Julius Russell, personal chef and caterer to Ye, Dwyane Wade, dies at 53

Cooking was more or less a family trait for chef Julius Russell, passed down from his grandmother and mother.

He used their fried chicken recipe to turn his first buck in the business by cooking dozens of meals for classmates at his off-campus apartment when he was a student at Northern Illinois University. Mr. Russell and his roommate, Terry Dillard, posted flyers advertising their homespun menu.

“We never made a lot of money, but when we finished and tallied at the end of the day, even if it was just a few bucks, it was the best few bucks, because we were proud of what we’d done,” said Dillard, who delivered the food orders in his neon green Dodge Shadow.

That sense of satisfaction, and the joy he got from cooking for friends, fueled Mr. Russell a few years later to attend culinary school in Paris and New Orleans, and leave a career in telecommunications sales.

He started his own company and named it A Tale of Two Chefs. It offered catering, and Mr. Russell’s services as a private chef. He developed a long list of well-known clients that included Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Juanita Vanoy, Michael Jordan’s ex-wife. He traveled to meet them where they were, or cooked for them when they were in Chicago.

Mr. Russell died March 30 from natural causes. He was 53.

The name of his company represented both of Mr. Russell’s culinary personalities. There was chef Julius, the refined chef who studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. And there was chef Tiki (a nickname assigned to him in college) who leaned in to home cooking and the sorts of Southern dishes he learned at the New Orleans School of Cooking.

He did pop-ups at different places around Chicago, like the Bridgeport Art Center. He gave cooking demonstrations at various venues, including Taste of Chicago, and made appearances on WGN and Fox32 Chicago.

He also worked as a restaurant consultant and was a host of “The Big Ten Cookout” on the Big Ten Network, in which he’d cook and offer tailgating tips.

His wife, Jada Russell, who died in 2019 from breast cancer, was a publicist whose clients included Common, Rhymefest and Wade. She helped get her husband’s name out there.

Mr. Russell was born Aug.1, 1970, at Cook County Hospital to Julius Russell Sr., a pastor, and Daveda Russell, who worked as a phone operator at the Sun-Times and later ran telecommunications for Chicago State University. The family lived in Englewood before moving to Harvey. Mr. Russell went to Sandburg Elementary School, Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School and Thornton Township High School.

Mr. Russell was known for hosting parties on the rooftop deck of his condo building in Bronzeville.

He regularly visited schools and youth groups to talk to kids and tell them they, too, could do what he does. He was also a mentor to several young Black chefs, including Daniel Hammond, who owns Smoky Soul Barbecue, a catering company.

“Last October, I did my very first full-on pop-up, and Julius said, ‘I want to be there, and I want you to use me and allow me to be there for you,’ and for my mentor to say that meant a lot, and he came and whatever I asked him to do, he did, as if he was my sous chef. And he worked so hard trying to put out the best,” Hammond said.

Mr. Russell never wanted to take on the stress of running a restaurant, but he loved going to them. Every Sunday, he and his girlfriend, Adiat Baker, would drive to a new breakfast spot somewhere in the Chicago area. A few of his favorite eateries in Chicago included NoMI, Gibsons, Ascione Bistro and Virtue.

“That was kind of our church,” Baker said of their Sunday excursions.

“And he was also quite a music buff; he said he was a music nerd,” she added. “We watched old music videos on YouTube, and he would indulge me as I reenacted the choreography.”

Mr. Russell had one sibling, a younger sister named after their mother, Daveda.

“My brother was a city boy,” she said. “But he visited me in Arizona, and we’d sit in my yard and stare at the mountains, and he’d actually just start to cry and be like, ‘Oh my God. The world is just amazing.’”

A celebration of life will be held at 10 a.m. April 16 at Calahan Funeral Home, 7046 S. Halsted St.