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Tragic news from New Orleans East today with Todd Price reporting that chef Quan Tran, former chef de cuisine at Tamarind and the original Dominique's, has passed away at the age of 44. The cause was stomach cancer, which chef Tran had been battling since early 2012. Tran was a close collaborator and friend of chef Dominique Macquet, going to work for him in 1997 at Dominique's for a dozen years and again at restaurant Tamarind inside the Hotel Modern in 2011, where Tran was selected by The Times-Pic as a chef to watch. Tran even returned to the newer (now closed) incarnation of Dominique's part-time during a remission from stomach cancer (and after coming out of a coma) in 2012. Sadly, the cancer returned.
Macquet, who previously raised almost $50,000 for Tran's family during his early battle with cancer, will host a celebration in honor of chef Tran at Saveur (4128 Magazine St.) on June 15 at 6 p.m.