Detroit chef and community builder Max Hardy dies at age 40

Maxcel Hardy, an award-winning chef, restauranteur and community leader in Detroit, died on Monday at the age of 40, his publicist David Rudolph confirmed Tuesday morning.

Known as a “beacon of creativity and community service,” Hardy was an active member of Detroit’s culinary scene. A native Detroiter, his culinary skills took him around the world, previously serving as a private chef for NBA All-Star player Amar’e Stoudemire and several other athletes and celebrities in Miami and New York before landing back in the Motor City.

“Food was always that sort of center point for him. I always looked at him as kind of like an artist,” Rudolph told WDET. “For him, the canvas was the plate…and to see him in action was really to see an artist, you know, he took a lot of pride in the craft and the artistry of being a chef, and when he would deliver it on the plate, you knew it, you know, and it was edible art.”

Hardy was the owner of both COOP Caribbean Fusion inside Detroit Shipping Company and Jed’s Detroit, a pizza and wings franchise on Seven Mile Road near Interstate 75, and was preparing to open a casual seafood restaurant, What’s Crackin’ along the Avenue of Fashion in Detroit this year.

Listen: Ann Delisi’s 2018 interview with Chef Max Hardy on carving out time to train the next generation of chefs

In addition to his various culinary businesses, Hardy was extremely active in the community, Rudolph said. He founded the One Chef Can 86 Hunger foundation — a nonprofit working to fight hunger and raise awareness around food insecurity — and worked closely with various other community building organizations.

“He was a lot of things to Detroit, but what he really was — he was a son, he was a father, he was an uncle, he was a brother, and those are probably some of the most important titles that he had,” Rudolph said. “That is where that loss really is felt.”

Hardy received several awards and acknowledgments throughout his career, including being named among The Detroit News’ Michiganians of the Year and a Food Fighter by the Detroit Free Press, as well as receiving accolades from Hour Detroit and making the New York Times list of “16 Black chefs changing food in America.”

He was also a friend to WDET, representing COOP Caribbean Fusion at the recent WDET benefit Colors of Detroit, which celebrated the rich diversity and multiculturalism of the city.

A cause of death has not yet been made public as of Tuesday afternoon.