Olney was born in
Marathon, Iowa. He lived in a house above the village of
Solliès-Toucas in
Provence,
France, for most of his adult life, where he wrote many classic and influential cookbooks of French country cooking. He had first moved to France in 1951, to Paris, where he was close friends with (and painted many of) the American and English bohemian expatriate set, including
James Baldwin, filmmaker
Kenneth Anger, painter
John Craxton, poet
John Ashbery, and composer
Ned Rorem. His knowledge of traditional classic French food and wine got him a job writing a column entitled
Un Américain (gourmand) à Paris for the journal
Cuisine et Vins de France beginning in 1962. After
The French Menu Cookbook was published in English in 1970, his then-revolutionary approach of seasonal menus and close attention to wine pairings began to attract notice in Britain and America.
Alice Waters, of
Chez Panisse restaurant in
Berkeley, California, and
Kermit Lynch, the Berkeley wine writer and retailer, were both disciples. He introduced Lynch to many French wine growers, including Lucien and
Lulu Peyraud of
Domaine Tempier, who were then re-establishing the
Bandol AOC as a vineyard area of the first rank.
James Beard was an important American mentor, and Olney, in the midst of his career, taught a series of cooking classes in Beard's West Village apartment. Despite this, Olney, in a memoir, presents a mixed picture of Beard's character. From 1977 to 1982, Olney edited the 28-volume
Time-Life book series
The Good Cook. By the time of his death, from heart failure, in addition to the Time-Life set he had written many of his own books about food and wine. His last book,
Reflexions, a memoir, was published posthumously by Brick Tower Press. Olney died aged 72 in Solliès-Toucas. The
Observer Food Monthly panel of chefs, cooks, writers and restaurateurs elected
The French Menu Cookbook as their favourite cookbook in early 2010, but were saddened that it was very difficult to find. Since then the book has been republished. ==English bibliography==