James Kent, a distinguished chef and profitable Manhattan restaurateur who appeared poised to develop into a food-industry tycoon, died on Saturday. He was 45.
His dying was introduced by Saga Hospitality Group, the holding firm of his two eating places, Crown Shy and Saga, and his cocktail bar, Overstory, that are all in the identical constructing within the Monetary District of Manhattan. The assertion didn’t specify the place he died or the trigger.
In 1993, when he was a 14-year-old rising up in Greenwich Village and already working at a restaurant, Mr. Kent’s mom made him knock on the door of their constructing’s latest resident — the movie star chef David Bouley. The younger man requested if he may spend time in Mr. Bouley’s kitchen. Mr. Bouley stated sure. He spent the summer season working at Bouley, the chef’s TriBeCa mainstay.
Earlier than lengthy, Mr. Kent was additionally working at famed New York Metropolis eating places like Babbo, Jean-Georges, Eleven Madison Park and NoMad, the place he grew to become the manager chef.
He opened his personal restaurant, Crown Shy, in 2019 with a associate, Jeff Katz, the final supervisor of Del Posto, an Italian restaurant in Manhattan that closed in 2021. “At Crown Shy, the Solely False Step Is the Title” learn the headline of a “critic’s choose” evaluate by Pete Wells, the restaurant critic of The New York Instances. (The title refers to tall timber’ tendency to not permit their higher tales to develop entangled with the branches of their neighbors.)
Mr. Wells wrote that Mr. Kent’s dishes “frequently over-deliver.” He singled out for reward “an nearly absurdly creamy purée of white bean hummus underneath a fiery purple slick of melted ’nduja;” a beef tartare with toasted walnuts and rye croutons; and oysters served with “cucumber jelly, diced cucumbers, grains of jalapeño and microleaves of purple shiso.”
The Instances restaurant columnist Florence Fabricant agreed, describing Crown Shy’s menu in a 2019 article as “eclectic and artistic.”
Two years later, Mr. Kent gained 4 extra tales in the identical constructing, an Artwork Deco skyscraper at 70 Pine Road inbuilt 1932.
Crown Shy occupies the bottom ground; Flooring 62, 63, 64 and 66 of the constructing have been reworked from govt boardrooms for A.I.G., the insurance coverage firm, into Saga, Overstory and a personal eating room. The area consists of 12 terraces “with breathtaking views in each route,” Ms. Fabricant reported in 2021. Saga’s “seasonal tasting menu” at present prices $298 per individual.
Crown Shy garnered one star from the Michelin restaurant information. Saga earned two.
It was nice eating worthy of the European custom, however with American casualness and the embrace of popular culture.
Mr. Kent performed Wu-Tang Clan and the Infamous B.I.G. at Crown Shy. He eschewed a proper gown code. Together with his chef coat he may typically be seen carrying costly sneakers.
After years of doing graffiti whereas rising up, he grew to become referred to as “a chef that’s additionally a wildly proficient graffiti artist,” as Bloomberg reported in 2016. He was commissioned to do art work at NoMad Resort and the restaurant tech firm Salido.
“I’ve walked into these fancy eating places and I don’t really feel welcomed,” Mr. Kent advised Bandit, a operating model and weblog. He searched for Crown Shy, he stated, to be “our era’s restaurant.”
All this appeared so as to add as much as a profitable enterprise formulation.
In April, The Instances reported that Mr. Kent and Saga Hospitality Group had leased 3,000 sq. toes on the bottom ground of the previous Domino Sugar refinery in Brooklyn for a bakery and a “informal all-day restaurant.”
The identical month, The Robb Report described but extra formidable plans. Mr. Kent was opening a brand new 140-seat restaurant on Park Avenue impressed by the Grand Central Oyster Bar, the place his grandmother, Sue Mingus, first went on a date with the jazz musician Charles Mingus, who grew to become her husband and whose legacy she took cost of securing till her personal dying in 2022.
On the similar time, Mr. Kent was additionally planning a fast-casual fried hen sandwich restaurant on the extent of Shake Shack, The Robb Report stated. LRMR Ventures, a personal funding agency of LeBron James and his buddy and enterprise associate Maverick Carter, was backing Saga Hospitality Group’s enlargement.
Buyers “imagine Kent’s a uncommon, multidimensional expertise who’s primed to develop into the following nice American restaurateur,” The Robb Report wrote.
“After I walked into 70 Pine seven years in the past, I used to be one individual,” Mr. Kent stated. “It’s not like I used to be Daniel Boulud with an enormous workforce, and I constructed all of the methods — the whole lot — that we wanted to function on this degree.”
Jamal James Kent was born in 1979. His mom was born in Rome and his father was born in Tangier. He grew up in Greenwich Village.
In an interview with the tea model Kettl, he described his upbringing as poor and stated he needed to work “as a younger child” in a restaurant owned by his uncle and his uncle’s finest buddy to earn cash. Then his mom inspired him to introduce himself to Mr. Bouley.
He studied meals service and culinary arts at Johnson & Wales College in Rhode Island, and he took half in a examine overseas program at Le Cordon Bleu in London and Paris.
He grew up in an Islamic family, and when he utilized for jobs as a younger man, he used his center title, apprehensive about Islamophobia, he advised Eater in 2022.
As Mr. Kent grew to become extra profitable, he was related notably along with his tenure at Eleven Madison Park, “the equal of Harvard for formidable younger cooks,” Pete Wells wrote in 2023.
The Saga Hospitality announcement of Mr. Kent’s dying listed as his survivors his spouse, Kelly Kent, and his youngsters, Gavin and Avery.
Mr. Kent spoke at size about how exhausting he labored. He stated that he seen himself wanting fatigued in pictures. He described as soon as having a panic assault displaying as much as work. He stated operating had helped him really feel extra grounded.
“Earlier than operating, I solely had skilled objectives,” he advised Bandit. “I used to be like, ‘I wish to be the very best, be taught from the very best, and run these unbelievable eating places.’ After which I bought to the purpose the place, with out the non-public objectives, I used to be on the ground considering I used to be going to die.”
