Paul Bocuse, La Mère Brazier and Georges Blanc: France’s Great Restaurants Give Their Tableware a Second Life

At La Vaisselle des Chefs, some of France’s most celebrated restaurants sell the plates and silver they no longer use. On 7 and 8 November, the sale fills the salons of Lyon’s Hôtel de Ville with tableware from Restaurant Paul Bocuse, Mathieu Viannay’s La Mère Brazier, Georges Blanc in Vonnas and Emmanuel Renaut’s three-star Flocons de Sel in Megève, sold directly to the public.

The sale, organised by Florence Daveau and Frédérique Belhomme, has been held for more than ten years in Lyon, Lille, Bordeaux, Strasbourg and Paris, and more than 150 chefs have taken part. In Lyon, part of the proceeds goes to Habitat et Humanisme and Habitat Saint-Roch, which help families facing housing insecurity.

●In brief

Lyon. Henri Carlier, chef of the Villa Florentine, is patron of the Lyon edition. Château de Bagnols and Le M are among the other contributors, alongside makers such as De Buyer and Garnier-Thiebaut, the Gérardmer linen house founded in 1833.

Paris. In February 2026 the second Paris edition offered more than 20,000 pieces from addresses including the Plaza Athénée, Le Meurice, Lucas Carton and Les Deux Magots. Its patron was Denis Courtiade, twice named the world’s best maître d’hôtel, who runs the dining room of the Plaza Athénée’s restaurant.

Next. After Lyon, the sale comes to Orléans for the first time on 22 and 23 November. It returns to Paris on 27 and 28 February 2027 and to Nice on 10 and 11 April 2027.

●Why it matters

Great restaurants replace their tableware when they renew their service. Plates, silver and champagne buckets then wait in storerooms and attics, sometimes for generations. La Vaisselle des Chefs brings these pieces back into use, and some still bear the name of the restaurant that used them.

Denis Courtiade, patron of the Paris edition, put it simply: “The container is as important as what’s in it.” He also described gastronomy as collective work, done by the people behind every plate.

The sale also follows a wider change in how people buy. According to France’s Observatoire de la consommation responsable, seven in ten French people bought at least one second-hand item in 2023. At the top of the market, the second purchase increasingly decides what an object is worth.

Part of the money stays in the cities that host the sale. In Lyon it goes to Habitat et Humanisme and Habitat Saint-Roch, and the Paris edition supports the Fondation Apprentis d’Auteuil, which trains young people in difficulty for work in restaurants.

Continue · The reading Luxury Trends 2027: From Hermès to Zegna, the Second Purchase Decides Fewer people walk into the stores, those who do spend more, and enduring objects outsell seasonal fashion.