Matfer Bourgeat

Matfer Bourgeat – Not One Story. Seven of Them.

1814 to today. That is 210 years – and not a continuous company history in the classical sense, but a chain of stories that flow into one another. Charles Trottier, the coppersmith who opens a workshop for pâtisserie moulds in Les Halles de Paris in 1814. Alphonse Delaverne, the apprentice who has worked in the business since the age of 20 and buys it in 1899 – immediately expanding the range. Gaspard Mora, the foreman who takes over from Delaverne and gives the business his name. The split of 1947 that creates Mora and Matfer: Mora for direct sales, Matfer for large distributors. The opening of the first factory in Normandy in 1967, because demand had long outgrown a workshop. The acquisition of Bourgeat Lyon – founded 1918, exclusively focused on the professional market since 1981, merged into Matfer Bourgeat in 2002. And finally: a company active on four continents that has remained one hundred per cent in French family ownership.

What connects these transfers, mergers and expansions is not romantic continuity but pragmatic continuity. Every new owner, every new structure has expanded the range sensibly – never indiscriminately, always from need. The company has never taken a step that the kitchens had not demanded.

The Triad of the Matfer Bourgeat Philosophy: Usefulness, Health, Environment

Usefulness: New products do not emerge from the laboratory alone. Chefs, bakers and confectioners are actively consulted, prototypes extensively tested in real professional kitchens. The standard is clear: a tool must demonstrably simplify or improve every working step it is designed for. No compromises on functionality – the company stands behind this with its 210-year address list in gastronomy.

Health: Thought through on two levels. First: all food-contact materials tested and approved to European standards – hygiene not taken for granted but as a design principle valid at every production step. Second: ergonomics. Those who perform the same movements daily – kneading, piping, swirling, stirring – do so with Matfer tools in a posture and with an effort that protects the body. Actively reducing work-related complaints from repetitive movement patterns is a stated development goal.

Environment: All factories are ISO 14001-certified – the international environmental management system that obliges companies to systematically reduce their environmental impact. Wooden products from FSC- and PEFC-certified sources. Active reduction of plastic in food production as a development goal. And: longevity as the primary sustainability strategy. A tool that lasts twenty years consumes no resources for its replacements.

What Exoglass® Is – and Why It Became Standard in Professional Kitchens

Over the course of its history, Matfer Bourgeat has not only produced moulds and pots – the company has developed materials that are now industry standard. The most prominent example: Exoglass®, a fibre-reinforced thermoplastic developed by Matfer for use in kitchen tools. Food-safe. Heat-resistant to 260°C. Corrosion-resistant. Dishwasher-safe. And – decisive for the professional sector – flavour-neutral: no inherent smell, no reaction with acids, no deformation after years of daily use.

For spatulas, scrapers, dough cards and whisk handles, Exoglass® has replaced plastics that dissolve in acids and wooden handles that crack, absorb moisture and harbour bacteria. In the professional kitchen this is not a design decision but an HACCP question – Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points, the food safety system prescribed in professional kitchens. Those who use Matfer tools solve this problem through material choice.

The Range – From Silicone Baking Mat to Carbon Steel Pan

Matfer Bourgeat produces over 1,800 products with no gaps in the professional kitchen and bakery operation. Baking tools: silicone mats in various sizes and textures for even baking without sticking, toast tins and loaf tins in black steel and aluminium, silicone moulds for mousses and entremets, pastry rings and cake frames, baking paper and permanent baking sheets. Cooking tools: carbon steel and copper pans, stainless steel gastronorm containers, sieves, ladles, whisks. Measuring devices, servingware, storage solutions. Each French location specialised in its area – Normandy for baking and pastry, Lyon for cookware and gastronomy.

Silicone mats & baking paper · Toast tins & loaf tins · Silicone moulds for pastry · Baking trays & moulds · Kitchen tools & catering accessories

Matfer Bourgeat at miniSchoggi

Anyone who has worked with a tool genuinely developed for its purpose – not for a shelf, not for a photograph, but for daily repetition under real conditions – never buys another. A silicone baking mat that distributes heat evenly and has not swollen after a hundred cycles. A toast tin that browns bread evenly and releases cleanly without pulling and pushing. A silicone mould that holds its geometry after the twentieth entremet exactly as after the first.

That is not coincidence. It is the result of 210 years in a single industry, of development processes that begin in real kitchens, and of a company that produces to ISO 14001 certification, develops with Michelin-starred chefs and has still not forgotten where it began: at a copper workbench in Les Halles, 1814. miniSchoggi carries Matfer Bourgeat because professional quality is not a question of business size. Serious bakers deserve the same tools as professional chefs – tools that work, last and make the difference in the result visible. The range at miniSchoggi includes silicone mats, toast tins, silicone moulds, baking paper and much more, and grows continuously.

1814. Les Halles de Paris. Copper and tin. Two centuries later, still the same promise: tools that last. Matfer Bourgeat.