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Chef Homaro Cantu, a culinary expert known for blending science with his gourmet creations, has reportedly been found dead in Chicago at the age of 38.

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Cantu, the chef at restaurant Moto in the West Loop area of Chicago, was found in a building where he had planned to open a brewery, the AP reports.

"I’m saddened, I’m broken up," Trevor Rose-Hamblin, Cantu’s brewer and former Moto general manager said of the news. "This guy was my best friend."

"He was going to be my business partner."

The Chicago Tribune reports that Cantu appeared to die of hanging, and his tragic death is being investigated as a suicide, police sources are saying.

The Cook County medical examiner’s office confirmed the death of Cantu Wednesday but did not release a cause, as the inquiry by officials is ongoing.

Cantu’s healthy recipes included unorthodox items such as edible menus, carbonated fruit and a fish preparation that cooked in a tabletop polymer box.

Homaro previously worked at Charlie Trotter’s Chicago restaurant. He met his wife, Katie McGowan, when she was a guest chef in Trotter’s kitchen.

The couple were married in 2003. We wish her and all of Cantu’s friends and family members the best in what is surely a tremendously difficult time.

R.I.P.