Chef Nick Kennedy, co-owner of Suraya, Kalaya, and others, diagnosed with stage 3 cancer

On an otherwise ordinary Wednesday three weeks ago, Nicholas Kennedy, 46, the chef and co-owner of Defined Hospitality, found himself in unbearable pain.

The pain had first emerged in February, radiating through his stomach, but also his back. He originally blamed the stomach pain on gastritis or perhaps an ulcer, and his back pain on his mattress. At night, he moved throughout the beds in his house and flipped his mattress, trying to find a comfortable position in which to finally get some sleep.

“As a chef, I’m used to absorbing a lot of pain,” said Kennedy. A typical day finds him dipping in and out of Defined Hospitality’s seven restaurants, helping his chefs develop dishes and occasionally stepping on the line: Suraya, Kalaya, Condesa, El Techo, Picnic, Pizzeria Beddia, and R&D. He may not be as much of a household name as the chefs whose names and identities help form the concepts of these restaurants, like Nok Suntaranon of Kalaya, but he plays vital roles behind the scenes.

“And even though I was in pain [for months], I was working constantly, making plans with my family (his wife and a son, aged 15 and daughter, aged 12), and working out every day.”

But that Wednesday, after working on a new thinly sliced and layered beef kebab dish at Suraya, he drove himself to a hospital. In the ER, he was quickly scheduled for a CAT scan, and told by a doctor that he had pancreatic cancer.

“Unfortunately and fortunately, that doctor gave me a misdiagnosis. The cancer was quite large and enveloped around my pancreas and so they thought it was pancreatic, which is known as a death sentence. So I’m in the hospital room, and the doctor is like you have this, so start making plans,” said Kennedy.

“Everything happened so fast. Like I was thrown into a washing machine, having no control, and no idea what’s going on.”

An oncologist the following day bore slightly more positive news. Kennedy was re-diagnosed with stage 3 diffuse large B cell non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Treatable, and perhaps even curable. “I feel guilty and selfish and weird saying this, but if you could pick a cancer, it’s a good one to have,” he said.

Rates of cancer diagnoses in people in their 40s have been rising rapidly and globally since the 1990s. According to one major study, between 1990 and 2019, early-onset cancer (a cancer diagnosis in people under the age of 50), increased by 79.1%.

But last month, these were not the figures that defined Kennedy’s life. Rather, it has been a string of successes since opening Suraya in 2017, which celebrates the Lebanese family recipes of one of Kennedy’s business partners, Roland Kassis. Kalaya, of which he is part owner in, has garnered a dizzying number of accolades, including being named #7 on the inaugural North America’s 50 Best Restaurants list, as well as being shortlisted for the Outstanding Restaurant award in this year’s James Beard Foundation Awards.

“We have so much going on at the restaurants,” said Kennedy. “I love the intensity of being that busy. And we’re exceptionally busy. Spring is a great time in Philly, especially after this hard winter.” He’s in the process of disclosing the news to his 500 employees.

Other activities defined Kennedy outside of cheffing: his love of cycling and fly-fishing in Montana– the only week out of the year that he takes time away from the restaurants. “Unless the sky is falling, don’t contact me,” he frequently told his staff during those few days.

Kennedy completed his first round of chemo last week, and despite some mental fogginess, was able to be wryly funny during a phone interview. He’s painfully bored. “I have gone through the entire internet,” he said. “There is nothing on Instagram that I haven’t seen. Now I’m re-watching ‘Game of Thrones’.”

He is still processing his diagnosis, and the physical changes that come with treatment. He has had to completely pull away from restaurant operations. “But our goal [with Defined Hospitality] has always been to grow people and give them agency,” he said.

“My goal now is to be able to re-engage [post-treatment] and be aware of what is going on in the restaurants so I can offer advice and insight. But it’s day by day...” he trailed off.

“I have trouble walking up stairs. I’m depleted of energy and fuzzy with medication. I’ve had food a couple times, but things don’t taste the same. I don’t get enjoyment out of it and that’s a hard thing to deal with,” he said.