Noted chef Naomi Pomeroy, who previously competed on “Top Chef Masters,” lost her life in a river tubing accident on the Willamette River near Corvallis, Oregon. The accident took place on the evening of July 13, 2024. Her friends confirmed her death on the following Monday, but her body was only found on Wednesday by canoers who noticed it in the river.
Pomeroy, along with her spouse Kyle Linden Webster and a companion, was floating down the river on tubes and a paddle board. The equipment, tied together, got entangled with a submerged tree. Pomeroy, who was not wearing a life jacket, was drawn underwater by the paddle board’s leash and failed to resurface. The recovery process was complicated by the strong river currents and underwater debris, despite the Benton County Sheriff’s Office and the Corvallis Fire Department employing sonar, underwater cameras, and drones.
The distinguished chef is best known for her restaurant Beast, which helped establish Portland, Oregon as a gastronomic hotspot. Beast was a pioneer in the city’s food scene, garnering Pomeroy multiple awards, including the James Beard Award for Best Chef in the Pacific Northwest in 2014. Her inventive cooking style and dedication to seasonal ingredients earned her a loyal following.
Following her passing, tributes poured in from all corners of the culinary world. Congressman Earl Blumenauer, who worked with Pomeroy to assist independent eateries during the COVID-19 pandemic, described her as “a fabulous chef and entrepreneur and an amazing human being whose impact extended far beyond Portland. She helped establish our leadership and reputation for food excellence.”
Many renowned chefs, including Tom Colicchio, Dominique Crenn, Andrew Zimmern, and Amanda Freitag, paid tribute to Pomeroy. “She was a force to be reckoned with. I was always inspired by her extreme creativity & commitment to her craft,” Freitag wrote. “She was always ahead of the curve and stood strong for everything she believed about the proper way to feed people good food & support her culinary community.”
Pomeroy was born in Corvallis in 1974. She honed her culinary skills without any formal training, starting her journey by observing other chefs on TV and creating her first recipe at just four years old. In 2007, she opened Beast in Portland, Oregon, a restaurant renowned for its communal dining and fixed-price menus. Pomeroy also co-founded Gotham Tavern and Gotham Coffee Shop with Michael Hebb.
A mere two weeks before the accident that ended her life, Pomeroy announced the start of a new dining series titled Garden Party. The series showcased a vegetarian-friendly menu with ingredients sourced from Pomeroy’s own garden. In her last Instagram post, she expressed her eagerness to cook for her guests again, writing, “See you all again soon! I can’t wait to cook with you again.”
Beyond her restaurants, Pomeroy had a significant influence in the culinary world. She participated in “Top Chef Masters” in 2011, earning widespread recognition. In 2014, Food & Wine named her one of the Best New Chefs, and she was also included in Marie Claire’s list of 18 Most Powerful Women in Business.
Her contributions to the food scene in Portland, Oregon, were substantial. After Beast closed in 2020 due to the pandemic, it was repurposed as Ripe Cooperative, a marketplace that sold meal kits for home cooking until it shut down in 2022. She recently opened a permanent location for her custard shop, Cornet Custard, and was in the process of opening a new restaurant in the former Woodsman Tavern space.
The community she served and inspired is deeply affected by her loss. Pomeroy’s legacy will continue to live on through the many chefs and food lovers she influenced and the groundbreaking culinary paths she blazed.