Lauded Portland Chef Lauro Romero Has Died

Lauro Romero, the Bellpine chef who helped open the nationally celebrated Mexican restaurant República, died on Friday, February 16, according to a statement posted to his pop-up Clandestino’s Instagram. The cause of death has not been released, but the post says the chef “passed peacefully in his sleep.”

“Many of us were lucky to call Lauro a leader, mentor, friend, and collaborator over his lauded career,” the statement reads in part. “Lauro led with quiet confidence, always sure of who he was, showing boundless creativity and an incomparable talent. This is what made him a mentor to so many in this industry, and his humor, goofiness, and humility is what drew so many to him.”

Over the past decade, Romero became one of Portland’s most celebrated chefs specializing in Mexican food, both via his pop-up Clandestino and his time at República. The New York Times named his whole grilled dorado one of the best American dishes of 2023, and República was a semifinalist for the 2022 James Beard Awards during his tenure. He was also considered a culinary mentor by many, including those who worked under him at pop-ups and previous restaurants.

Romero was born in Tulancingo in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico, where he spent his childhood; he moved the U.S. when he was 14, after his parents separated. His years in Mexico were incredibly influential to him as a chef, eating pastes, a regional pastry filled with tinga or ground beef, and barbacoa made by relatives at big family dinners. When he moved to Salt Lake City as a young teen, he eventually started working in restaurants, washing dishes on the weekends while he was in high school. “I never thought I was going to be a chef, but I liked the full adrenaline of (the) line,” Romero told Becoming Mexican in 2019. “The ticket machine thumping, the food that needed to be made, and these guys were just in the weeds, as we say in the kitchen.”

After high school, he decided to focus on his career as a chef. He spent seven years working for Bambara in Salt Lake City, within the Kimpton Hotel Monaco in Utah. He worked for Kimpton hotels and their restaurants for more than a decade, landing at the Riverplace Hotel’s restaurant in Southwest Portland. Around that time, he started hosting a tacos and tequila pop-up at the restaurant, and when the space transformed into seafood spot King Tide Fish & Shell, Romero began to incorporate more of the flavors of his childhood into main menu dishes — masa-fried calamari, Oregon rockfish ceviche.

His pop-up, Clandestino, became a more dedicated space for Romero to explore food that was entirely his own. Set up in the hallway of a cafe once home to La Perlita, he’d serve things like carnitas tortas and guisado-filled pastes throughout the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. By the end of 2020, La Perlita owner Angel Medina, pastry chef Olivia Bartruff, and Romero were in the process of opening República in the same Pearl District building. Originally, they pitched the space as a combination Mexican cafe and dessert bar, with guisados in the daytime and Mexican wines and pastries in the evening.

República dramatically shifted its approach shortly after, however, and soon, Romero was serving an evening tasting menu in the space, inspired by his childhood in Hidalgo, his culinary history in the United States, and the larger pre- and post-colonial foodways in Mexico. His quesadilla — made with tri-color masa, stretchy quesillo, and nutty salsa macha — developed a cult following, both during the more casual lunchtime service and as a tasting menu course. Within its first year, República was unlike any other restaurant in the city, exploring the political, historical, and personal context of Mexican cuisine with each of its tasting menu courses. Romero incorporated Pacific Northwestern influences, as well: a 2021 rice and bean course paired chanterelle-adobo rice with nixtamalized beans, topped with pickled chanterelles.

“I wanted to explore my roots and the food that I grew up eating,” he told Eater in 2021. “I wanted to do Mexican-forward food with my own interpretation, techniques that are very special to me.” República was Eater Portland’s Restaurant of the Year in 2021.

Romero left República soon afterward, reinvesting his energy in Clandestino. The pop-up moved into the Lil’ Dame space, and soon, he and other República alumni began serving salsas with house-made tortilla tostadas and grilling whole fish over flames. He left the day-to-day operations of the pop-up to help open the Ritz-Carlton’s restaurant, Bellpine, which began service on October 31, 2023.

“I have always been very ambitious,” Romero told Becoming Mexican. “I came from what I came, and I think I’ve accomplished some things I’m proud of.”

Romero is survived by his two daughters, Naia Yaretzi Romero and Citlalli Diane Romero. Friends and family have organized a GoFundMe to help cover funeral expenses; information about memorial services is available online.