Nora Pouillon (born October 26, 1943) is an Austrian chef, restaurateur, and author. She was the owner of Restaurant Nora in Washington, D.C., famous for its status as America's first certified organic restaurant.
Biography
Early life
Pouillon was born in Vienna, Austria during World War II. Pouillon's family was affluent and owned a safety glass window factory. They were able to flee Vienna in the last years of the war. The family's refuge was a farm owned by family and friends in the Tyrolean Alps. Of this time, Pouillon says: “There, the farmers grew all of their food. It taught me how difficult that truly is. They got up with the sun and worked until sunset. They had to prepare food for the winter months. There was no electricity and no running water."
After the war, Pouillon and her family returned to Vienna, where she attended boarding school. Pouillon would continue to spend summers at the farm with her grandmother.
1960s
In the 1960s, Pouillon moved to the United States with her husband, a French journalist. This move highlighted the stark contrast between European food, farm, and open-air market cultures versus the supermarket culture of America post-World War II. “At the stores here it was amazing to see all the prepackaged and frozen food. Nothing depended on the season. Pepperidge Farm was like gourmet bread. The produce department was the smallest section in the store.”
As the mother of young children in the 1960s and 1970s, Pouillon did daily shopping and cooking for her family. This time coincided with the modern emergence of food cooperatives in the 1960s providing alternative, organic and whole food options to traditional chain grocery stores and food processing.
Pouillon soon had several home-based businesses in D.C.’s Adams Morgan neighborhood where she hosted and taught cooking classes, and ran a casual catering service.
Culinary career
The turning point in Nora's culinary career came in the mid-1970s, when one of her students asked if she was interested in opening the first restaurant inside the historic Tabard Inn. She developed a following serving locally-sourced tomatoes and house-made mayonnaise, and began making plans to open her own restaurant.
Restaurant Nora
In 1979, Restaurant Nora opened its doors on the corner of Florida Avenue and 21st in Washington, D.C.’s DuPont Circle neighborhood. Journalist Sally Quinn and her late husband, Washington Post executive editor, Ben Bradlee were early patrons and financial backers of Restaurant Nora. Quinn offered a piece of advice: “Don’t mention anything about being healthy and natural. That sounds so unappetizing. That sounds like hippie food.” Pouillon ignored it.
The early patronage and support of Bradlee and Quinn gained Restaurant Nora a loyal following, and by the early 1990s it was a destination for D.C's media and political elite. President Bill Clinton held his first inaugural party at the restaurant. Jimmy Carter was the first president to eat at Nora's, and it was a favorite of Hillary Clinton; Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have dined there, as has Nancy Reagan. Asked about her presidential patrons in The Washington Post, Pouillon said: “Neither of the Bush presidents ever set foot in Nora’s, but Laura Bush came, along with her two daughters,” Pouillon announces proudly. “Good food, it seems, is also bipartisan.”
Restaurant Nora closed in June 2017, upon Pouillon's retirement.