CINCINNATI — Jean-Robert de Cavel, a popular chef and restaurateur in Cincinnati, has died.
His family announced that the award-winning chef passed away in his sleep on Friday from complications from his five-year battle with leiomyosarcoma.
“Cincinnati will miss a wonderful, loving chef. But my daughter and I will miss our husband and father the most,” his wife Annette de Cavel said in a press release.
de Cavel first came to Cincinnati in 1993 to become Executive Chef at Maisonette. After the restaurant closed, he stayed in Queen City and changed the region’s culinary scene. His JR Group is behind French Crust Cafe & Bistro, Le Bar a Boeuf, Frenchie Fresh, Restaurant L and Jean-Robert’s Table.
“I’m proud to be a Cincinnati,” de Cavel said in a 2019 interview with WCPO. “Life in the city center wasn’t what it is today. I was part of it. It is this beautiful development.”
The French chef was diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma in 2018 but refused to let cancer hold him back. He continued to work in his restaurants. Though he hasn’t spoken publicly about his struggle, de Cavel said in 2019 that his diagnosis reminded him of the importance of living in the present.
“Things you always talk about, things you want to do, just do it and enjoy it,” de Cavel said.
de Cavel and his wife also established the de Cavel Family SIDS Foundation after losing their first child, Tatiana, to cot death. They established a scholarship fund in her honor to help students at the Midwest Culinary Institute.
Cincinnati honored its most famous chef on his 60th birthday in 2021 and renamed 7th Street at the corner of 7th and Vine Jean-Robert de Cavel Way.
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