About Chef David Paul
Cooking Saved Me.
Now I'm Paying It Forward.
Award-winning chef. Five decades in professional kitchens. One promise made to a mentor, kept in every bottle and every class taught in Hawai'i.
The Story
From a Kid Who Needed the Kitchen to a Chef Who Never Left It
Chef David Paul Johnson began cooking at 14 as a way to stay out of trouble and stay in school. The kitchen gave him discipline, purpose, and a craft, and a mentor gave him something more: a request to promise that one day he would pay it forward.
That promise carried him through more than five decades of professional cooking. In 1990 he opened David Paul's Lahaina Grill on Maui, a restaurant honored with 12+ Hale 'Aina Awards, and his cooking took him all the way to the James Beard House in New York.
"A mentor once asked me to promise I would pay it forward. Everything I do now keeps that promise."
The Dressings
From the Restaurant to Your Table
Chef David Paul Foods bottles the bold flavors of a five-decade culinary career. Each dressing is crafted in Hawai'i from Chef's own recipes, made to bring restaurant-caliber flavor to your kitchen.
- Famous Caesar, the classic, done the way a chef does it
- Lahaina Grill Original, named for the restaurant that started it all
- Roasted Shiitake With Truffle, deep, earthy, unmistakable
The Mission
E.A.T. Is the Promise, Kept.
E.A.T. is Chef David Paul's community-based cooking school for at-risk youth in Hawai'i. Students learn real culinary skills, discipline, and pride in their work, the same foundation that changed Chef's life at 14. Every purchase from Chef David Paul Foods helps fund it.
Taste the Story
Fifty Years of Flavor.
One Bottle at a Time.
Every bottle carries the flavors of an award-winning career and funds the next generation of Hawai'i chefs.