Making Organics Mainstream

Chef Nora Pouillon’s commitment to organics catalyzed Washington’s culinary scene.

Written and photographed by Carole Ottesen

For almost thirty years, Restaurant Nora has been a Washington landmark, a place where one could find “gourmet food, elegantly prepared, made from the healthiest, organically grown meat and vegetables, produced by local growers,” wrote Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and reporter Sally Quinn.

Chef Nora Pouillon’s uncompromised haute cuisine served at Restaurant Nora—and later, at Asia Nora—made her a force for the cause of organics, helping them to become chic, accepted, and, finally, mainstream. She was uniquely educated for this role.

Pouillon’s upbringing in Austria included sojourns to a self-sufficient farm that made her aware of “seasonal food cycles.” Travel exposed her to different cuisines. At a French lycee in Vienna, where she and fellow students sat daily to dine on four course meals served by waiters, she absorbed the pleasures of “taking time to sit down to eat…with friends.” Above all, her parents had taught her that health was a “priceless asset” and a “responsibility.”

Culture Shock

Nothing in that education could prepare Pouillon for her arrival in the United States in 1965. The young bride of a French journalist found herself stricken with shock.

“The shock was how unhealthy people were. I was shocked at the supermarkets—full of lifeless sameness.” She came to the conclusion that ill health must be linked to things shared by all: food, drink, and air.

Pouillon began to research agricultural practices and found “food was produced forÖconvenience and profit instead of flavor and nutritional valueÖ[with] too many chemicals, pesticides and growth hormones, too many additives, too many unnatural flavorings.” She even discovered that some diseases were “related to the quality and quantities of food being consumed.”

Organic Beginnings

When she opened Restaurant Nora in January 1979, she decided to serve only locally grown, organic foods—not easy to obtain. “Thirty years ago, organic was a small, lonely, costly and risky business,” she remembers. “There were only three organic farmers in the area and two organic distributors.”

Lacking any structure or organization, the organic market was highly inconvenient. When she needed prime cuts, “I had to buy the whole animal, and I was stuck with 900 pounds of ground meat.”

Only the most dedicated were willing to go that far. While Pouillon and a few others soldiered on, most found it was too much easier—and safer—to settle for conventionally produced food.

Conveniently Organic

To be mainstream, organics needed to deliver the kind of convenience consumers were used to. To that end, Pouillon consulted for pioneer organic food company Walnut Acres, a catalog food company, and Fresh Fields, a full-service supermarket. Fresh Fields would go on to merge into the phenomenally successful Whole Foods Market in 1996.

“When I co-founded Whole Foods Market in 1978, we began with $45,000 in capital,” states CEO John Mackey. Now, after merging with other like-minded companies such as Fresh Fields, Bread and Circus, and Food For Thought, Whole Foods has burgeoned into a 194-store, multi-billion-dollar business.

“In 2006, Whole Foods Market had sales of more than $5.6 billion, with net profits of more than $200 million, and a market capitalization over $8 billion,” Mackey writes. Today, Whole Foods is the largest natural and organic food supermarket in the world.

However, Whole Foods only makes up part of the organic picture. The Organic Trade Association reports that, “nationwide, organic sales have averaged 15 to 20 percent growth over the past eight years.”

Thanks to the widespread increase in consumer interest, major food stores have begun to compete over the organic market. As a result, organic foods are now dramatically easier to find. “People today are working toward a new, healthy lifestyle,” says Barry Scher, Vice President of Public Affairs for Giant Food LLC. To cater to this, Giant launched the Nature’s Promise line of natural and organic products in 2004. The next year, Safeway Inc. responded and introduced the O Organic line of food products. The brand has become so successful that it will expand to food for babies and children.

As demand goes up, organic prices appear to be coming down. Sarah Bennett, Giant Health and Wellness Specialist, says that foods in “the Giant lineÖare positioned a little below comparable national products.”

Organic Standards

The lower price of organics and the search for a healthier lifestyle are two of the three things fueling the organic movement, according to Scher. The third factor is the USDA’s 2002 implementation of regulations governing organic foods. Products meeting the requirements may bear the organic seal, something that enhances credibility.

Credibility is what prompted Pouillon to have her restaurant certified organic. “I wanted people to trust that it is really, truly organic. There are no days off. You don’t give in and say ‘I’ll just get it conventionally.’”

Restaurant Nora is the first certified organic restaurant in the U.S. “I had to ask them to certify me,” says Pouillon. “I made it happen.” It wasn’t easy “to prove that everything comes from an organic source.” Documenting everything “took nearly two years. Then my farmers had to become certified. Not all wanted to. The really small farmers don’t want to go through the trouble.”

Certification is only part of the picture for Pouillon. Pure food is the starting point, but to be healthful, it must be prepared healthfully. “There is no butter or cream in my sauces,” says Pouillon, “but plenty in my desserts—if you order dessert, you know what you’re doing.”

Produce is local and in season. “The key to success with any recipe is to find the freshest organic ingredients.” To that end, Pouillon is on the board of FreshFarm Markets, where Washingtonians can find fresh, locally grown produce. Farmers and producers from the Chesapeake Bay Watershed only bring food they have grown or made themselves. Some is organic, some not.

Ann Yonkers, who co-founded the FreshFarm market at Dupont Circle in 1997 with Bernie Prince, wants people “to make sure that their food money goes into the pockets of local farmers.” Many are heeding the call. “Last year over 130,000 people went through the markets,” says Yonkers. “We’ve grown from one to six markets” as the demand for fresh, healthful food continues to grow.

Going Mainstream

“I don’t think we’ve reached the top of the demand,” says Scher. “I think it can only go up. You see more and more everyone taking a product and reformulating it as organic.”

Now that Wal-Mart is offering everything from wild-caught ocean fish to organic cotton baby clothes, critics worry the retail giant will do for small organic farmers what it did for small grocery stores. But Pouillon thinks Wal-Mart’s organic push is “a great idea. People are always worried about change. It’s more important for organics to go mainstream.”

Dedicated to that goal, Pouillon worked with USDA Team Nutrition to improve public school lunches, supported the “Give North Atlantic Swordfish A Break” campaign to discourage overfishing and is a founding member of Chefs Collaborative 2000, an organization promoting environmentally sustainable living.

She wanted to prove that her restaurant could be “a successful business with organic food.” Along the way, she became an advocate for the environment and for sustainable agriculture.

Pouillon believes that “everything is connected—the food, the water, the land.” Most of all, she feels that “organic food should be our conventional food.”