Richard Joseph Heller, a private chef and caterer in Philadelphia, PA, died suddenly Thursday, April 6. He was thirty-three years old. According to Grace Heller, his mother, an individual was arrested April 17 and will be charged with the murders of Mr. Heller and his companion, Meredith Hope, for having sold Ms. Hope what he said was cocaine but which was in fact a deadly mix of cocaine, fentanyl (a powerful tranquilizer), and morphine.
Mr. Heller was born July 4, 1983 and grew up in Point Pleasant, Bucks County, attending Holicong Middle School, Central Bucks High School East and the Tinicum Art & Science School in Ottsville, PA, founded by headmaster John Heinz IV as the nation’s first Buddhist alternative school (now known as The Lotus School of Liberal Arts). He was also an alumnus of Camp Dudley YMCA in Westport, NY, the nation’s oldest camp for boys.
For several years in the early 2000s he worked in the publishing business, first as a print and web manager for The Writers Room of Bucks County, Inc., a nonprofit writers’ resource center in Doylestown, PA. He was also a book designer for Xlibris Corp. of Philadelphia, one of the first companies to offer print-on-demand services direct to authors.
During this time he played bass guitar with several Philadelphia bands including The Union Dead, The Heartbeaters, and Mad Juana (with Sami Yaffa). He appeared several times in the DJ booth at Sin City, a local dance club.
The spark of Mr. Heller’s culinary career came in 2003 when he discovered the Food Network and became fascinated with how food is prepared. During his early career, he worked for Max Hansen Catering in Doylestown, PA, one of the top firms in the region, and for Bobolink Dairy & Bakehouse in Milford, NJ, an organic dairy farm where he learned cheesemaking and baking. He spent several years in Mexico, learning about regional cuisines while operating a surf school in Cancun and a tour guide company, Flor Del Caribe Cancun.
According to his business website, UrbanChefPhilly.com, he had worked at one time or another alongside Art Smith (Oprah Winfrey’s private chef), Celebrity Chef’s Ming Tsai, Wolfgang Puck, and most recently Mitch Prensky, chef of Philadelphia’s Supper Restaurant on South Street and Global Dish Caterers.
Mr. Heller is survived by his mother, Grace S. Heller, of Bloomsburg, PA. He was predeceased in infancy by his father, Robert L. Perretti.
A memorial service will be scheduled at a later date, to be announced. The family requests that those who wish to make a donation in his name do so to The Lotus School of Liberal Arts (www.http://lotusla.org), PO Box 340, Ottsville PA, 18942.
Funeral services are being handled by Van Horn-McDonough Funeral Home, Lambertville, NJ.

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