You can see right now all these chefs are pure dressed in white, all gathering together.

A lot of them were torn apart during COVID, lost track of each other, maybe moved away and

now they're all back here celebrating this great chef.

In December, the Cincinnati chef Jean-Roberte de Covelle died at age 61 after a battle with cancer.

His family held a memorial service at a Catholic Basilica in downtown Cincinnati, close to 1300 people turned out.

The family asked mourners to wear blue or if they were a chef to wear their white chef's coats.

There was a lot of white. Keith Pandolfi was there, he's a food and dining writer for the Cincinnati Inquirer.

It was such a show of love and affection for the chef that came to this city so many years ago and changed the entire culinary landscape.

Keith grew up in Cincinnati and loves it deeply. Over the last 40 years he's seen the city have its share of struggles.

He saw a lot of people leave. And for him, Jean-Roberte meant a lot because even in the city's toughest times,

Jean-Roberte was the chef who stayed.

This is the Sporkful, it's not for food, it's for eaters, I'm Dan Pashman.

Each week on our show we obsess about food to learn more about people.

I had never heard of Jean-Roberte de Covelle when I visited Cincinnati five years ago.

Before that trip, I asked listeners for recommendations where to eat.

I did of course try the city's famous chili, served over spaghetti and topped with shredded cheddar cheese.

But I also heard from many of you that Cincinnati has a history as a hub of fine French dining.

Maybe it's because I don't know much about fine French dining, but that was a surprise to me.

The biggest name in that scene was Jean-Roberte. So when I went to Sincé, I talked with him to hear the story of how a classically trained French chef ended up there.

In the first half of the show I'm going to replay that conversation.

In the second half we'll hear about the big changes in the Cincinnati food scene since then, and what it tells us about the city as a whole and Jean-Roberte's legacy.

So let's get into the story of Jean-Roberte and Cincinnati in the form of a love story between a chef and a city.

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