📍Leonia, NJ 07605, USA
1956 – 1973“I was born in Manhattan but grew up in Leonia, a quiet, leafy commuter town in New Jersey on the far side of the George Washington Bridge. My father, Pierre, whose own father had come from Arcachon on France's Atlantic coast, worked his way up to be an executive at Columbia Records and filled the house with music; my mother, Gladys, was a staff editor at The New York Times who cared fiercely about words. It was a comfortable, bookish childhood, and I was a bored, restless kid. Everything changed on a family holiday to France in 1966, staying with relatives: the hamburgers and peanut butter I liked weren't to be had, so I had to try things. On an oyster boat in the bay of Arcachon, a fisherman handed me a raw oyster straight from the water, and I ate it — the moment I discovered that food could be an adventure. I washed dishes in Provincetown, trained at the Culinary Institute of America, and spent years in New York kitchens before writing Kitchen Confidential. New Jersey has since created a food trail in my honour.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today