Nora Pouillon - My Organic Life

Part of Independent Book Store Day 2015

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A wonderfully engaging memoir from the woman who founded America’s first certified organic restaurant, My Organic Life is the story of an unheralded culinary pioneer who made it her mission to bring delicious, wholesome foods to the American table.

While growing up on a farm in the Austrian Alps and later in Vienna, Nora Pouillon was surrounded by fresh and delicious foods. So when she and her French husband moved to Washington, D.C. in the 1960s, she was horrified to discover a culinary culture dominated by hormone-bloated meat and unseasonal vegetables. The distance between good, healthy produce and what even the top restaurants were serving was vast, and Nora was determined to bridge that gap.

First as a cooking teacher, then as a restaurant owner, and eventually as the country’s premier organic restaurateur, she charted a path that forever changed our relationship with what we eat. Since it opened in 1979, her eponymous restaurant has been a hot spot for reporters, celebrities, and politicians alike. Along the way, Pouillon redefined what food could be, forging close relationships with local producers and launching initiatives to take the organic movement mainstream.

Nora Pouillon was born in Vienna. She moved to the United States in the late 1960s and in 1979 opened Restaurant Nora, which in 1999 became the first certified organic restaurant in the country.

Location: 

1 Ferry Building
San Francisco, CA 94111