Beloved Fort Worth chef and restaurateur Jon Bonnell announced over the weekend that he is undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatment after being diagnosed with cancer.
The chef underwent two surgeries and is currently undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatment, Bonnell wrote in a Feb. 1 Facebook post. He was diagnosed in December with stage 3 squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue and mouth, Bonnell wrote.
“The prognosis is good, but I will be on this journey to recovery for quite some time, hopefully regaining all of my taste buds, etc by early summer,” Bonnell wrote in the post.
The post was accompanied by thousands of comments from Facebook users, offering words of comfort and support for the chef.
Bonnell declined the Fort Worth Report’s request for an interview.
Born and raised in the city, Bonnell has contributed to the Cowtown culinary scene since the late 1990s.
In 1997, he graduated from the Vermont-based New England Culinary Institute and moved back to Fort Worth to pursue his culinary career.
He owns the dining spots Bonnell’s Fine Texas Cuisine, Waters Restaurant, Jon’s Grille and Buffalo Bros.
Bonnell is also the celebrity chef for Texas Christian University’s Amon G. Carter Stadium, where he oversees the menu when the Horned Frogs football team plays at home.
He’s competed in cook-off events, such as the Rattle Battle, and led the 2024 spicy food extravaganza ZestFest.
Bonnell’s recognition extends beyond Fort Worth. He’s been featured on national television, including the Food Network, and won back-to-back awards from lifestyle and food magazine Wine Spectator.
Aside from three cookbooks, he published “Carry Out, Carry On: A Year in the Life of a Texas Chef” in 2020, detailing his experience operating restaurants during COVID-19. He was among local business owners working together to feed first responders in the early days of the pandemic.
When deadly flooding struck Central Texas in July, Bonnell offered 10% of proceeds from four of his restaurants for the Flood Relief Fund, mental health resources for Camp Mystic Evacuees and Grape Juice restaurant, which provided meals for flood survivors and first responders.
Nicole Lopez is the environment reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at nicole.lopez@fortworthreport.org.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This <a target=”_blank” href=”https://fortworthreport.org/2026/02/02/fort-worth-restaurateur-jon-bonnell-on-journey-to-recovery-after-cancer-diagnosis/”>article</a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https://fortworthreport.org”>Fort Worth Report</a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.<img src=”https://i0.wp.com/fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&quality=80&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”>
<img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https://fortworthreport.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=393005&ga4=2820184429″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https://fortworthreport.org/2026/02/02/fort-worth-restaurateur-jon-bonnell-on-journey-to-recovery-after-cancer-diagnosis/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } </script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”//cdn.parsely.com/keys/fortworthreport.org/p.js”></script>