"Justin Woodward, the longtime chef of now-closed fine dining institution Castagna and its sister restaurant, OK Omens, has died at the age of 43. An alumnus of New York palace of molecular gastronomy wd~50, Woodward was known for his avant-garde approach to contemporary fine dining, particularly pastry, and was a James Beard Award semifinalist on seven separate occasions, making the list of finalists five times."
"Woodward was a passionate chef from a young age, studying the culinary arts at the Art Institute of California - San Diego, cooking at luxury resort L'Auberge Del Mar in California, and staging through lauded restaurants around the world, including Noma and Eleven Madison Park. He eventually landed at New York's famed wd~50 as a pastry cook, before he moved to Portland to work under chef Matthew Lightner at Castagna."
"There, he created iconic dishes like the restaurant's famed potato ice cream dessert, with its ripples of meringue skin. "His best ideas were excitedly out of the box," Portland Monthly critic Karen Brooks wrote of Woodward in 2023. "For months, I obsessed over his edible 'terrarium,' layered in a glass with dreamy onion custard and bright green onion-stalk puree standing in for soil below a greenhouse of leaves and flowers.""
Justin Woodward, 43, died after a career as the longtime chef of Castagna and its sister restaurant OK Omens. He trained at the Art Institute of California - San Diego, cooked at L'Auberge Del Mar, and staged at acclaimed restaurants including Noma and Eleven Madison Park before working as a pastry cook at New York's wd~50. He moved to Portland to work under Matthew Lightner, became Castagna's executive chef in 2011, and created signature dishes such as a potato ice cream dessert and an edible 'terrarium.' He earned seven James Beard semifinalist nods and five finalist placements.
Read at Portland Monthly
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