Cook Where?

Chuck did …

Chuck loved to cook having been taught how by his grandmother.

Coming back from military service as a mechanic in India and Africa, Chuck settled in small California town after falling in love with it during a game of golf.

Chuck started out as a contractor building houses around the town … but when he took a vacation to Paris and was mesmerized by the cookware they had … he wondered why no one carried this stuff here.

So, when Chuck got home, he bought the failing hardware store near the town square and slowly converted it to selling cookware … stocking all the innovative quality European cookware he could find … within a few years he moved his store to San Francisco.

As Chuck’s store became a destination for people who loved to cook, he was helped along by investors like the cofounder of Neiman-Marcus and celebrity chefs who help promote cooking like James Beard and Julia Child.

Today, the company Chuck started has over 250 stores and distributes more than 50 million catalogs across North America every year … and is still named after Chuck Williams and the small town where it all started … Sonoma.

Williams-Sonoma is a Great Idea because cooking up a successful business means finding and using the best tools possible.