Background

Richard Olney was born on April 12, 1927, in Marathon, Iowa, the United States. A native of the Midwest, Richard went to France in the 1950s and stayed.

Education

After attending both the University of Iowa and the Brooklyn Museum Art School, Olney relocated to France in 1951 and settled in Provence.

Career

In 1970 Olney published his first cookbook, The French Menu Cookbook, an extension of his monthly column started in the late 1960s for the French gastronomic magazine Cuisine et Vin de France. In 1974 he published Simple French Food, which included his own drawings. These two volumes became the cornerstone of his success, drawing praise from both professional and amateur cooks. The accolades were not just for the recipes but for a philosophy concerning the table that made tremendous sense.

In the late 1970s, Olney was solicited by Time-Life books to mastermind The Good Cook; a series of 27 volumes of step-by-step cookery books presented by food categories. Over five years, he relentlessly orchestrated a team of researchers, writers, editors, photographers, designers, and cooks to create the definitive and unrivaled reference on techniques, with an exhaustive anthology of international recipes. The success of the series was marked by its translation into 12 languages.

Among his other writings are Yquem, a volume about wines of the Chateau d’Yquem; Lulu’s Provençal Table: The Exuberant Food and Wine from Domaine Tempier Vineyard, an account of Mediterranean cooking; and Richard Olney’s French Wine and Food: A Wine Lover's Cookbook.

Achievements

• Olney was the first American amateur cook to write about the art of cooking in a style that captivated an audience; not only for his engaging narrative prose but for the precision in describing mechanical details and thorough explanations of culinary alchemy. Although his audience was limited at first to the enlightened few, his readership steadily grew, based on the seriousness of his writing and the philosophy he nurtured. His singular success reached beyond the heights that any carefully planned public relations strategy could dream of achieving.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Reflexions

    (This book begins in New York in 1951 where Olney, a strug...)

    1999
  • Ten Vineyard Lunches

    (Richard Olney examines the wine-producing regions of Fran...)

    1988
  • Lulu's Provencal Table

    (Of all of the culinary treasures that Richard Olney broug...)

    1994
  • Yquem

    (Illustrations and text present the techniques used in mak...)

    1986
  • Richard Olney's French Wine & Food

    (This book has given Richard Olney a long-awaited opportun...)

    1997
  • Provence: The Beautiful Cookbook

    (Each title in this award-winning series offers an exquisi...)

    1993
  • The French Menu Cookbook

    (Originally published in 1970, The French Menu Cookbook is...)

    1970
  • Romanee Conti

    (A fabulous thing - mysterious, sensuous, transcendental, ...)

    1995
  • Simple French Food

    (Richard Olney was considered a culinary genius for his ab...)

    1974
  • The Good Cook's Encyclopedia 1997

References

• Contemporary Authors, Vol. 189
  2001