The stuffed cabbage, the new favorite of gastronomic tables

Limoges hosted the second edition of the World Championship of stuffed cabbage, organized by the porcelain house Bernardaud and the wholesaler in charcuterie Les Artcutiers, under the presidency of Philippe Etchebest. In a few years, this monument of domestic kitchens has left the sole sphere of nostalgia to become an object of competition, discourse and gastronomic desire. It thus follows the cycle of return observed in recent years for the great bistro or bourgeois classics—from the meurette egg to pâté-croute, from the celeriac remoulade to the hare à la Royale, through the egg with mayonnaise — which have all seen the birth of an international championship in their honor.

Relegated to the side of grandmother’s dishes, Sunday tables and recipes "that matter to the body", stuffed cabbage is now changing category. It becomes spectacular again. In neoclassical bistros, bourgeois houses brought up to date and some more creative tables, he checks almost all the boxes of the taste of the time: visible vegetation, long time, juice, memory, and this singular panache that a dish-sculpture when it arrives whole or sliced on the table. In Paris, the stuffed cabbage by Jean Sévègnes at the Café des Ministères is a reference. The chef, first champion of France in the discipline in 2022, has been serving there for about five years his 'chou farci façon Reine' (29€), in tribute to his mother, based notably on cabbage from Pontoise, pig, sausage from Morteau, parsley and Espelette pepper.

But the most interesting thing is perhaps elsewhere: stuffed cabbage not only returns to institutions and traditional cooking bistros, it also appeals to more recent addresses, often worn by a young generation. In Paris, you can find it at Janine, a bistro launched at the end of 2022 in the 17th arrondissement, but also at Faubourg Daimant, a temple for vegetal food opened in 2023, which offers a mushroom version topped with truffle juice. The dish lends itself even to more distant inspirations, such as at Trâm 130, Priscilla Trâm’s address inaugurated in 2024, where it is served with glutinous rice, pandan, shiitake and ginger.

This return also depends on what the stuffed cabbage tells. He belongs to this cuisine of economy and transformation that knew how to do a lot with few (in a 1980 TV show, chef Olympe Versini specifies that 'ham waste' must be used in the recipe): a cabbage, pork, some herbs, sometimes chard, bread, eggs, leftovers of meat — and all a know-how of stuffing, assembly and slow cooking. In France, it is particularly rooted in the Center, Limousin, Auvergne and Aveyron, but it is part of a much broader family. On the Hexagonal side, we can mention, without always being stuffed cabbage in the strict sense, the Poitevin stuffed, the Charentais stuffed, the Auvergnat pounti or the Niçois capouns. Abroad, the family is vast: Polish gołąbki, Czech or Slovak holubky, Romanian sarma, Balkan sarma, Swedish kåldolmar or even Japanese rōru kyabetsu.

The second edition of the contest, organized on February 23, 2026 in Limoges, confirmed this change of status. Seven finalists from all over the world met at the Bernardaud factory, where Olivier Caillon won the title of World Champion. Charcutier at the Meilleur Ouvrier de France Arnaud Nicolas in Paris, already winner of the French championship in 2025, this thirty-year-old has established himself with his stuffed cabbage 'Marie-Louise', a tribute to his grandmother: a creation filled with pig, chanterelles, sweetbread, poultry liver, foie gras, ventrèche, yellow wine and fresh herbs. Upon receiving his award, he spoke of "eight months of hard work, no weekends". "I am very happy for Olivier who is a great cook, very talented, passionate about his job and a truly wonderful boy with great human qualities," says Eric Frechon - long at the head of three-star Michelin kitchens at the Bristol Hotel in Paris to Sirha Food - for which Olivier Caillon worked several years.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Marthe Allard Daudet, under the pseudonym Pampille, wrote in Les Bons Plats de France. Cuisine Régionale, that, «stuffed cabbage is misunderstood; it is disdained, accused of being indigestible, treated a bit like a poor relative, it does not appear on the menu when there are people: it’s completely unfair». Injustice repaired in 2026.