Naomi Pomeroy is a native Oregonian who grew up cooking on a step stool in the kitchen next to her mother and grandmother. The first thing she learned to make was a cheese soufflé with a green salad from the garden dressed simply in olive oil, red wine vinegar, and lemon. Her early childhood cooking experiences taught her that sometimes simplicity is the golden rule. Naomi’s restaurant Beast is a refined version of the food of her childhood. Nestled in a little corner of NE Portland, Beast serves an elegant six-course tasting menu that changes every two weeks, a casual four-course dinner on Tuesdays where the menu changes weekly, and Sunday brunch. Her second venture, Expatriate, is a cocktail bar with southeast Asian drinking snacks she opened with her Husband, Kyle Lynden Webster in 2013. Always pushing the boundaries with creativity, she stepped out of the kitchen to open Colibri, a flower studio and plant shop in 2018. In addition to numerous awards and accolades, in 2014 Naomi took home the award for Best Chef in the Pacific Northwest from the James Beard Foundation. Her first cookbook, Taste and Technique, was released in 2016.