Nearing her 73rd birthday, Nora Pouillon, owner of the first U.S. restaurant to be certified organic, has decided to sell her business and retire, reports the Washington Post. It says the self-taught Pouillon, and the restaurant named after her, inspired “a generation of chefs to shop locally for high-quality ingredients.”
“She’s looking for a buyer who will continue her legacy,” an outcome that Pouillon says would be ideal, said the Post. “She expects, though, that the restaurant’s organic certification, dating from 1999, will end when her ownership of it does.” There are only a handful of certified organic restaurants in the nation because of the requirement that all ingredients in the kitchen be certified as organic.
Nora’s was among roughly 100 Washington restaurants mentioned in the first Michelin Guide devoted to the District of Columbia. “In their write-up, inspectors praised the vegetarian tasting menu and called Pouillon ‘The Alice Waters of D.C.’” said the Post. Waters, owner of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, CA, is an advocate of organic and local food and a leader in the food movement.