To the Max: Chef Maxcel Hardy III
Chef Maxcel Hardy III has so much going on that it’s hard to imagine he finds time to sleep. If he does, no doubt he’s dreaming big. The native Detroiter moved back in February 2017 to catch the city’s impressive culinary wave with three separate restaurant concepts. So far, two are up and running: the recently revised year-old River Bistro and the newly opened Coop in midtown’s much-anticipated Detroit Shipping Company. The third concept, Honey, is still in R&D, and looks like it may be passed by a new still-unannounced restaurant recently added to Hardy’s lineup, not to mention a new mentoring gig at Cleary University.
In every way it’s the culmination of Hardy’s career and a mission near and dear to him: to ensure young Detroiters find the same opportunities that helped him get established in the Miami food scene and eventually cooking for celebrity clientele in the Big Apple. “It’s been a great career to have cool clients and adventures,” says Hardy, who credits his own success to his uncle, West Palm Beach caterer Richard Roberts. He helped Hardy transform his passion into a career path. Hardy hopes to do the same for others. “Seeing it at that level was inspiring to me,” says Hardy. “At first I didn’t see [cooking] as a career path—I thought I’d make it to the NBA.”
Hardy did end up rubbing elbows with the NBA, as personal chef to Amar’e Stoudemire of the New York Knicks, with whom he co-wrote Cooking with Amar’e: 100 Easy Recipes for Pros and Rookies in the Kitchen. Other doors opened for Hardy too. He worked to change the narrative of food as a member of the Culinary Council for the Food Bank for New York City and he devised a culinary program to help motivate and inspire high school students at Opportunity Charter School in Harlem.
From the start, Hardy hoped to bring his food-is-a-lifestyle spirit to Detroit and to encourage and support more people of color to see promising futures as restaurant chef/owners and staff. “I feel like Detroit wasn’t really known as a chef or culinary space on that level,” Hardy says. “As African-American chefs, we weren’t at the forefront of the movement.”
Even before River Bistro was up and running, FoodLab Detroit’s Executive Director Devita Davison urged Hardy to consider coming on board the confab of shipping-containers-turned-hip-food-court at Peterboro near Cass Avenue.
“I thought of Max for a couple of reasons,” says Davison, calling Hardy a visionary for his efforts to represent the diaspora through his menus. “That focus is something that could be really super special in my opinion. Coop could really be a model.”
While River Bistro is inspired by Low Country, Caribbean and African cuisine, Coop’s vibe is styled after Caribbean street food. “I wanted to go with real hardcore Caribbean tapas,” says Hardy, who describes the menu as paying homage to Jamaica and Trinidad with staples like jerk chicken and Caribbean corn paired with weekly specials.
With Detroit Shipping Co., Hardy found an innovative space unlike anything else on the market and a chance to play with flavors and have some fun.
“To see it come to life now is amazing. To see it happening and to be able to express my love of food through the Caribbean lens is great,” Hardy says.
Dominique Black’s background was institutional cooking before she got her restaurant feet wet working at River Bistro. Hardy tapped her to head Coop even before he scrapped Bistro’s weekday hours—its popular weekend brunch and dinner menus are still on— for it to act as a catering commissary and pop-up space for chefs in need of testing concepts. “It’s been a great pleasure working with her,” Hardy says. “She has the true Detroit grit and hardworking attitude.” Though it’s demanding, Black hasn’t looked back since joining the restaurant industry. “Chef Max always encourages chefs to be themselves and show that through your craft,” she says. “He’s a hard worker and he kind of pushes you to be a better chef and a better you. It’s been an absolutely great experience working alongside him.”
Connecting others to the field is so meaningful to Hardy that he recently became resident chef at Cleary University to mentor students. “It’s great to make money, but what about helping the community? We need some good role models kids can see and say ‘I can do this one day,’” says Hardy, about the power of using culinary training as a way out.
“You can achieve that with cooking,” he explains. “If I never saw that, how would I know it was attainable? It’s a testament of my putting it in the atmosphere and working hard. If you put the work in, the results will come. The money will come.”
Davison agrees. “In order for Detroit to have a really robust and vibrant economy and culinary scene, Detroit also need workers: prep cooks, line cooks, people wanting to work in the back of the house, working a fair and living wage,” says Davison, adding that Hardy has the opportunity to create such a pipeline at Cleary.
