Eugenia was born in Kosice, Hungary (now in Slovak Republic). She escaped to Vienna in 1969 and subsequently migrated to Tasmania. In 1990 she started writing her memoirs which were published under the title, 'Yenni a life between worlds' in 2002.;;In 1992, with her husband Brian, she established Jenny's Restaurant (later Eating on the Edge) in the former Lauderdale Post Office building, on the Ralphs Bay Canal.