Gabrielle Hamilton (born 1966)[citation needed] is an American
chef and
author. She is the chef and owner of
Prune, a restaurant in
New York City, and the author of Blood, Bones, and Butter, a
memoir.
Early life and education
Hamilton, born in 1966, was raised in
New Hope, PA. In an interview with
NPR, Hamilton said her way of eating and cooking was heavily influenced by her
French mother. She said her mother didn't waste food and the family often foraged for fresh ingredients from their garden and from the forests and fields surrounding their house.[1] Hamilton attended undergraduate at
Hampshire College in
Amherst, MA[2] and received her
MFA in
creative writing from the
University of Michigan.[3]
Following a career in catering, Hamilton opened the restaurant Prune in the
East Village in 1999.[5] She had no formal experience in restaurants, nor did she attend culinary school.[6] Her 30-seat restaurant garnered widespread acclaim and admiration from diners, critics and other chefs including
Anthony Bourdain and
Eric Ripert.[7][8][9] Prune earned a spot in the Bib Gourmand section of the Michelin's 2014 New York guide.[10] Hamilton was featured in the fourth season of the PBS show The Mind of a Chef.[11] She also appeared as a guest judge on the first season of The Taste on
ABC.[12]
Hamilton was married for 10 years to Michele Fuortes, an Italian-born teacher and researcher at Weill Cornell Medical College. They had two children, Marco and Leone, and later divorced.[14][15] Hamilton is currently married to
Ashley Merriman, who was her co-chef at Prune.[16]
Hamilton, Gabrielle (2011). Blood, Bones, & Butter: the inadvertent education of a reluctant chef. New York: Random House.
ISBN978-0-812-98088-2.
OCLC861521548.
Hamilton received the
James Beard award for best chef in
New York City in 2011 and again in 2012 for her chef memoir, as well as winning Outstanding Chef in 2018. She also earned a James Beard award for journalism in 2015 for a piece she penned for the travel magazine Afar; entitled "Into the Vines," the article documents the wines and winemakers of
Sicily,
Italy.[19]