Cincinnati’s adopted son Jean Robert de Cabel, the chef who spearheaded the region’s fine dining revival, died Friday at the age of 61.
De Cavel came to Cincinnati in 1993, at the age of 32, to work at The Maisonette, Cincinnati’s only Mobile Five Star restaurant. Since then he has opened several fine dining restaurants including Table, Pigalls Le Bar a Boeuf, French Crust Café and Bistro.
De Cavel has been battling leiomyosarcoma, a rare cancer that forms in smooth muscle, since 2018, but the cancer didn’t stop him from working and he never thought about a new restaurant.
“I will never be cured,” de Cavell told The Enquirer in May. I am very positive. My medical team said, “Keep doing what you’re doing because it works.” Never ever give up. “
Born September 12, 1961 in Roubaix, France. He studied at the Fégaid Culinary School in Lille, France, and worked as head chef at Regience and La Gaulois in New York before moving to Cincinnati in 1993.
“I did the same thing that other places do, it’s not about trying to make the city better, but about being proud of what Cincinnati is,” he said in a 2021 interview. rice field.
De Cavell was accepted into his adopted city. Seventh Street, on the corner of Seventh and Vine Downtown, was honorably renamed last year by Jean Robert Dokabelway and was named Great Living His Cincinnatian in his Class of 2021 by the Cincinnati USA Area Chamber of Commerce.
“That’s what I’ve been very lucky to do without realizing it. Everyone’s support,” de Cabel said. “People accepted me right away. I think you’ll feel comfortable when people hire you. It was easier to be yourself in Cincinnati than in New York.”
Affectionately known to many in the service industry as simply “The Chef,” De Cavel loved his city and made himself available to support many charitable causes. Cavel and his wife, Annette Pfund de Cavel, founded the de Cavel Family SIDS Foundation after the sudden death of their eldest daughter, Tatiana, from sudden infant death syndrome. She passed away in 2002.
The Foundation now hosts an annual Friends & Family Brunch at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College’s Midwest Culinary Institute.
De Cavel’s influence will be felt in the Cincinnati area and nationally through the dozens of chefs who have emerged from his restaurants.
“In my field, being a teacher is also very important. Sharing what I know to help my team become leaders and chefs in the future is very important,” he said in 2021. rice field. “Cincinnati will miss our wonderful and loving chef. But my daughter and I will miss my husband and father the most,” Annette de Cabel said in a statement.Funeral arrangements are final at this time. It has not been.
