Chef & Sommelier

Buying Chef & Sommelier

Chef & Sommelier is the professional glassware brand from Arc International in France, built for the pace of restaurant and bar service rather than the display cabinet. What sets it apart is the glass itself, and two materials do the work. Kwarx is Arc's reinforced clear glass, and it carries the vast majority of the range: it holds its transparency and resists scratching and thermal shock through thousands of dishwasher cycles, and the bond between bowl, stem and base is engineered so the glass has no obvious weak point. Krysta is the newer lead-free high-performance crystal, used at the premium end of the wine list (the Sequence collection was the first range built in it), where you want thinner walls, a finer rim and the clarity of crystal without the lead. If you run a venue where glasses are handled hundreds of times a night, this is a brand chosen for how well it survives the wash, not just how it looks on the pass.

The ranges split roughly by job. For high-turnover wine and dining service, Cabernet, Reveal'Up and Sublym give you durable, sensibly shaped Kwarx stems across a wide spread of bowl sizes, from small pours up to 750ml bowls for big reds. For a more considered wine or tasting list, the finer stems step up: Open Up (its bevelled, asymmetric rim opens the aromatics), Grand Sublym, Exaltation, and the Krysta-crystal Sequence collection. On the bar you have tumblers and hi-balls in Vigne, Lima, Primary and Absoluty, spirit-specific shapes such as the Spirit cognac and brandy glass and the Nick & Nora, plus classic coupes and flutes. Chef & Sommelier also makes cutlery, the Lazzo and Ezzo ranges, if you want stainless to sit alongside the glass.

When you specify, work back from the wash and the storage, not just the wine. Check the bowl volume against both your pour and your glass racks, because a 550ml bowl filled to a 175ml line looks generous but needs the taller rack height. Look at how the bowl meets the stem, since that junction is where cheaper glasses tend to fail first, and it is exactly the joint Kwarx is engineered to strengthen. Buy in the full case rather than in singles so your replacements match the originals exactly, and keep one pack in reserve, because a table of eight only looks right when all eight glasses are the same. Chef & Sommelier is a broad catalogue and not every size is a warehouse line, so if a specific range matters to your brand, confirm it before you commit.

Chef & Sommelier: common questions

What is Kwarx, and does it actually make the glass tougher?

Kwarx is Arc International's reinforced clear-glass technology, and it is the material on most Chef & Sommelier tumblers and stemware. In practice it does two useful things: it keeps its transparency and shine through repeated commercial dishwashing rather than going cloudy, and it improves resistance to thermal shock and surface scratching. The bond between the bowl, stem and base is engineered so the glass has no obvious weak point, which is where cheaper glasses tend to go first. It is not unbreakable, no glass is, but it is built for the number of wash cycles a busy venue puts glasses through, which is exactly where standard glass dulls and chips.

What is the difference between Kwarx and Krysta?

Kwarx is the workhorse material across the bulk of the range, from tumblers like Vigne and Absoluty to wine stems like Cabernet, Sublym and the Open Up tasting glasses. Krysta is the newer lead-free high-performance crystal, used on the top collections (Sequence was the first range built in it), where you want thinner walls, a finer rim and the clarity of crystal without the lead. Both are made for commercial service and both stand up to industrial dishwashing, so the split is less everyday versus special and more that Kwarx spans almost the whole catalogue while Krysta sits at the premium end of the wine list. If a listing does not state the material, ask us, because some shapes exist in both.

Which range should I choose for high-volume wine service?

For volume, look at Cabernet, Reveal'Up or Sublym. They come in a full spread of bowl sizes, they sit sensibly in racks, and the Kwarx glass holds its clarity through heavy dishwashing, so a glass pulled from the rack still looks presentable. Keep the finer tasting stems, Open Up, Grand Sublym, Exaltation or the Krysta-crystal Sequence, for a fine-dining floor or a tasting menu, where the thinner bowl and shaped rim earn their place. A common approach is one durable house range for the bulk of service and one finer range held back for premium tables.

Why does Open Up have that angled, bevelled rim?

The Open Up bowl is one of Chef & Sommelier's flagship tasting shapes, and the slanted, asymmetric rim is deliberate. It creates what the brand calls an accelerated decanter effect: the wide lower bowl gives the wine a large surface to breathe while the narrower top gathers the aromatics, so the wine opens faster in the glass. One shape then works across reds, whites and tasting pours instead of a different bowl for every grape, which makes it genuinely useful for a by-the-glass or tasting programme. It is made in Kwarx, so it takes daily service and dishwashing, but it reads as a design-led glass, so check it suits your table style before you commit.

Is there a chip warranty, and can I re-order the same glasses in future?

Warranty terms vary by range and change over time, so treat any chip or breakage guarantee as something to confirm on the specific line before you buy rather than assume across the whole catalogue. The more useful point for a professional buyer is continuity: because this is a large, long-running catalogue, most core lines stay available season to season, so you can re-order the exact same glass rather than re-buying a full set when a few break. Buy by the case and keep a spare pack so your replacements always match.

How quickly can you deliver Chef & Sommelier glassware?

It depends on the line. We hold some Chef & Sommelier ranges in our own warehouse, and where a line is in stock and you order before the daily cut-off it goes out for next working day. Most of the catalogue, though, is ordered in from Arc International, so we confirm the lead time to you before you commit rather than promise it blind. Glassware also travels in full cases, so if you need a large matching quantity it is worth telling us the total up front, so we can check availability and consolidate the delivery rather than part-ship it. Give us the range, size and quantity and we will confirm exactly what is on the shelf and what sits on a lead time.