James Kent, right, in the kitchen of his restaurant Crown Shy.
Photo: CAITLIN OCHS/CAITLIN OCHS/New York Times/Redux
The restaurant world was shocked to learn of the death of James Kent on Saturday. The news was first shared by his restaurant group, which ended its announcement with a message “Celebrate Father’s Day with your loved ones.” The official cause of death was a heart attack, according to a representative.
Kent – who was just 45 and is survived by his wife, Kelly, and their children, Gavin and Avery – had earned accolades for his restaurants, Crown Shy and Saga, and his cocktail bar, Overstory, and was working on a handful of new projects. is expected to debut in the coming months. All weekend, tributes poured in on social media as the industry mourned the loss of one of its brightest stars. What emerged, in the tributes as well as in conversations with friends and acquaintances, was the portrait of a gastronomic lifer who had earned the greatest respect among his peers, who was exceptionally supportive of his industry, and who was eager to serve as a mentor and friend.
“If you were a chef in town, you knew him,” says Danny Garcia, executive chef of Saga Hospitality Group’s new restaurant at 360 Park Avenue South. “You spent some time with him; it touched you in one way or another, whether for five seconds or for several years. Kent’s restaurants were closed Sunday, but his wife kept the doors open so the staff could cry. As word spread, others in the industry also came forward to pay their respects. Flowers were brought, as well as an illustration of Kent and a figurine of Biggie Buddha. (The chef was a big fan of the Brooklyn rapper.) Daniel Boulud was sending food. “It was basically an impromptu family meal celebrating James,” says Gavin Kaysen, Kent’s close friend of 17 years. The chef, who runs Spoon and Stable and other restaurants in Minneapolis, was at Aspen Food & Wine on Saturday with Garcia and Garcia’s wife, pastry chef Sumaiya Bangee. They all returned to New York on Sunday.
Over the past two days, social media has been filled with tributes from friends and colleagues including Boulud, Alain Ducasse, Mei Lin, Bryce Schuman, Suzanne Cupps and Nina Compton. “I met James in 2010, when I was a very green cook,” Lin wrote. “He showed me a kindness that I will never forget, in an industry where you rarely receive that type of kindness.”
Raised in Greenwich Village, Kent – whose first name was Jamal – worked in restaurants from a young age. In a 2021 interview, he said he would “slowly sneak into the kitchen and start, like, playing with the food” at an uncle’s restaurant. When Kent was 14, he contacted his neighbor, David Bouley, who let him apprentice in his own restaurant. Bouley was the first of many influential places where he would work. He then ended up at Babbo, where he worked at the time Bill Buford was writing Heat; Jean-Georges; and Eleven Madison Park, where his public profile began to grow.
Kent became EMP’s chef de cuisine and represented the United States in the Bocuse d’Or culinary competition. His time at the restaurant changed his life in more ways than one: He had his first child, Gavin – named after Kaysen, who was his competition coach – while working there, and later shared that his experience at Eleven Madison Park reshaped the way he lived his life. He had suffered panic attacks at work, which led him to change his lifestyle and take up running. Throughout his career, Kent has spoken about prioritizing mental health, and other chefs who worked with him have shared the story of a colleague who was, above all, kind.
“James has been a consistent person in the way he approaches life, leadership and his career. The industry, at least 12 years ago, was not very kind to black people,” says Michael Adé Elégbèdé, who runs
Ìtàn test kitchen in Lagos. Elégbèdé arrived in New York 12 years ago as a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, and his first job
was at Eleven Madison Park, where Kent was at the time. EMP and Nomad, where he became executive chef, were, like other gourmet kitchens, very white spaces. “He always made sure to make me feel like I wasn’t alone, even when I was the only black person in the kitchen,” says Elégbèdé.
Other cooks, says Elégbèdé, shared similar stories with him. On her Instagram page, Bangee recalled her first day at EMP, when Kent made sure to introduce himself and tell her that her father was also Muslim, adding, “Whatever you need, I’ll support you.” (In a 2022
(interview, Kent said he started using “James,” his middle name, on his resume after 9/11.)
Grace Kim, who worked at Crown Shy in 2019, says she admired Kent for the way he operated both in and out of the kitchen: “His commitment to his family was also next-level, and it “It’s one of the many other reasons I respect Chef as a human being,” she says. She described him as someone who “literally always showed up” at the restaurants where his former cooks worked, either with his son or his wife and friends, and always made sure to give words of encouragement . “This man doesn’t need to do this, but he chooses to go out of his way to just say ‘hello,’ and support and encourage us.”
“Growing up, you think that being a chef you almost have to be insufferable and be a narcissistic expression of yourself to get any form of respect in the industry,” Elégbèdé explains. What Kent showed was that “you can be talented, you can be great, and you can be passionate without being this clichéd idea of what a leader is.”
Kent was a leader capable of bridging the sometimes difficult divide between old guard leaders and the younger generation. Via text message, restaurateur Drew Nieporent wrote, “James Kent was the future of cooking in America. »
This morning, Crown High, the running group started by Kent, gathered for a memorial run, and tonight Kaysen will be at Crown Shy for its reopening. “I think it’s really important that we celebrate who he was, what he meant to people, what he continues to mean to people,” Kaysen says. “I’m going to do the team a favor, just help them and be there if they need anything. I know he would if the roles were reversed.
On Saturday morning, Saga’s culinary director Jassimran Singh had been texting with Kent about a planned pop-up with Masque, the Mumbai fine-dining restaurant, and going to a Yankees game this week. He was at work at Crown Shy when, at 4:30 p.m., he received a call informing him that Kent had died. “Obviously, working in restaurants isn’t the easiest thing, but I think working with him for the last ten years will be the best years I’ll have,” Singh says. “I’m going to miss him every day for the rest of my life.”
This post has been updated to include the official cause of death.