Update on May 12th: The gofundme account mentioned in this story for chef Arthur Gonzalez is now up.
“He was a real kind soul.” - Arturo Enciso
Long Beach’s food and drink community woke up to learn the news today of the untimely death of pioneering chef Arthur Gonzalez. According to a post on Caring Bridge, Gonzalez suffered a heart attack on Saturday, May 7th at 12:30 AM. He split his time between his Long Beach New Mexican restaurant Panxa Cocina and Tribe at Riverwalk in Castle Rock, Colorado. He was at his Colorado home when it happened. After the sudden heart attack, he fell into a medically induced and natural coma after he underwent two surgeries—one to insert a stint into his right ventricle and another to insert a heart pump on his left side. He was on a ventilator before dying.
An outpouring of support including social media posts full of tributes from Gonzalez’s friends and foodservice family around Long Beach started to show up late last night. He leaves behind his wife, Vanessa Auclair, and three dogs, Prince, Cash, and Gracie. A gofundme page will be posted soon to help with funeral costs.
Gonzalez grew up in L.A.’s southeast city of Cerritos and was one of the most passionate and prolific chefs in Long Beach in the last decade. He opened The Hideaway, Roe Seafood, and Panxa Cocina. In Colorado, he also founded Tribe Catering and also an outdoor cooking project named Watchfire Excursions,” where he took friends on nomadic cooking excursions off the grid.