Colleagues, collaborators remember Bern’s executive chef Chad Johnson 3%
By Evan Rodriguez0%
7/10/2026, 3:42:11 PM
Topics: Obituaries, Food Industry
BS Summary: This article contains 1 faulty reasoning type, including Attempt to Sell a Product or Service, with Attempt to Sell a Product or Service as the most egregious example at 3.4% saturation with 18 hits. Analysis detected 18 faulty-reasoning hits from 533 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 15.6% and a BS Rank of 3% (13,427 of 13,766 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 97.50% of the article peer group.
Chad Johnson, the executive chef of famed Tampa restaurant Bern’s Steak House and the creative force behind several of the city’s fine dining concepts, died Thursday.
He was 47.
Johnson was a veteran of the hospitality industry and Tampa’s culinary scene.
Before helming the kitchen at Bern’s, he ran Bern’s nearby sister restaurant SideBern’s , which became Haven in 2015, and helped open and lead the dining concepts at the food-focused Epicurean Hotel , including its signature restaurant Elevage, across the street from Bern’s.
“We are heartbroken by this loss, and our thoughts are with Chad’s family and everyone who had the privilege of knowing him,” Bern’s owner David Laxer said in a statement Friday that confirmed Johnson’s death.
“Today, we reopen knowing this is what Chad would have wanted: for us to come together, welcome our guests, and continue the gracious hospitality he cared so deeply about.”
Johnson was in the process of remaking Haven into Peddler + Potter Oyster House , a seafood restaurant set to open in fall 2027.
“Chad was truly one of the great ones,” local oyster vendor Reed Smith said by email Friday.
“Recently he told me, ‘I’m never leaving this place, I love it here,’ and he meant it.”
“I consider myself very fortunate to have known him and be able work with him over the past year on his dream restaurant,” Reed said.
“I always looked up to him because he was a great firm leader but also fair,” chef Ferrell Alvarez, whose hospitality group runs Rooster & The Till and other Tampa restaurants, said by text message Friday.
“He just got it and that was something I could relate to.”
Alvarez said he interviewed Johnson over 20 years ago for a position at Tampa‘s Mise en Place when Johnson first moved to Tampa Bay.
“My heart goes out to his entire family and his work family at the Bern’s group,” Alvarez said.
Jeannie Pierola, the chef-owner of Tampa restaurants Edison: Food + Drink Lab and Counter Culture, was a colleague of Johnson’s at Bern’s.
“Chad was a generational talent with an incredible skill set and was always a shining star,” Pierola said Friday by text message.
“This is a massive loss for Tampa Bay.”
Johnson studied under renowned chefs Jacques Pepin, Alain Sailhac and Andre Soltner.
He was a two-time James Beard Award semifinalist, nominated for the Best Chef: South category in 2012 and 2014.
In 2019, Johnson and a team of chefs from Bern’s, Haven and Elevage cooked their third dinner at the prestigious James Beard House in New York City.
Johnson got his start cooking at Manhattan, New York’s Layla, working under chef Frank Proto.
Johnson hailed from Paducah, Kentucky.
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