1st Foodportunity PDX Cooks Up Gossip at Heathman Hotel

Fresh from her Sunday night soiree for her big Iron Chef America appearance, Beast's Naomi Pomeroy almost missed the very first Foodportunity Portland at the Heathman Hotel on Monday night—but she did make it about an hour into the event with Beast sous chef Mika Paredes and her child in tow.

Lots of other hot chefs showed up too — including Nostrana's Cathy Whims, MetroVino's Greg Denton, Gilt Club's Chris Carriker, Castagna's Matt Lightner, clarklewis's Dolan Lane just to name a few — as well as food PR folks, bloggers, tweeters, and pretty much anyone else who follows the Portland food scene.

Food authors were there too, including Diane Morgan pitching two new books, Liz Crain promoting her Food Lover's Guide to Portland and Myra Kohn, Seattle's Bon Vivant blogger and photographer of Kim O'Donnel's The Meat Lover's Meatless Cookbook — which comes out today. It was also the first big food-event appearance of Roger Porter since taking on his new post with Food Dude.

The night ended with Eater's own Byron Beck hassling attendees to "speed network." Go to byronbeck.com to check out more Foodportunity photos.
· Foodportunity Portland [Official site]

· Image of Naomi Pomeroy and Foodportunity's Keren Brown courtesy Byronbeck.com