Charlotte chef Kendall Ross toured the world, but his roots remained on Central Avenue

In his short life, Charlotte chef Kendall Ross saw the world.

He earned prestigious culinary apprenticeships in Colorado and New York City. He ran the kitchen during concert tours for singers Ed Sheeran and Rod Stewart. As a corporate executive chef for Electrolux Professional, he traveled the country and beyond to show clients how they could prepare extraordinary food with the company’s equipment.

Yet in many ways, Ross never left Central Avenue, the cultural artery of Charlotte’s highly diverse east side where his passions for family and food often intertwined.

He grew up in Windsor Park, just east of Plaza Midwood. He began his lifelong culinary journey with jobs at Nova’s bakery, Crazy Fish and LuLu’s, all one-time Central Avenue must-eats that have since gone dark.

Ross, who became a real estate investor on the side, also resurrected and rebuilt his childhood home. There, he and his wife, Lily Hennes, built ambitious plans for the life they intended to share.

Except, on March 18, Kendall Ross died in a car accident — on Central Avenue. He was 29.

At around 7 p.m. that Saturday, according to police, a speeding Nissan operated by an impaired driver who has been criminally charged sent Ross and Hennes’ Hyundai sedan careening into a power pole.

Ross died at the scene; Hennes was seriously injured, and according to her father, has undergone multiple surgeries.

Gabby Ross, the chef’s younger sister, told The Charlotte Observer that she had talked to her brother earlier in the day, asking if she could borrow his truck to haul the pallets she needed to build a raised garden. Ross, who told her he was only minutes away from selling the pickup, suggested their mother’s van instead.

“He told me, ‘Life is short. You should really spend more time with mom’,” Gabby Ross said. “A couple of hours later he was gone.”

Ross’s death has left his family and friends bleary with shock and grief.

“I am totally devastated,” said Corie Siegel, himself a chef and perhaps Ross’ closest friend.

“Kendall was the most genuine man I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. ... He was incredibly ambitious, intelligent and caring. He would always put everyone else before himself. ... He inspired me every day.”

Hannah Riley, a fellow Charlotte chef and longtime friend, slips into present tense to describe Ross, as if she’s waiting for him to join her at Jimmy Pearls, one of their favorite spots in uptown to meet, eat and talk.

“He’s done so much. He’s accomplished so much, yet he doesn’t let any of that go to his head,” Riley said. “He is whip-smart. But you couldn’t be in the room with him and not smile.

“... You’d be laughing, too.”

Neil Hennes, Ross’s father-in-law, says a memorial service for Ross will be announced later, when Lily, a former third grade teacher at Olde Providence Elementary, is further along in her recovery.

An online campaign set up by Riley to raise money for Hennes’ medical expenses and Ross’s funeral had raised more than $61,500 as of 3:30 p.m. Friday.

For now, Hennes says his daughter remains physically “broken up,” and faces a long and grueling rehabilitation.

Her emotional recovery, he says, may be even more daunting.

‘On the plate’

Hannah Riley needs you to understand something about chefs.

“There’s passion and drive involved in a lot of jobs,” she says. “But when we cook we are putting ourselves on the plate. You can see the persons we are from what comes out of the kitchen.”

With that in mind, what aspects of Kendall Ross would his family and friends put on the menu for others to see?

Riley offers many, including her friend’s curiosity about other people’s influences. How he would always ask: “What are you reading now?”

“If he hadn’t read it, he would go out and get it — just to get to know you from what you read,” she says.

Neil Hennes singles out his son-in-law’s instincts to take care of those around him, particularly Lily. She’s highly gluten-intolerant, so Kendall made it his duty to come up with an assortment of gluten-free recipes, one more delicious than the other, Neil Hennes says.

Gabby? She homed in on her big brother’s role as a peacemaker and arbiter in a sometimes hot-headed, half-Filipino family, and how Kendall loved to see the people around him succeed and would do whatever he could to bring that about.

Kendall’s most memorable meal, for her, did not come out of a restaurant kitchen. Instead, he prepared it in the family home to celebrate the life of his grandmother, Inday Gamale, a Filipino immigrant who helped raise the three children, did most of the household cooking, and who died from COVID-19 in August 2021.

Ross cooked some of his grandmother’s favorite Filipino recipes, which had the effect of keeping her at the table, Gabby said.

‘Zero to 100’

Ross, according to his friends and family, had a plan for everything. But his path through life was not a conventional one.

He grew up in a bicultural household where trips to the uptown library were a regular family outing. He fell in love with food after following his big sister Gladys behind the counters at Nova’s and Crazy Fish.

After persuading Gabby to join him at Northwest School of the Arts, Ross dropped out during her first week. His full-fledged launch into a life of food went from “zero to 100,” Gabby recalls. She describes her brother as intellectually gifted but restless.

“I wouldn’t say he thought he knew better,” she says. “It was more, ‘Why would I be doing this when I can be doing something else?’ And he did a lot of something elses.”

Ross landed his first cooking job in the French kitchen at LuLu’s. He followed that by winning a competitive and lengthy apprenticeship at The Broadmoor Resort in Colorado Springs. Afterward, when he came home to cook the family’s Thanksgiving dinner, he told his parents, Gina and James, that they needed a better oven.

Ross’s last hours were defined once again by family and food.

He and Lily spent much of March 18 with her parents, Neil and Susan Hennes. They visited Lily’s grandparents, where they picked up the 2012 Hyundai Genesis that the older couple had gifted to their granddaughter.

Back at home that evening, Kendall planned to bake a gluten-free pizza that he would make from scratch and bake in the couple’s backyard oven.

But first they needed cheese. The Harris Teeter on Central was a couple of miles away. They took the Genesis. Kendall drove.

Neil now says if the couple had not had the bigger car, Lily might not be alive.