When I look back on my life, there have been many influential people that I have had the fortune to get to know. These people range from my parents to coaches to mentors. One such person was my dear friend Master Chef Paul Elbing. Chef Paul, as he was affectionately known by most people, was known for his skills in the culinary field and prowess in the hospitality industry. I certainly have many stories about Chef Paul in those roles from the last 10 to 15 years, but I wanted to write an article that expressed another side of the man that I knew.
He was deeply religious and was a true gentleman with a kind heart. When Chef Paul was physically able, he went to church every day and when he wasn’t able to, he took communion every day. Chef Paul always treated everyone equally. You might think that this is not any big deal, but when you consider the people he had a chance to meet in his lifetime, such as Elvis (Yes, the King), Fidel Castro, President Bush, as well as the residents at Little Sisters of the Poor, it is indeed a big deal. He was a gracious man who saw food as his palette to spread joy and happiness to everyone. Something that amazed me was the fact that I could pretty much think of a popular figure from the last 30 years and there is good chance that Chef Paul had some personal encounter with that individual.
One day, I was visiting Chef Paul and asked him about culinary art schools here in America, which by default, he helped start by establishing the mandatory curriculum that is in the Library of Congress. He proceeded to tell me that the way the school works is that students must be sponsored by another chef. I then asked him, how many people have you sponsored in your lifetime and he responded with “more than 2000.” His life’s passion was making cooking into a culinary art here in America and helping to promote it through education.
At this point, you might be asking “why did Chef Paul care so much about turning cooking into a culinary arts profession here in America?” Simply put, right after France was liberated in WWII, Chef Paul met a GI named Charlie from Chicago, IL and everything changed after that chance encounter. Upon returning to his family farm in Alsace, France, which was burned to the ground by Axis forces, the American troops provided Chef Paul and his family with food to start over. Charlie talked to a young Chef Paul and made such an impression, that Charlie was willing to sponsor Chef Paul’s immigration to America. Unfortunately, Charlie died before Chef Paul’s immigration happened, but Charlie instilled the desire to come to America. Once Chef Paul and Marie arrived in America, he found out that cooking in America was not a career beyond cooking in a back room. He decided to make it the same type of proud profession here in the US as he experienced in France and Europe. Chef Paul was always the guy behind culinary industry success. For example, he helped develop widely-used formulas and recipes for things such as bases which are used in commercial kitchens around the world. The renowned reputation he garnered was a kind and honest heart and encyclopedic knowledge of food and wine, which made him a “go-to” source for the hospitality industry.
One of the last trips that Chef Paul and Marie took was to Jerusalem. The lovely couple had never been to this hotel, city or country and when they checked in, the whole staff was formally dressed and in a greeting line. This was a fairly common occurrence for Chef Paul in his lifetime, but he never got upset or angry, he just kindly and graciously took all these ingratiating events in stride. To say Chef Paul’s reputation preceded him doesn’t properly frame his gentlemanly manner into proper perspective. Through all of these events he was still that man I knew and loved so dearly.
Understanding Chef Paul as the Master Chef, I asked him if he had a resume, and of course he handed one to me. It was a whopping 22 pages of impressive positions, awards and accomplishments. I began to look at them, from training at Cord de bleu to working at numerous European resorts. It contained mentoring the first team of chefs from the Culinary Institute of America in world competition during which they swept all the gold medals. He sponsored chefs like Julia Child to be part of the ACF and sponsored Emeril Lagasse for culinary school. Chef Paul remained friends with both until the end. Chef Paul did things like carve the ice sculpture at the Lake Placid Olympic Games, and set world records for the longest sandwich and the largest omelet. The world records were set in order to generate money for charities.
Chef Paul was also an industry innovator. Marie and Chef Paul would always make time to pick berries, harvest herbs, fruits or vegetables that were grown locally in Virginia. Chef Paul was a big outdoorsman. He really loved to hunt and fish, and he made an annual bluefish trip down to the Chesapeake Bay. He would spend the weekend catching his limit, then bring it back to his restaurant where that would be the weekly special. Likewise, Chef Paul would take a trip to Argentina to source wine before these wines were on our culinary radar here in America. Essentially, by Chef Paul just being himself, he invented the farm-to-table concept and loved every minute of the journey.
Chef Paul and Marie both had very kind and charitable hearts. The loving couple spent their lives doing charitable work. One of the more notable ones was the French Food Festival, which grew into the amazing festival we all knew and loved. They also did a gala every year for the Little Sisters of the Poor and invited the “who’s who of the Richmond business community” to get involved in this charitable endeavor. The gala took place for almost 40 years and the festival for 10+ years. They really cared about helping their fellow Richmonders and people who needed the most help. Chef Paul would auction off private dinners for various charities.
Most people don’t know that the Elby’s (Richmond Culinary Awards) are named after Chef Paul. He gladly attended up until his death this past year.
In conclusion, I, as well as Richmond, was very fortunate to have the Elblings call this community their home. I miss my friend dearly and I am very thankful for the time I had with both Chef Paul and Marie.
