Naomi Pomeroy, a Portland chef, cookbook author and “Top Chef Masters” contestant who was at work on a new restaurant in Southeast Portland, drowned while floating on the Willamette River late Saturday, close friends and associates confirmed Monday.
Pomeroy, dubbed a “cooking-world star” by the New Yorker, was 49.
The loss immediately reverberated across Oregon, where Pomeroy’s cooking helped define the Portland food scene that was responsible for the city’s glowing reputation for innovation and creativity.
U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, who worked with Pomeroy on federal legislation aimed at saving independent restaurants during the pandemic, mourned the chef’s “tragic death.”
“Naomi was not just a fabulous chef and entrepreneur, but an amazing human being,” Blumenauer wrote in a statement Monday. “Her impact went far beyond Portland, helping establish our leadership and reputation for food excellence. She will be greatly missed.”
The details of what happened in Corvallis remain unclear Tuesday.
The Benton County Sheriff’s Office said an unidentified woman was one of three people floating toward Michael’s Landing about 100 yards upstream from Mary’s River after 8 p.m. when their tubes, which were tied together, hit a snag. The woman, who was not wearing a life jacket, went underwater and did not resurface, according to a report from KEZI.com.
Friends identified the woman as Pomeroy. The Benton County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to multiple calls and emails Monday.
Marine patrol boats from the sheriff’s office and Corvallis Fire Department arrived around 8:25 p.m. Saturday and reportedly spotted Pomeroy’s body underwater. A strong undercurrent prevented them from recovering it.
The search resumed Sunday with additional assistance from the Linn County Sheriff’s Office Dive Team. The plan was to have boats on the water until the body was recovered.
The other two people on the float, including Pomeroy’s husband, Kyle Linden Webster, survived.
Webster could not be reached Monday.
Pomeroy, who was born in Oregon, started cooking as a toddler, inspired by her mother, who has lived in Rouen, France, and her grandmother, who was from New Orleans. Her autodidactic approach extended to her restaurants, beginning with a proto pop-up held in her own home — there were few hotter tickets in town. Soon, Pomeroy and then-partner Michael Hebb would open a series of restaurants including Gotham Building Tavern and Clarklewis, landing the duo attention from glossy national magazines and cable food shows alike.
When their Ripe restaurant group collapsed, Pomeroy picked herself up and opened Beast, a new restaurant with communal seating and a salon vibe that would go on to define Portland dining through the early 2010s. With Le Pigeon, Beast was named The Oregonian’s co-Restaurant of the Year in 2008. The next year, Pomeroy was named one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs and, in 2014, she took home the James Beard Award as the best chef in the Pacific Northwest.
In 2011, Pomeroy competed on “Top Chef Masters,” the All Star version of the popular Bravo TV reality cooking show. Two years later, Pomeroy partnered with Webster to open Expatriate, a dimly lit cocktail bar directly across the street from Beast that maintains a spot on our guide to Portland’s best restaurants. And in 2016, she published her first cookbook, “Taste & Technique: Recipes to Elevate Your Home Cooking.”
Beast lasted until the pandemic. At that point, Pomeroy pivoted again, reclaiming an old name with a new restaurant/market hybrid, Ripe Cooperative. She also became involved in advocating for her industry as a co-founder of the national Independent Restaurant Coalition. Before she died, Pomeroy had just opened Cornet Custard, a standalone shop for the yolk-rich ice cream she and longtime right hand woman Mika Paredes first served at Ripe Cooperative, and was planning a new bistro on Southeast Division Street.
Remembrances from friends and colleagues began to roll in Monday evening.
Meriwether Group founder David Howitt first met Pomeroy at an early supper club event.
“I thought it was just so disruptive and relevant,” Howitt said of the dinner. “She had a mind not only for the artistry of food, but a strong sense of community…She was always in my very small camp of friends who I could count on for the truth. And I will miss that greatly.”
Howitt, who became an investor in Pomeroy’s projects, heard about her death from Webster on Sunday.
“We’ve all read those stories about river floats gone awry,” he said. “The thing about nature is that it’s beautiful but it’s also wild. She ultimately met her end through the wildness of it.”
— Michael Russell; mrussell@oregonian.com
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