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The owners of República, the Mexican tasting-menu spot that's a pillar of Portland's dining scene and where Gomez was chef de cuisine previously, felt that he deserved his own restaurant. Sitting at the chef's counter at Comedor Lilia in Portland, chef Juan Gomez will tell you how freeing it is to cook the food of the Pacific Northwest through a Mexican lens as an expression of himself - hence his signature dish of a pork-collar confit served with pan arabe. At his first restaurant, Kann, chef Gregory Gourdet gives Haitian cuisine soulful finesse in a joyful room capped with a golden ceiling. Over dessert at Kann one fall evening, chef Gregory Gourdet told me that he almost didn't want to serve Haitian food in his first restaurant. [Extracted from the article]