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My Organic Life: How a Pioneering Chef Helped Shape the Way We Eat Today
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—from Jimmy Carter to the Obamas—alike. Along the way, Nora redefined what food could be, forging close relationships with local producers and launching initiatives to take the organic movement mainstream.
As much the story of America’s postwar culinary history as it is a memoir, My Organic Life encompasses the birth of the farm-to-table movement, the proliferation of greenmarkets across the country, and the evolution of the chef into social advocate. Spanning the last forty years of our relationship with food, My Organic Life is the deeply personal, powerfully felt story of the organic revolution—by the unlikely heroine at its forefront.
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—from Jimmy Carter to the Obamas—alike. Along the way, Nora redefined what food could be, forging close relationships with local producers and launching initiatives to take the organic movement mainstream.
As much the story of America’s postwar culinary history as it is a memoir, My Organic Life encompasses the birth of the farm-to-table movement, the proliferation of greenmarkets across the country, and the evolution of the chef into social advocate. Spanning the last forty years of our relationship with food, My Organic Life is the deeply personal, powerfully felt story of the organic revolution—by the unlikely heroine at its forefront.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published April 21, 2015
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328 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
March 9, 2015
Growing up in Vienna during the war, Nora Pouillon learned the importance of food. Moving to the United States as a young adult, she was shocked to see that - rather than what she was used to - food here came in "...packages, boxes and bags..." (Quote courtesy of his green meanness - The Grinch). Rather than visiting each specific shop and chatting with the butcher, or the fruit stand owner, or the baker about what was fresh, it all just came in a sterile grocery store. Realizing that this could not possibly be healthy, Pouillon began to research. "My Organic Life" is the story of that research, and how it led Pouillon to become a leader in the Organic movement in Washington, DC.
I enjoyed reading this. Her experiences growing up were fascinating to read about, and directly tied into her fascination with food later on. The writing is better than I anticipated, and the story flowed well. The only issue I had, and it is a minor one, is that it seems like she did spend more time than I appreciated patting herself on the back for being "first" on many occasions to try something new. Don't get me wrong - the lady has every right to be proud of what she has accomplished, both personally and as a force of nature in the organics world. But I don't necessarily feel that it needs to be shoved to the forefront quite so often either.
Otherwise, it is an interesting look at an interesting lady. It reads well and smoothly, and was an quick and fun read.
I enjoyed reading this. Her experiences growing up were fascinating to read about, and directly tied into her fascination with food later on. The writing is better than I anticipated, and the story flowed well. The only issue I had, and it is a minor one, is that it seems like she did spend more time than I appreciated patting herself on the back for being "first" on many occasions to try something new. Don't get me wrong - the lady has every right to be proud of what she has accomplished, both personally and as a force of nature in the organics world. But I don't necessarily feel that it needs to be shoved to the forefront quite so often either.
Otherwise, it is an interesting look at an interesting lady. It reads well and smoothly, and was an quick and fun read.
July 27, 2015
This is a memoir by one of the leaders in the organic food movement and I am a fan of her Washington, D.C., restaurant. In fact, Restaurant Nora was the first certified organic restaurant in the country. However, the book is also interesting on other levels because the author was born in Austria, where she lived until after WWII and was raised in a somewhat remarkable fashion. I found her account of coming to the US as a young woman in 1965 the most interesting part of the book because she focuses on the differences between the European style of shopping for and preparing food at that time and the American supermarket offerings--a very limited range of fresh produce, spongy white bread, lots of frozen food, etc. Her story is a reminder of how far we've come since those days and of a remarkable woman.
November 14, 2018
Pouillon's memoirs, sometimes oddly related with the word "shocked" as shocked by American eaters with health concerns, irregular domestic relationships. Despite the subtitle, more coverage of her family and her Pierre.
January 11, 2020
2.5 stars. A formidable woman who had the first certified organic restaurant in the US. Too much focus on her personal life.
Read
February 7, 2020I'm using this book in augmentation with a school assignment. Very helpful information.
July 20, 2020
Fun backstory on a household name among DC foodies. Also fun to get little glimpses of DC, when it's long been regarded as lacking in any real food scene. And a fast read.
July 11, 2024
pleasant read but wish i learned more about what organic means and the actual effects of pesticides and whatnot
January 28, 2016
Nora Pouillon grew up in Vienna and even during WWII her family managed to have access to fresh food from a local farm. After she was married and moved to the US in the early 1970's, Pouillon was appalled to discover the lack of available fresh food in grocery stores. She was used to buying fresh food daily in Europe. Soon she started teaching cooking classes out of her home and finding ways to locate fresh, local food. She was eventually asked to work as the cook for a new local restaurant. After a year doing that she decided to open her own restaurant with a partner. Over time Pouillon managed to find more local farmers to support her vision for fresh, locally grown food and in the late 1990's even had her restaurant certified organic - the first in the nation to do so.
While I applaud her drive to find and serve local, fresh food, I don't agree with the certified organic movement. I'm with Joel Salatin when it comes to that kind of stuff - getting the USDA involved with food is always a mistake and will make things MUCH harder for smaller farms to meet their criteria. So, the end of the book was a little disappointing to me when she was going on and on about certified organic everything.
I also wondered about her children. She had 2 children with her first husband Pierre and she rarely mentioned them in most of the book. Then she went on to have another child with her partner Steven and later adopt another child with him - all while still married to Pierre. After 30+ years with Steven he had a long-term affair and that ended too. Her personal life seemed like a disaster and I felt sorry for these 4 children who were left in the wake. I do wish there had been a little more about her family life and how she did manage that along with her obvious success in the restaurant and organic food worlds. Overall, still a good book that highlights the importance of eating good quality, local food.
While I applaud her drive to find and serve local, fresh food, I don't agree with the certified organic movement. I'm with Joel Salatin when it comes to that kind of stuff - getting the USDA involved with food is always a mistake and will make things MUCH harder for smaller farms to meet their criteria. So, the end of the book was a little disappointing to me when she was going on and on about certified organic everything.
I also wondered about her children. She had 2 children with her first husband Pierre and she rarely mentioned them in most of the book. Then she went on to have another child with her partner Steven and later adopt another child with him - all while still married to Pierre. After 30+ years with Steven he had a long-term affair and that ended too. Her personal life seemed like a disaster and I felt sorry for these 4 children who were left in the wake. I do wish there had been a little more about her family life and how she did manage that along with her obvious success in the restaurant and organic food worlds. Overall, still a good book that highlights the importance of eating good quality, local food.
June 4, 2015
Nora Pouillon is a well known chef in the DC area. After reading a review of the book in the paper, I was interested in reading about her involvement in the organic food movement, especially her pioneering efforts in the "farm to table" concept decades before it became trendy.
Unfortunately the writer does not give enough time and attention to all of Pouillon's great accomplishments in the organic movement and her work with farmers to bring local food to restaurants as well as to the home cooks. It is not until the second half of the book that we get to hear about these. Given the title of the book, I was expecting the majority to be devoted to all of her work in this area. Instead, I feel like both Nora and the reader have been deprived of the recounting of the remarkable work she did over 4 decades.
Entirely too much of the book was devoted to her personal life, especially her relationships with men beginning when she was a teenager. Her apparent lack of a moral compass was disturbing and seem to take front and center in the story at times. It seems that the writer and the co writer of this memoir lost the focus of what this book should be.
Unfortunately the writer does not give enough time and attention to all of Pouillon's great accomplishments in the organic movement and her work with farmers to bring local food to restaurants as well as to the home cooks. It is not until the second half of the book that we get to hear about these. Given the title of the book, I was expecting the majority to be devoted to all of her work in this area. Instead, I feel like both Nora and the reader have been deprived of the recounting of the remarkable work she did over 4 decades.
Entirely too much of the book was devoted to her personal life, especially her relationships with men beginning when she was a teenager. Her apparent lack of a moral compass was disturbing and seem to take front and center in the story at times. It seems that the writer and the co writer of this memoir lost the focus of what this book should be.
July 8, 2015
It's easy to find organic produce and hormone-free meat now, but 50 years ago, that was not the case. Nora Pouillon is a Vienna-born chef and founder of Restaurant Nora, the first certified organic restaurant in the United States. When Nora came to Washington D.C. in the 1960s, she was horrified at the lack of seasonal produce and meat filled with hormones and antibiotics. Nora helped start the organic food revolution, and her memoir is an interesting look at her life, starting with her childhood growing up during WWII, whirlwind romance to a Frenchman, and finally, as a chef and restaurateur committed to serving organic food. Pick up this book if you enjoyed Michael Pollan's books, or just like reading about food.
Kathleen K. / Marathon County Public Library
Find this book in our library catalog.
August 4, 2016
I actually met Nora before I even read the book. I was at a film event organized by EWG and my friend introduced her to me. She is very elegant and kind. I read the book out of curiosity and it was a very joyful read.
I like how she described her life and how her life influenced and was influenced by food. The journey of her from Vienna to Washington, DC is full of love, romance, nervousness, frustration, positivity, hardship, disappointment, but with a determination. I admire her courage and commitment to organic lifestyle and to sustainable land use. I also admire her bluntness and honesty about her personal life throughout the book. She admitted to live alone is hard but she luckily has many friends. She is an extraordinary woman and has created a legacy that will have a lasting impact on each of us.
I like how she described her life and how her life influenced and was influenced by food. The journey of her from Vienna to Washington, DC is full of love, romance, nervousness, frustration, positivity, hardship, disappointment, but with a determination. I admire her courage and commitment to organic lifestyle and to sustainable land use. I also admire her bluntness and honesty about her personal life throughout the book. She admitted to live alone is hard but she luckily has many friends. She is an extraordinary woman and has created a legacy that will have a lasting impact on each of us.
January 13, 2016
It was inspiring in some ways, and infuriating in others. What I was specifically looking for in it, I found, which was the inspiration from her upbringing that inspired and propelled her advocacy efforts for organic food and better eating for better health. There was too much detail about her personal life for my taste, too much justification for some circumstances and choices that have challenged the family dynamic in the United States. So its like she threw herself into addressing one major, very important issue, while almost speaking in support of another major, very important problem.
August 2, 2016
An interesting memoir/autobiography from the premier chef of the organic food movement. Chef Nora was born at the end of World War 2 in Austria and learned the value of fresh food. She and her husband moved to Washington DC in the late 60s and she was horrified at the lack of fresh food in American supermarkets. The narrative covers the evolution of her ideas on fresh, organic food for restaurants and also making it available through farmers markets. She had an unconventional private life and discusses it straightforwardly. It was an interesting read.
November 17, 2015
Interesting read about Nora Pouillon and the events of her life that influenced her restaurant business. Never had heard of Nora before but I always like a good food memoir. I love food but am not that into organic but the book was still interesting. I liked more of the childhood and early adulthood parts of the story compared with the story once she started being successful as a business woman.
August 16, 2020
Such an insightful book on the food industry and food culture as it is today. One of my favorite quotes is towards the end “Before World War II, there was no such thing as organic food. All food was organic. Food was just food - plants, grains, meats, and dairy that we could all recognize or grow. There were no long lists of ingredients on packages that you couldn’t pronounce, much less have any idea what they did to your body or the environment.”
June 17, 2015
The author is an interesting individual who clued into the organic and natural food issue early and really brought it to the fore in DC. In my opinion, however, the book suffered from a common issue for memoirs generally, in that it didn't deal quite honestly enough with some of the more difficult or questionable choices she made over her life and career.
October 11, 2015
I happened upon this book at the library and it sat on my nightstand for a month (yes, I know... I pay late fees regularly) before I picked it up. I'm very glad I did because it was an excellent read. Great story that will resonate with many home cooks who just don't understand cream of anything. Enjoy!
January 14, 2016
A memoir of how this woman emphasized a local, organic food movement in her restaurant, based on her wartime Austrian experiences in her youth. A story of a woman finding herself in what was generally a man's world, even during the feminist movements of the 1960s and 70s. Details the difficulties of being career and family driven. Quite a story, light in the read, obvious in the message.
March 5, 2016
Not sure I'm going to finish this one but here are my thoughts so far. I'm being generous with the 3 stars, it's more like 2+. I'm not sure what the second author did but I hope she wasn't an editor. When I first started reading the book, the text was so simplistic that I checked to be sure it wasn't a children's book accidentally shelved in the adult biographies and memoir section.
DNF
DNF
June 3, 2015
Organic living
A biography that reads like a novel. Fascinating and informative. I wish Nora would also address the issue of GMOs in our country's production of wheat, soybeans and corn. In Europe these products are labeled and not imported.
A biography that reads like a novel. Fascinating and informative. I wish Nora would also address the issue of GMOs in our country's production of wheat, soybeans and corn. In Europe these products are labeled and not imported.
August 10, 2015
Interesting life style and story of a woman who took up cooking and owning restaurants using natural, quality foods.
Mediocre writing and repetitive phrases made it a so-so story to read.
Still worth a read.
Mediocre writing and repetitive phrases made it a so-so story to read.
Still worth a read.
October 20, 2015
The beginning chapters about the author's life in Vienna are what kept me reading. From there, the story gave less attention to personal details, and became a somewhat generalized account of her accomplishments and failures in life. Still, I enjoyed it.
April 27, 2015
This book is most interesting in the beginning where she and her family are living on a farm during the Nazi occupation. Downhill from there.
May 10, 2015
Really enjoyed this. Published on my birthday - the very day we ate at her restaurant - how's that for synchronicity?
Read
December 10, 2015Meh...some interesting parts, but choppy in its delivery.
December 31, 2015
A great, inspiring read!
December 17, 2016
Fascinating story of the founder of renowned Restaurant Nora, the first certified organic restaurant in the US.
October 16, 2017
Brava Nora!
-A joy to read ... a delicious journey!!
-A joy to read ... a delicious journey!!
July 19, 2015
Loved the memoir aspect of a foodie book, but, it was still a bit bland.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews