Award-winning Portland chef Naomi Pomeroy dies at 49

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 was 49.

According to a report from KEZI.com, 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, the sheriff’s office said.

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 dispatched around 8:25 p.m. Saturday spotted Pomeroy’s body underwater. A strong undercurrent prevented them from recovering the body.

The search resumed Sunday with additional assistance from the Linn County Sheriff’s Office Dive Team. The plan is to have boats on the water until the body is 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 — her first, Ripe Supper Club, began as 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 the Ripe 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 2013, Pomeroy partnered with Webster to open Expatriate, a dimly lit cocktail bar with wonton nachos and a great bar burger directly across the street from Beast that maintains a spot on our guide to Portland’s best restaurants. 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, with pastas and pantry goods. 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 at work on a new bistro on Southeast Division Street.

Remembrances from friends and colleagues began to roll in Monday evening.

In a statement, congressman Rep. Earl Blumenauer, who worked with Pomeroy on legislation aimed at saving independent restaurants during the pandemic, mourned the chef’s “tragic death.”

“What a loss,” Blumenauer wrote. “Naomi was not just a fabulous chef and entrepreneur, but an amazing human being. Her impact went far beyond Portland, helping establish our leadership and reputation for food excellence. She will be greatly missed”

Meriwether Group founder David Howitt first met Pomeroy at an early Ripe 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.”

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

— Michael Russell; mrussell@oregonian.com

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