On Saturday evening, what started as a joyful river outing near Corvallis turned profoundly tragic. Today, the family of Naomi Pomeroy confirmed to me that the chef is feared drowned. Her body has not yet been recovered.

Pomeroy, 49, whose name is synonymous with Portland’s independent food scene, was inner tubing with her husband Kyle Linden Webster, co-owner of esteemed restaurants Expatriate and Yaowarat. According to the family, their flotilla flipped over in murky, fast-moving currents after hitting a snag. Webster was fortunate to make it to the shore, despite the dangerous waters. Search and rescue was quickly dispatched.

Pomeroy started out as an unschooled chef who made her first recipe at age 4, then helped redefine the modern Portland restaurant at Beast, her groundbreaking fine-dining destination. The essence of Portland thrummed in this room: scrappy but chic, full of wit and ironic humor and backed by a local ethos and extravagant comfort. In 2014, Pomeroy won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific.

In 2020, Pomeroy transformed Beast into a market and all-day bistro called Ripe Cooperative, reclaiming the name of her legendary 2002 supper club. Recently, she cofounded Cornet Custard with decades-long collaborator Mika Paredes, an ice cream shop a cut above, as was her perpetual standard, and was laying the groundwork to open an ambitious French restaurant in the former Woodsman Tavern on SE Division.

The larger Portland community is in shock that one of its brightest stars has met a sudden and tragic end to a vibrant life. Her family asks for privacy at this moment; there are no plans yet for a memorial. Here's wishing comfort and strength to her family and community in facing this immense loss.