Naomi Pomeroy was a Portland, Oregon chef who founded the restaurant Beast and competed on cooking shows like “Iron Chef” and “Top Chef Masters.”
Naomi Pomeroy’s legacy
Pomeroy was a self-taught chef, beginning to cook at a very young age and never attending culinary school. In fact, she studied history at Lewis & Clark College, but as she created meals for her friends, she discovered a passion for food that drove her to make it her career. She began opening restaurants with her first husband, Michael Hebb, growing out of a series of pop-up dinners they hosted in their home. Their first restaurants, opened in Portland, included Gotham Tavern and Clarklewis.
After the breakup of that marriage, Pomeroy struck out on her own in 2006 and opened Beast, a small, French-influenced restaurant focusing on responsibly sourced meat. Pomeroy and her sous chef cooked their customers’ dinners in the same room where they ate, separated only by a butcher block. Beast became a sought-after dining destination, and Pomeroy’s profile rose: In 2009, Food & Wine named her one of America’s best new chefs, and she won a James Beard Award.
Pomeroy’s first experience with reality cooking shows came when she competed on “Iron Chef” in 2010. The following year, she was a contestant on “Top Chef Masters,” winning over the judges with dishes like Beast’s celery soup and braised chicken. Pomeroy was eliminated after serving a salad that included what the judges called undercooked shrimp, though she asserted that it simply wasn’t overcooked. She also served as a guest judge on “Knife Fight” and published the 2016 cookbook “Taste & Technique: Recipes to Elevate Your Home Cooking.”
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“Seeing the look on someone’s face when they eat my food … I feel joy in the entire process. From buying the ingredients to getting to see someone eat it. I like every single step of that process.” — from an interview for Balmuda
Tributes to Naomi Pomeroy
Full obituary: The New York Times
