Is your kitchen looking barren? Could it be spruced up by adding, say, a vintage Art Deco beehive blender or silver spoons from San Francisco’s 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition?
Then haul your cheffy derriere on July 19 to the first-ever “Culinary Rummage Sale” of Les Dames d’Escoffier International, San Francisco Chapter. The free fundraising event – which supports the organization’s scholarships and grants for women in food, fine beverage and hospitality – will have more than 500 items including several hundred vintage pieces. In other words, things that’ll make your kitchen the envy of every cook in the land.
A “Culinary Rummage Sale” is taking place in San Francisco on July 19, 2025, to support programming by Les Dames d’Escoffier International, San Francisco Chapter. Pictured: Circa-1790 antique mahogany wooden tantalus. (Courtesy LDEI-SF)
Taking place at Prospect restaurant from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. (300 Spear St., San Francisco, closest BART is Embarcadero), the sale will have items notable for their historic or culinary heritage, like clay and copper cookware from the collection of Paula Wolfert, cookbook author and recipient of the James Beard Foundation’s Medal for Lifetime Achievement. There are bone-handled knives and a “bovine horn tea scoop” from Alice Waters’ own rummage sale, in 2019, and sterling-silver spoons from the 1915 Pan–Pacific Exposition.
A “Culinary Rummage Sale” is taking place in San Francisco on July 19, 2025, to support programming by Les Dames d’Escoffier International, San Francisco Chapter. Pictured: 1930s Art Deco Osterizer chrome beehive blender. (Courtesy LDEI-SF)
The sale will also include unique items from the Bay Area Culinary Historians, a group devoted to local food history. These include that 1930s Art Deco Osterizer chrome beehive blender, a 1920s Manning-Bowman waffle maker and a “circa-1790 antique mahogany wooden tantalus with six gold-gilt bottles and a single glass.”
What’s a tantalus? Does it matter — you know you want it, regardless. (OK, it’s a wooden container for glass decanters with a lock and key.)
Though by no means an exhaustive list, here are some more neat things that Les Dames d’Escoffier International will have on offer. Small bites and drinks from Prospect restaurant will also be available for purchase:
• Sterling silver spoons from San Francisco’s 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition
• From the Alice Waters’ rummage sale of 2019, a clay bran, four bone-handled knives, bovine horn tea scoop and napkin rings from Scotland, and Franciscan Denmark teacups
A “Culinary Rummage Sale” is taking place in San Francisco on July 19, 2025, to support programming by Les Dames d’Escoffier International, San Francisco Chapter. Pictured: 1920s Manning-Bowman waffle maker. (Courtesy LDEI-SF)
• Brand new bakeware in special molds and antique cookie cutters
• Circa-1950s Irish linen tablecloth with napkins
• From the collection of Paula Wolfert, clay and copper cookware
• Pizza oven box for turning a grill into a pizza oven
• Japanese tea sets and chopsticks
• Panini press
• Czechoslovakian crystal wine glasses
• Mexican clay plates
• Framed French culinary posters
• First-edition cookbooks and travel and food large-format books by top chefs (including Les Dames)
Details: Sale takes place 10 a.m.-2 p.m. July 19 at 300 Spear St., San Francisco (Prospect restaurant); free to attend; RSVP encouraged. Register at lesdamessf.org/event-6197774/Registration
