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Chuck Williams might not be a familiar face, but his name has been ringing bells for more than 50 years - especially of the dinner variety.

The founder of kitchenware mainstay Williams-Sonoma brought the soufflé dish to North America, not to mention the Madeleine mould, sauté pans, Le Creuset cookware and white porcelain cow cream dispensers, inspired by the flower-painted souvenir ones that Williams spotted decades ago in Dijon, France. (They remain a bestseller for Williams-Sonoma and one of his favourite pieces.)

It was all in a life's work for Williams, a man married to his business. The Globe and Mail caught up with him at the opening of his newest Canadian store, in Vancouver.

Is this your first trip to Vancouver?

I came to Vancouver when I was 17. I was living with a family working on a date farm near Palm Springs and we drove up, all along the coastal roads. I have no idea how long it took us to get here.

You lived in Florida as a child where your Dutch-German maternal grandmother taught you to cook. Where did your love of French cookware come from?

I took a trip to Europe in 1953. It was the first time I'd been there and knowing what the home cook had to cook with in America - which was completely different than they used in restaurants, you know, thin pots and pans, it was really not very good quality - then seeing what they made in France, I thought, what's the matter? There's something wrong.

But it wasn't that it was French, it was just that it was so much better. It could have been Italian - in fact, we have some Italian, although they had more in France for home cooks interested in doing things with moulds and things like that.

What is the one cooking tool that everyone should have in their kitchen, but few do?

A wooden lemon reamer. You use it in your hands over a pot of food. This way it's just drop by drop, and it's very easy to season something.

How has Williams-Sonoma maintained such high quality despite enormous expansion?

It's not easy, especially since so much has been taken to the Orient to be made. Fortunately, we made good agreements with French companies, and we still get it made by them.

Where did you develop such skill for merchandising and sales?

I've always known how to do that. I'd say there probably is a trick to the trade, and maybe you can go to school and learn it, but I just had it in me. When I started the store, I was there every day for the first 30 years and I did all the display work.

It sounds like you think like a shopper.

That's the main thing. For instance, placemats. Originally they had them on flat shelves. You couldn't see them. Or plates. You're not going to sell them all stacked up. You need to see them, it's very important. You want people to feel entitled to pick them up. They're not displayed so the person picking one up has ruined the display.

To what do you attribute your success?

How you wait on a customer, what is the relationship you have with them. Most stores don't make friends with the customer, but if you do they become friends forever. I have original customers in the store, after 50 years I still see them. Some of the most basic items that are in the stores have been there right from the beginning, and I always thought that was important because the customer realizes that they can depend on Williams-Sonoma.

You've edited dozens of bestselling cookbooks. Do you cook for yourself, is there one recipe you love, and do you have a favourite piece of cookware?

Yes, I cook for myself. There's a lot of things that I did learn to cook, but I don't really know the recipes. I just do it my way. I have a couple of saucepans I use all the time and our pop-up sponges. Williams-Sonoma has had them for 40 years. I think we're the only ones who have ever sold them.

Where do you get your stamina?

I suppose home cooking and enjoying the food I prepare. I'm not one to be eating all day long. I like to fix myself something to eat for lunchtime or dinner.

I read that, left to you, Williams-Sonoma would have stayed as only one store.

That's not true. Before I opened the second store, I started the catalogue. One of the Marcus brothers had created a catalogue for Neiman Marcus, and I called him and asked him if I should do a catalogue and he said yes, I should. Then I opened the second store in Beverly Hills, then Palo Alto, then Costa Mesa, then Dallas. Costa Mesa was my first store in a mall, and you had to be careful, you couldn't open in just any mall or you wouldn't get the right customers. So I did all of those by myself. And it worked.

You're now 92 years old. Any intention of retiring?

Well, I don't know what I'd do. I still go into the office every day.

Do you do anything special for the holidays?

I spend Christmas with some friends in the Napa Valley. We all contribute, we'll all pitch in.

Special to The Globe and Mail