Day 36 of 60 | Bonjour, Paris! 🇫🇷✨
This weekend Lori and I slipped out of Paris and journeyed to Normandy at the invitation of Chef Edward Delling-Williams, the brilliant mind behind the french menus we serve at our hotel in Hawaii.
Edward isn’t just a well-known chef in France; he’s a full-blown creative tornado. He has a stunning farm about three hours outside Paris and a new restaurant there called Le Presbytère, which earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand in just its second year in 2024. He also has an Emmy-nominated TV show, Recipe.TV.
He and his lovely wife Zoë welcomed Lori and I with the best Thanksgiving dinner we have ever had. Then we met their three boys: Geronimo, Houdini, and Galileo.
Yes, those are their actual names. They’re some of the sharpest, funniest, most fascinating kids I’ve ever encountered. I literally had one of the best conversations of my life… with the nine-year-old Geronimo.
And then there’s Edward’s kitchen, the very first room you step into when you enter the house, and honestly, it feels like walking straight into his soul. It’s not some sleek, modern showcase; it’s an old-school country kitchen that wraps around you the way a perfectly worn-in leather chair does. Soft around the edges, rich with stories, and absolutely right in every way. The shelves are lined with spices, jars, and well-loved tools. Nothing is for show, everything has a purpose. You can feel years of meals, memories, and magic baked into the walls. It’s humble, warm, and utterly alive… a working chef’s sanctuary hiding in plain sight at the heart of the home.
It was a gift to step away from chef school for a couple of days and watch one of the best chefs in France prepare an unforgettable feast using ingredients grown just steps from his door.
Although… now that I think about it… does this actually count as a “break”? Or is this simply who I am now - the guy who leaves cooking school to go hang out with more chefs?
Either way, my heart (and my stomach) are very, very full. ❤️🍽️🇫🇷
