[1] Kaufman was born in Manhattan, on February 10, 1929, and raised in Queens and later the Bronx.

[1][2] Portofino was frequented by people in the downtown publishing business and Off-Broadway theater.

Her original intent was that the restaurant would be a writer's dive, incubating authors.

[citation needed] In addition to her career as a restaurateur, Kaufman had a small uncredited acting role in the 1970 film The Boys in the Band (1970), as a pedestrian glancing disapprovingly at flamboyant Emory (Cliff Gorman) on a Manhattan street corner.

Kaufman died from emphysema and pulmonary hypertension on December 3, 2010, at Lenox Hill Hospital, aged 81.