About Us & Contact
Meet Chef François de Mélogue and Lisa — the cooks, travellers and storytellers behind Pistou & Pastis.
François & Lisa
François grew up in a French household in Chicago and graduated from the New England Culinary Institute in 1985. He has spent more than thirty years cooking across cultures, with a particular love for Mediterranean styles of the French south.
Together, François and his wife Lisa conduct highly personalised culinary adventures to what they call the world's most edible locations, pairing up with insider locals to uncover the hidden treasures that a typical tour tends to miss.
- Trained: New England Culinary Institute, 1985.
- Roots: a French household in Chicago.
- Focus: Burgundy/Lyon, Provence and the Pacific Northwest.
- On screen: a guest appearance on Guys Grocery Games.
The Marseille tour invites guests to experience the city through its markets, bistrots, and time-honored recipes. Wandering through the morning fish auction or the bustling produce stalls, participants taste the region's sun-drenched ingredients just as local cooks have for generations. Along the way, the team shares stories of Provence's culinary traditions, from the simple perfection of a ripe tomato tart to the complex layering of a proper bouillabaisse. These small-group journeys are designed for travelers who want to eat well without pretense, discovering hidden neighborhood tables and family-run shops that rarely appear in guidebooks. It is an unhurried, hands-on exploration of what makes southern French cooking so deeply loved.
What We Make Here
Recipes & Tips
Simple, seasonal cooking built on good ingredients, shared with the techniques and stories behind each dish.
Culinary Adventures
Small-group, insider-led trips centred on markets, kitchens, cellars and long tables in France and beyond.
Provencal Pantry
Authentic Provencal products, curated with our friends at Remember Provence.
A Few Recognitions
Pistou & Pastis was honoured to be featured as one of the "Best Instagram Accounts for European Travel" — a fitting home for edible love letters to France.
In late 2019 François shared plans for a second cookbook to be published in 2020, along with a return to weekly recipes and short cooking videos.
On The Road
Past adventures have included days in Marseille such as:
Get In Touch
Questions about a recipe, a trip, or the Provencal pantry? Write to us through the contact form on this page, or say hello on Instagram at @pistouandpastis, where the daily cooking and travelling happens.
Sign up to receive recipes, cooking tips and tales of our culinary adventures.
Pull Up A Seat
Whether you cook from the recipes at home or join François and Lisa at the table in France, there is always room for one more.
Back To The Home Page