Tuesday, March 28, 2017

A Visit to the Mauviel Copper Cookware Factory


 


 

DavidLebovitz

A Visit to the Mauviel Copper Cookware Factory
David, 28 Mar 


I’ll never pass up a chance to go to a factory, whether it be to see how American stand mixers are made, or French enameled cookware. I’d never seen copper cookware being made, though, and jumped at the opportunity to hop on an early morning train to Villedieu-les poêles to visit the Mauviel copper cookware factory. (The only thing I didn’t jump at was the bleary 7:30am departure time, from the Gare du Montparnasse.)
A few hours later, after a restorative café express, once inside the factory, everywhere I looked, there was copper cookware in different stages of production, stacked around the rooms. “Factory” conjures up images of giant buildings with thousands of people toiling away. But the human-sized building where Mauviel cookware is made is surprisingly small-scale; fifty four workers working various shifts, bend, press, fire-up, hammer, rivet, and polish their gleaming copper pots and pans, before sending them out into the world.

Before I lived in France, I remember going into E. Dehillerin in Paris…maybe thirty or so years back? I don’t recall the year, but I do remember I flew PEOPLExpress and the flights were $99 each way. With the money I saved on the flight, using my kitchen line-cook wages, I splurged on a few pieces of Mauviel copper cookware.

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