Merchant of Sonoma

Lovers of food, history, and great entrepreneurial success stories alike will be amazed to meet one of the most highly influential—and yet virtually unknown—figures of the American food world: Chuck Williams, founder of Williams-Sonoma. Growing up during the Great Depression and building airplanes and houses during WWII little prepared Chuck for his first trip to Paris in 1953. There, he fell in love with something most Americans had never seen before: professional-caliber French cookware. Within a few years, he acquired a hardware store in the California wine country and started selling a few sautE pans, soufflE dishes, and brioche tins. What followed is history, as Williams-Sonoma has grown to become the leading cookware retailer in America. Readers will be surprised and delighted to discover the inimitable personality behind it all, whose love of good food, passion for customer service, and legendary good taste helped transform the American kitchen.

A lifelong passion for good food led Chuck Williams (San Francisco, CA) to open the first Williams-Sonoma store in the California wine country in 1956. Since then, he has devoted much of his time to encouraging people to explore the world of cooking. Over the years he has steadily sought out new techniques, equipment, and ingredients to feature in his stores, catalog, and cookbooks, with the mission of spreading the pleasures of cooking at home. Now more than 250 Williams-Sonoma stores are open across the United States, and Chuck is widely recognized as a pioneer who revolutionized cooking in America.