that was surrounded by ‘you buy, we fry’ places.”
Hardy had recently turned 40 on December 5. He was named Hour Detroit’s 2021 Restaurateur of the Year.
Rudolph says Hardy’s family is requesting, “prayers, thoughts, and privacy at this time.” He is survived by his mother and two children.
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