If you ever shop at Trader Joe's, you've seen him. He's the only guy in the store wearing Chef pants.

Also, he is the only one in the store with a French accent (I think) and he's always in a good mood (at least when I see him).

On a recent trip to pick up some Buffalo Jerky, I noticed the aroma of some delectables coming from the food preparation booth in the back of the store.

Philippe was there preparing a batch of chicken empanadito-things and they weren't quite done, so he was doodling.

"Philippe, what are you drawing there? It looks like a map of Florida," I had to ask.

That's all I had to do, and within two minutes Philippe had informed me that:

1. In his spare time, he is a stained glass artist and he was doodling a new design

2. He made the very nice artsy surround for the clock on the wall behind us himself, and

3. The chicken empanaditos were done and they are delicious, try one!

Philippe was right, the empanaditos were good (I tucked a box into my basket), but I was more interested in the neat design he had done and what else he had made out of stained glass.

I invited myself to see his studio after he got off work and Philippe was gracious enough to not refuse, and to let him know I would see him later, I told him so in my best high school french, "J'ai une grenouille dans mon bidet!"

I may have mangled it a bit, but I think he appreciated my effort.

Fortunately, Philippe gave me the directions to his home studio in English and I found it straight away.

I hit him with the tough questions first:

So, you sound French...where are you from originally?

"I was born in a little town outside of Paris..it is called Clichy, he said.

Paris, huh? That's a clich/ in itself. And that explains the Chef pants.

So, Philippe, you are a chef?

"No, no...I went to school to be a pastry chef," he said, "but my heart was not in it...but the pants, they are so comfortable."

They did look comfortable. So, you became a tailor?

"No...but in Paris, I sold very high class clothing on the Champs Elysees."

That must have been interesting. How high class was it?

"We had many famous people, Charles Bronson, Patti LaBelle, John Travolta, he was very nice, and...the man who played Kojak...what was his name?"

That was Telly Savalas, Philippe (and I'm guessing he probably didn't buy a hat).

"I got into a big fight with Sharon Stone!" Philippe exclaimed.

Now you're talking. What happened?

"She came in with her husband, she was very snotty and nasty, snapping her fingers when she wanted some help."

Just basic instinct, I'm sure.

Philippe continued "I told her, 'It's people like you who help me to make up my mind in quitting this business!'"

So Philippe made his way to the US, still in the clothing business, and as soon as he arrived, he fell in l'amour with the country.

"It was exciting, it was during the Olympics, and there was a lot of different art everywhere!"

He soon quit the clothing business and eventually came to work at Trader Joe's.

"I met Cindy there, the lady who does all the very nice chalk art?....she introduced me to her brother-in-law who does stained glass work and I had been fascinated by stained glass since I was a kid."

Philippe took lessons at a studio called Mandarin Glass in Lakewood from an artist named Florence Wellborn, and he's been doing it himself since 1996.

"Now I teach classes, tracing, matting and firing, I teach them about mixing paint, what to use, what not to use...I give them the tools to work with, but they are the artist."

If you are interested in having a commissioned work done by Philippe, or in learning how to do stained glass yourself, just pop into Trader Joe's and ask him.

Philippe is also an animal person, with a sizeable, exotic looking dog, a lounging cat and, of all things, a goose named Toby.

Do you keep him around just for the pate, Philippe?

"NO...and Toby is a she."

What?

"What can I say, my son named him."

On my way out the door, I figured I'd treat Philippe to one more bon mot.

"Merci, Philippe.... Je vous remercie de tout voiture!"

He looked at me quizzically and said, "Scott, you want to thank me...from the bottom of...your car?"