Top Chef Masters Star Naomi Pomeroy’s Body Recovered After Fatal Inner Tube Accident, Sheriff Says

The body of Top Chef Masters star Naomi Pomeroy has been recovered less than a week after her fatal inner tubing accident.

The Benton County Sheriff's Office said on Wednesday, July 17, that people canoeing on Oregon’s Willamette River saw a body around 10 a.m. and dialed 911.

Marine deputies with the BCSO arrived at the scene a short while later, and “located a deceased female on a shallow section of bedrock near the middle of the river with about one to two feet of water,” according to a press release. 

The discovery was made about a half-mile upstream of Hyak Park between Corvallis and Albany, the sheriff’s office said. 

"Deputies released Naomi to a funeral home and notified her family of the recovery,” the release added.

Pomeroy, 49, was tubing with her husband Kyle Webster and one other individual on July 13 when she went underwater and did not come back up, Benton County Patrol Lieutenant Toby Bottorff told local outlet KEZI the following day.

While her husband and the other passenger survived, Pomeroy was not wearing a life jacket at the time. She was presumed dead after search and rescue teams found her body, but could not recover her.

Pomeroy is survived by her husband and their daughter August, 23.

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On Tuesday, July 16, Webster spoke with the New York Times, saying a branch in the water led to the deadly incident. He also spoke of her demeanor in recent months.

“Naomi was pretty advanced in her understanding of this cool ride we’re on,” he told the newspaper. “She was more at peace in the last six months than she ever was before. She said she had done everything she was put here to do.”

In addition to appearing on Bravo’s Top Chef Masters in 2011, Pomeroy made her entry into the professional culinary world at the age of 24 with Ripe Catering in 1999.

Pomeroy also opened a coffee shop and an intimate restaurant called Beast, which was later transformed into a preorder meal marketplace called Ripe Cooperative, among other business ventures.

In 2013, she and her husband opened their cocktail bar, Expatriate.

Several years later, Pomeroy published her cookbook, Taste & Technique, in 2016. And in June, she opened the frozen custard eatery, Cornet Custard.

“The Bravo and Top Chef family send our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Chef Naomi Pomeroy. Naomi was a powerhouse chef who made an indelible mark on the culinary industry,” Bravo and the show said in a tweet Tuesday.

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