Fundraiser Held For Daughters Of Late DC Chef Andrew La Porta

WASHINGTON, DC — Friends of Andrew La Porta, a Washington, D.C., chef who died of natural causes on Feb. 5 at the age of 48, are raising money to support his two young children. La Porta was the well-regarded chef and owner of the seafood restaurant Pesce in DuPont Circle.

Because La Porta, who lived in Bethesda with his family, did not have life insurance, his friends are hoping to raise $150,000 to help support his daughters, Samantha and Emily, aged 7 and 3. All donations will go directly into the children’s account.

La Porta started working at Pesce in 2012. Five years later, he bought the restaurant from Regine Palladin, who had owned the restaurant since the 2001 death of her husband Jean Louis Palladin, a famed French chef who co-founded the restaurant in the 1990s.

Along with his daughters, La Porta is survived by his wife Dalavy Sadettan La Porta, his parents Ann Winget La Porta and Alphonse F. La Porta of the District, and his sister Katie La Porta-Beach of Potomac.

Sadettan La Porta told Eater that the restaurant will be shut down. “There is no one who’s going to run it,” she told the news site.

During La Porta's time as owner of the restaurant, Tom Sietsema, The Washington Post’s food critic, wrote: “There is no better fish house in Washington than Pesce.”

La Porta told Sietsema that he wanted customers to know Pesce is the opposite of snooty. “We want people to come in, hang out and not feel rushed," he said.

Aside from running the restaurant, La Porta helped to feed the homeless population in the District. When the pandemic hit last March, his efforts extended to helping his own employees.

Dalavy Sadettan La Porta told Patch that many of her husband's employees viewed him as a close friend. As the pandemic refused to let up, La Porta was forced to lay off employees, although he helped them find other jobs, Sadettan La Porta said.

The pandemic was hard on Pesce due to the restrictions on in-door dining and with customers hesitant to come inside to eat when the restrictions loosened. During the summer months in 2020, business was slightly better when outdoor dining was possible, Sadettan La Porta said.

La Porta “gave his talents and time freely to his community and friends when they were in need,” the GoFundMe site reads. “It is our goal to repay his generosity and to help the young family that is now left without him.”

The money collected from the fundraising campaign will be used for the girls' education and their immediate needs.

“We can never give them their father back, but we can show them that they are loved and cared for during this devastating time,” the GoFundMe site says.

La Porta was born in 1973 in Malaysia where he lived at the time with his parents when his father worked in the U.S. Foreign Service. His father later became the U.S. ambassador to Mongolia during the Clinton administration. While the District was the family's home base while growing up, La Porta also lived with his parents in Indonesia, Turkey and New Zealand.

He met his wife in Laos while on a trip to Southeast Asia. They were married in the District in May 2007.

Visit the GoFundMe campaign site to donate money to support La Porta's young daughters.