{"id":14139,"date":"2026-05-13T00:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T00:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/14139\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T00:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T00:05:10","slug":"from-cambodia-and-france-to-whiteville-how-one-couple-revived-a-historic-downtown-landmark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/14139\/","title":{"rendered":"From Cambodia and France to Whiteville: How One Couple Revived a Historic Downtown Landmark"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"230716The Chef and the Frog in downtown Whiteville occupies a once-vacant historic building and is now helping bring new energy and foot traffic to this stretch of downtown, sparking revitalization one plate at a time.
\n(Photo: Guillaume Salma)<\/p>\n

WHITEVILLE, NC (WWAY) \u2014 From war-torn Cambodia and the streets of France to a small downtown in Whiteville, one couple\u2019s journey spans continents, decades, and the unexpected transformation of a building that has stood since the 1940s.<\/p>\n

Guillaume and Sokun Slama are the owners of The Chef and the Frog, a thriving restaurant breathing new life into a historic structure at 607 South Madison Street.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis building was built I believe sometime in the 1940s and it started as a tire shop or tire parts store and evolved into a furniture store called Colliers,\u201d said co-owner Guillaume Slama.<\/p>\n

When the couple purchased the property, their vision was simple \u2014 turn it into a restaurant. But what they discovered beneath the surface told its own story.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we were digging through the concrete to build the bathrooms, we found all of these car parts like hub caps, leaf springs or brake handles from cars from before the war,\u201d Guillaume said.<\/p>\n

Worn down by time and neglect, the building took years of hard work and setbacks to restore. The Chef and the Frog officially opened on June 24th, 2016, marking a new chapter for both the structure and the couple behind it.<\/p>\n

For Sokun Slama, the restaurant is more than a career \u2014 it\u2019s the result of a life shaped by survival. Her journey began more than 9,200 miles away in Cambodia during the brutal Khmer Rouge regime.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad was on a list to get killed,\u201d she said. \u201cWe had to escape at night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Between 1975 and 1979, Sokun and her family fled through dangerous conditions to reach a refugee camp in Thailand before eventually being relocated to France. She didn\u2019t speak the language when she arrived, but she eventually found her voice in the kitchen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoy cooking,\u201d Sokun said. \u201cI just try to see what people are doing in different homes, and then I come up with my own spices and recipes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sokun met Guillaume in 1995 at a caf\u00e9 on the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es in Paris. What started as a chance encounter turned into marriage, a move to the United States, and eventually, restaurant ownership in Georgia before the late Jesse Fisher presented them with an opportunity to move to Columbus County.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had never heard of Whiteville,\u201d Guillaume said. \u201cBut he told us it was close to the ocean, and we thought that could be a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

They built more than a restaurant \u2014 they built trust in a community, one plate at a time.<\/p>\n

The menu at The Chef and the Frog blends Sokun\u2019s Cambodian heritage with Guillaume\u2019s French culinary influence.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy chef is my wife,\u201d Guillaume said. \u201cShe\u2019ll take Asian flavors and mix them with French techniques. It\u2019s something absolutely amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for Sokun, food carries deeper meaning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lost a brother from starvation when we were in Cambodia trying to run for our lives,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, I just wish people would take food more seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

What was once an abandoned tire shop is now a cornerstone of downtown Whiteville \u2014 and a symbol of renewal.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow the whole block is busy because of us,\u201d Guillaume said. \u201cIt\u2019s wonderful to know we may have saved not just this building, but possibly the downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s journey is now featured in Sokun\u2019s new book, The Chef & The Frog. A book launch and the release of the spring & summer issue of 954 will be held Thursday, June 4th, at the restaurant which is located at 607 S. Madison Street in Whiteville.<\/p>\n

In a place where history once sat forgotten, The Chef and the Frog has turned survival, love, and resilience into something shared \u2014 at the same table.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chef and the Frog in downtown Whiteville occupies a once-vacant historic building and is now helping bring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3525,10607,5,10608,10609,10610,10611,10612,10613],"class_list":{"0":"post-14139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-cambodia","9":"tag-columbus-county","10":"tag-france","11":"tag-guillaume-slama","12":"tag-jesse-fisher","13":"tag-khmer-rouge","14":"tag-sokun-slama","15":"tag-the-chef-the-frog","16":"tag-whiteville"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}