Jean-Marie Josselin is the first to admit he had some rough years back in the early days of the new millennium.

From five restaurants on three islands, he went to none. From a position of restaurant celebrity — he was among the original 12 Hawaii Regional Cuisine chefs and a six-time James Beard Foundation Award nominee — he became a chef without a kitchen.

A decade out, Josselin acknowledges that things went wrong — financial problems, a divorce, “everything you could imagine” — but won’t dwell. “It was not pleasant,” is his comment. He turns 60 this year with an outlook born of acceptance. “Everything happens for a reason.”

Josselin’s latest restaurant, JO2 Natural Cuisine in Kapaa, marks its third anniversary in October, a refined, 72-seat space just off the main highway. He has pulled away from the celebrity chef scene, crafting a menu with a focus on vegetables from farms no more than 15 minutes from his door. He’s raising a daughter, 5-year-old Kayla (“my princess”), with his girlfriend and business partner, Nantarat Johnson. He joined a Hindu temple.

“Life is much quieter and calmer,” he says.

Josselin opened his first restaurant, A Pacific Cafe, in 1990 in Kapaa. In his heyday he owned another location in Honolulu and two on Maui, and operated the Beach House in Poipu, Kauai. In 2000, after closing in Honolulu, he opened the 808 restaurants in Caesar’s Palace on the Las Vegas Strip and in San Diego.

But by 2008 all the restaurants were shuttered, and Josselin retreated.

He traveled, to Beijing, South America and Europe, returning to Kauai in 2010 “after two years of resting, traveling, eating. It’s expensive to be retired.”

So he tried again, opening Josselin’s Tapas Bar & Grill in touristy Poipu in 2012 and JO2 in 2014. The Tapas restaurant closed in 2016, after his partner opted to move on, Josselin says, but JO2 is going strong.

The business is registered under Johnson’s company, Ginger and Thai Basil. Josselin is JO2’s executive chef and general manager.

The menu is a bit of a garden party — edible blossoms covering plates of fresh vegetables removed from the dirt just hours before. Josselin estimates that 95 percent of his ingredients come from Kauai, from thick-stemmed asparagus served poached on the bottom, raw on the top; to green papaya salad “tacos” in shells made of thinly sliced jicama.

It’s an approach that would have been impossible even a few years ago given what was available from local farms. “Imagine, now I have 16 different varieties of tomatoes. Five years ago I couldn’t even get two.”

Proteins do make an appearance. Several seafood dishes remain prominent as they were at A Pacific Cafe. But as fish has grown more expensive and sustainable sources more elusive, Josselin has turned toward his network of farmers.

“I think there’s a way to be more responsible, serve less protein and do less harm to the ocean,” he says. “When you start trusting your farmers, it’s only natural to shed the old way of thinking and do cuisine that’s more natural.”

Much of the produce is grown for him on four farms close by. He has even researched and hunted down seeds and asked those farmers to try growing them. His teas, herbs and such specialty items as fermented cacao juice, used in a shave ice served atop a summer squash called the gray griller, come from Kauai Farmacy.

Ken Lindsey, who farms 2 acres in Moloaa, just outside Kapaa, is a particularly keen partner. “Pretty much everything I grow is stuff he asked me to grow,” Lindsey says of the chef. He makes deliveries three times a week, and they talk about what’s growing, what’s coming up. Baby corn, baby eggplant, melons, heirloom tomatoes, beets, carrots, beans — “he takes all that.”

This nurturing of local farms is an imperative, Josselin says. Having seen how completely the island was cut off after Hurricane Iniki, he insists that “sustainability” cannot be just a buzzword. “We have to use what is grown here. We have to be less dependent. It is not an option anymore. We have to.”

Josselin grew up in the village of Chamonix, in the French Alps. He studied cooking and began his culinary career in Paris but was lured to the United States in the early ’80s to run a restaurant in St. Louis. Eventually he hooked up with the Rosewood Hotels & Resorts chain, which brought him to the Hotel Hana Maui. In 1988 he became executive chef at Coco Palms Resort on Kauai.

He was a different person in those days, Josselin says, more intense, more aggressive. “It was interesting, my 20s and 30s.”

About five years ago Josselin stumbled upon a Hindu temple in Wailua. He’d heard the temple made cheese, and thought it might provide him with a source for fresh local milk. He didn’t find the milk, but he did find spiritual guidance.

“I just wanted to go, go, go. They made me realize, don’t be so aggressive.”

He became a convert, now attending “puja,” or prayer ritual, once or twice a week. “The temple was an important turning point for me. That’s when I realized whatever happened to me happened for a reason. You can’t keep asking, ‘Why?’ … If you learn from it, it will be better.”