HOST NORA ROBERTSON WITH GREG HIGGINS, MATT LOUNSBERRY AND NAOMI POMEROY
The New Oregon Interview Series brought three prominent Portland food artisans together for an evening of intimate conversation. Higgin’s Restaurant chef/owner Greg Higgins, Stumptown director Matt Lounsbury and Beast chef/owner Naomi Pomeroy sat down to discuss their work and how our food culture is evolving on October 26th at Urban Grind East. Previously launching family supper, ripe catering, clarklewis and Gotham Tavern, Pomeroy opened the doors to Beast in 2007 and quickly garnered awards as one of Bon Appetit’s 2008 top six female chefs, Food and Wine Magazine’s 2009 top ten chefs in America and a James Beard Award for Best Chef semi-finalist for the Northwest.. As operations director for Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Lounsberry oversees markets in Portland, Seattle and New York and direct trade with growers on three continents. After stints in Alsace, Burgundy and Sun Valley, Greg Higgins was executive chef at the Heathman Hotel for almost a decade before he opened the influential Higgins’ Restaurant, appearing on Martha Steward and PBS’ New American Cuisine and receiving the James Beard Foundation 2002-2003 Best Chef Award for the Northwest.
Host Nora Robertson conceived the New Oregon Interview Series to find out how Portland’s blossoming creative culture has developed and where it’s headed. “A lot has changed in the past decade,” Robertson says. “The best perspective comes from the artists themselves—and the designers, writers, chefs, and venues who make things happen here.” “A lot has changed in the past decade,” Robertson says. “The best perspective comes from the artists themselves—and the designers, writers, chefs, and venues who make things happen here.” The Oregonian's Barry Johnson remarked "at this point, we don't know whether we're headed back where we left off 18 months ago or whether we're going somewhere completely new. That question is at the center of the New Oregon Interview Series."
Audiences can sit in and join the discussions at eight live events, all slated for the last Wednesday of each month at Urban Grind East, near NE 20th Ave. and Sandy Boulevard. Over forty interviews will be published in a printed anthology; some are currently available online. The series presents its visual art night on Wednesday, November 11th, at Urban Grind East, 2214 NE Oregon St., from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m., doors open at 6:00 pm. Beer, wine, coffee, and light snacks will be available for purchase. Admission is $5 at the door, or $30 for a season pass to eight live events). Letterpress artist and bookmaker Clare Carpenter of Tiger Food Press will also discuss her work creating a limited-edition letterpress broadside based on the interviews.
The New Oregon Interview Series is presented by New Oregon Arts and Letters, a 501c(3) nonprofit organization formerly known as 2GQ, the publishers of 2 Gyrlz Quarterly.
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Naomi Pomeroy and her sous chef Mika Paredes first welcomed customers to Beast on September 27, 2007. Accolades and awards have followed: features in Gourmet and Elle Magazine; Bon Appètit named Naomi as one of the top 6 of a new generation of female chefs in September 2008; Food and Wine Magazine has recognized her as one of the 10 Best New Chefs in America for 2009. Locally, Naomi was voted Chef of the Year for 2008 by Portland Monthly, Beast was honored as Restaurant of the Year for 2008 by the Oregonian, and chosen as best Brunch by the Willamette Weekly. Naomi has also been nominated as a semi-finalist for a James Beard Award for Best Chef- Pacific Northwest. Naomi was born and raised in Corvallis, Oregon. She spent her childhood hanging Around the stove and in backyard gardens with her mother (who spent her early years in Rouen) and with Grandmother Vivian who hailed from New Orleans. Before opening Beast, Naomi and Michael Hebb started up ripe catering in 1999 and soon thereafter launched an underground supper club in their Northeast Portland bungalow called "family supper." After a couple years of dodging authorities, using salvaged doors rigged as tabletops, and defrosting shrimp in the bathtub, they decided to go legit. In rapid succession they opened the Gotham Coffee Shop, clarklewis restaurant, and the Gotham Tavern. In the summer of 2007, after the Gotham Coffee Shop and Tavern had closed and clarklewis had been sold, Naomi started to cook small family-style suppers again. The intimacy of these suppers is preserved at Beast, a 24 -seat restaurant where people can chat freely with each other at communal tables. Beast serves a six-course prix-fixe menu at two seatings 4 nights a week and a four-course brunch on Sundays.
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Matt Lounsbury is director of operations for Stumptown, responsible for overseeing eight retail cafes and three roasting and wholesale operations across three markets. Since 1997, Stumptown has pioneered direct trade with farmers, and flies their growers to Seattle, Portland, and New York City to see where their beans are going and to meet the people who swear by the final product. The New York Times wrote that “the company is known for an intensity that’s part punk, part religion.” With Stumptown since 2003, Lounsbury started as a barista and has grown with the company ever since, with a day to day focus on keeping it real and right as a company.
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Chef/owner of Higgins Restaurant & Bar in Portland, Oregon since 1994, Greg Higgins is an avid organic gardener and active proponent of sustainable food practices. Higgins maintains a strong commitment to supporting local farmers, fishermen, ranchers and foragers as well as to educating and inspiring people to choose good clean food. Higgins’ cooking focuses on Pacific Northwest ingredients and traditional French techniques, incorporating an eclectic range of influences from around the world. After studying fine art at Harwick College and working nights at a classic northern Italian restaurant, Higgins headed for Europe to pursue his interest in cooking, landing influential training stints in Alsace and Burgundy. Higgins returned to the United States to cook in restaurants in Sun Valley, Seattle and, finally, Portland, where he received rave reviews for almost a decade as Executive Chef at The Heathman Hotel. Higgins has appeared on many television programs including Martha Stewart, Burt Wolf’s “What’s Cooking” and “Healthy Eating,” as well as PBS’s “New American Cuisine.” He was honored by the James Beard Foundation as the recipient of their 2002-2003 Best Chef Award: Northwest/Hawaii.
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