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Chef Naomi Pomeroy of Beast won the 2014 James Beard Award for Best Chef in the Northwest.
(The Oregonian)
Naomi Pomeroy, the chef-owner of Northeast Portland's Beast restaurant, was named the Best Chef in the Northwest at the 2014 James Beard Awards in New York City Monday.
Pomeroy thanked her daughter, her husband, her fellow nominees, including Nostrana's Cathy Whims, and her staff, with a special mention for longtime right-hand-woman Mika Paredes, who left the restaurant in November.
"We all know that we don't do this alone at all," Pomeroy said. "I feel like I'm taking this home for everybody in the Northwest."
This marked Pomeroy's fourth invitation to the so-called "Oscars of food," with nominations in 2010, 2012 and 2013. Her win also marks the third time in four years that a Portland chef has taken home the Best Chef Northwest award, a category representing restaurants from Alaska to Wyoming that was long dominated by Seattle chefs.
Pomeroy, walking to the stage to Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," beat out three Seattle chefs -- Seattle's Renee Erickson (The Whale Wins), Jason Franey (Canlis), and Ethan Stowell (Staple & Fancy) -- as well as Whims, a six time nominee, for the award.
In other local Beard news:
- Clyde Common was beat out in the Outstanding Bar Program by
- At an earlier ceremony, Pok Pok chef Andy Ricker took home a journalism award for his Saveur article on Thai curries, "
- And as previously reported,
-- Michael Russell