Delphine Plisson: a passion for local products

Delphine Plisson made groceries fashionable four years ago. Last year, she opened her second online shop and restaurant – and now, Parisians can no longer do without her wide-ranging selection of French artisanal products, tasted and chosen with the greatest care. We met her.

Plisson’s career is astonishing. The founder of Paris delicatessen Maison Plisson studied at business school with the idea of opening her own bookshop, and then moved into fashion, where she climbed the ladder at impressive speed thanks to her gift of the gab. From her travels, she soon realised that what she loved most was visiting markets and grocery stores.

The best local products

Plisson then found time to make a long road trip around France to find the best local products. She interviewed food journalists and chefs to unearth the best restaurants and then embarked on this unlikely culinary journey. At each stop, she met artisans and farmers, moving from place to place listening to all the locals’ recommendations.

These twelve months confirmed her intuition that she loved good food and took great pleasure in meeting enthusiastic people working in difficult conditions, wanting to support them, put them forward and showcase their products. So her eventual route became clear: she would bring together all the best products in a large, multi-faceted store.

Two Maison Plisson branches in Paris

Today it’s a double dream come true: La Maison Plisson on Boulevard Beaumarchais and at Marché Saint-Honoré, a market of fresh and organic fruits and vegetables with delicatessen, wine cellar, bakery, butcher, and restaurant serving seasonal family recipes. The bonus at Saint-Honoré is the adjoining kitchen and homeware shop.

Delphine Plisson wanted a grocery store and she created it – but was adding a restaurant not complicating matters? She explains that above all she wanted a lively place where it would be more fun to shop – even be a pleasure – and where, she says, laughing, men would fight to come in place of their wives.

Top-quality products and traditional recipes at the restaurant

Plisson can also buy whole animals rather than simply pieces for butchery; and any pieces that the butchers can’t sell are used in the traditional recipes of the restaurant, which allows it to serve fantastic meat at very tempting prices.

What’s more, the restaurant avoids food waste by cleverly working the menu of the day out of unsold ingredients from the previous day: overripe tomatoes, cheeses close to their expiry or lacklustre fruit that wouldn’t be chosen by customers but that are still great for cooking. Thanks to this system, the restaurant can offer the best possible value for money.

How to get to the Maison Plisson in Paris  

Two addresses: 93 Boulevard Beaumarchais and 35 Place du Marché Saint-Honoré, Paris