The Colorful Cult of Le Creuset

April Hershberger isn’t the only collector of Le Creuset cookware with an extensive collection that she can’t keep track of. However, she may be the only one who designed an entire house around one particular piece: a deep-red, nine-quart oval Dutch oven gifted to her on her wedding in 2006.

This gift sparked an intense obsession.

Her kitchen stove, the focal point of her home in southeastern Pennsylvania housed in a restored barn, was custom-made to match her assortment of Le Creuset cherry-red pots, baking dishes, pitchers, plates, and more. At 42 years old, Ms. Hershberger also owns pieces in various colors like mustard yellow, sunflower yellow, Mediterranean blue, Caribbean blue, forest green, and lime green. She enjoys arranging and rearranging them into patterns like stripes, swirls, and rainbows, often documenting her creations on Instagram.

“I could never commit to one color,” she admits.

Similar to luxury brands like Hermès and Chanel, Le Creuset (pronounced luh cruh-SAY, as per the official video, translating to French for crucible) has transformed into a sought-after collectible while maintaining its practicality. Enthusiasts have elevated what was once a niche brand into an almost cult-like following, always captivated by new lines, colors, and shapes.

Some collectors prefer sticking to a specific color family, such as pastels, while others concentrate on a single item across the spectrum, like trivets or pie birds.

“As an Aries, fire and flames resonate with me,” says Arlene Robillard, a devoted collector with one of the largest assortments of the company’s original color: Volcanique, an orange-red ombré known in the United States as Flame.

In celebration of its 100th anniversary, Le Creuset recently unveiled its newest color, Flamme Dorée (gilded flame). This shade closely resembles the original hue but with a hint of gold shimmer, akin to high-end makeup or a splash of Goldschläger. The anticipation surrounding this new color reached fever pitch months ago when a glimpse of it was spotted at an undisclosed Williams-Sonoma store, sending the Le Creuset Lovers group on Facebook, boasting 97,000 members, into a frenzy of speculation.

“I have a good relationship with the staff, and one of them showed me a Dutch oven in the new sparkle flame!” an anonymous member shared. (DO is the collectors’ abbreviation for Dutch oven.)

Before Le Creuset, most cookware was limited to shades of gray, black, and brown. However, in 1925, two Belgian entrepreneurs – one an expert in cast iron and the other in vitreous enamel made of heat-fired glass – established a foundry in the industrial northeastern corner of France to introduce their innovative technology: coating cast iron with vibrant enamel. While the enameled cast-iron pots are still crafted in the foundry, other cookware and tableware are manufactured in locations like Portugal, Thailand, China, among others.

Their Le Creuset pots gained popularity in Europe due to their vivid colors, sturdiness, and culinary performance. Although the cookware began making its way into the United States in the 1950s, sales skyrocketed in recent years with the introduction of new items, demonstrating that fans are willing to invest in far more cookware than they actually require.

By expanding the company’s color range from basics to pastels, neons, and neutrals, and broadening the product line from cookware to tableware, utensils, and storage solutions, Le Creuset has emerged as a dominant force in kitchen marketing, with 90 stores across North America. (In 1988, five years after the first U.S. store launch, the company was acquired from French owners by Paul van Zuydam, a South African entrepreneur who advocated for the new approach. As a privately held entity, the company’s revenues are not disclosed publicly.)

The brand has engaged in collaborations with artists like Sheila Bridges, utilizing her black Harlem Toile de Jouy design, and with franchises such as “Star Wars,” “Harry Potter,” and Hello Kitty. (The U.S. stands as its largest market, closely followed by Japan.) The company has also orchestrated strategic releases of limited-edition products like a black heart-shaped Dutch oven that promptly sells out upon restocking and subsequently appears on resale platforms like Etsy and eBay.

Following the viral spread of baker Jim Lahey’s no-knead bread recipe baked in a Dutch oven in the early 2000s (resurfacing during the pandemic), Le Creuset introduced a dedicated bread oven in 2022, which has become one of its most popular new offerings in decades, according to Sara Whitaker, the company’s U.S. marketing head.

Pop-up factory sales, such as a recent three-day event in San Jose, Calif., draw massive crowds and generate enthusiastic social media posts, particularly from V.I.P. ticket holders who have the chance to purchase a $50 “mystery box” to be opened post-sale. Each box contains at least $350 (sometimes up to $1,000) worth of surplus and discontinued merchandise, prompting fans to create suspenseful unboxing videos in parking lots for platforms like TikTok.

Away from factory sales and outlet stores, the price of the pots can be steep, with retail prices reaching up to $750 for their largest Dutch oven, known as the “goose pot,” capable of roasting a 15-pound bird.

When Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, debuted a new lifestyle show on Netflix, some viewers criticized her for being “unrelatable,” citing her use of white Le Creuset pots. Her cookware was singled out as excessively expensive and pristine, a critique that some Black women deemed rooted in racist and outdated stereotypes. Many like Sharzaè Cameron from Atlanta, took to social media to proudly showcase their collections.

“We’ve had these for years now – this isn’t something new,” asserted Ms. Cameron, 42, highlighting wedding registries, outlet stores, and holiday gifts as avenues for expanding a collection. (During a recent interview at her residence, Meghan expressed disbelief at the notion that modern Black women solely use traditional cast-iron skillets.)

In the 1960s, two aspirational domestic empires were built on the sturdy foundation of Le Creuset: Williams-Sonoma on the West Coast and Pottery Barn on the East. In 1965, my parents (Hanna, 82, and Jeffrey Moskin, 83) purchased the pots they still utilize daily.

Upon their marriage that year, both sought to break free from their families’ culinary constraints: my mother from a strictly kosher household in Brooklyn (featuring jellied calves’ feet and margarine) and my father from a suburban Long Island abode (with orange soda and frozen veggies). With his father in the restaurant-supply industry, my parents were well-equipped when they tied the knot, possessing a large black Garland restaurant stove and sturdy aluminum skillets.

However, they only felt truly on their culinary journey when they acquired Le Creuset pots – the flame-colored Dutch ovens and weighty saucepans that enabled them to master recipes from culinary icons like Julia Child, Richard Olney, and Elizabeth David. (At that time, everyone in their circle aspired to be a French home cook, ideally one residing in the countryside.)

Various gadgets such as a Salton yogurt maker and a Romertopf terra-cotta casserole have graced their kitchen over the years, but no other pots have been added to their collection even sixty years later. This explains why I was unaware of the existence of a nonstick skillet until after completing college.

Renowned culinary historian, cooking instructor, and retired podcast host Lynne Rossetto Kasper, 82, immediately embraced the pots upon their arrival in the United States due to their weight, facilitating deep browning without scorching and enabling cooking at a gentle simmer.

“Finding a vessel suitable for braising or slow sautéing to achieve the right fond was challenging,” she noted, as most top American cookware brands, like Farberware, predominantly utilized lightweight aluminum. Two of her extensively used Le Creuset Dutch ovens will be auctioned next week as part of her culinary collection, although she mentioned, “they are just a few among the many that have passed through my life.”

Hailey Sipe, a product director at a tech firm residing in Orange County, California, phoned me from her travels with an update from the San Jose pop-up sale. Alongside two friends from her U.C.L.A. M.B.A. program, she embarked on a 300-mile journey north after work on Wednesday to assess the line and parking early the following morning.

At 34 years old, Ms. Sipe already owns several vibrant pots passed down from her mother and sister. However, since her wedding last year, she has been curating a collection in neutrals like Oyster gray, Sea Salt pale blue, and Brioche beige.

Her primary target during the 90-minute shopping slot was a bread oven. (The slots are staggered in 120-minute intervals to allow staff to manage the chaos.) “At the start, there’s a scramble because the plan is to grab everything you might want and sort it out later,” Ms. Sipe remarked.

To unbox their mystery boxes, the trio met with fellow attendees in a nearby parking lot, armed with folding tables and occasionally items from their own collections they were willing to part with. Ms. Sipe described the experience as an emotional roller coaster: the first box contained a pristine set of white Dutch ovens, but it didn’t belong to her. The subsequent box mostly contained Chiffon pale pink pieces, a color the group wasn’t particularly fond of for cookware. Ms. Sipe’s box held Flame pieces. “Orange doesn’t align with my color scheme,” she stated decisively.

Nevertheless, for approximately $1,400, Ms. Sipe returned home with a black braiser, a Rhone (wine-colored) pot, and ten other pieces that she intends to use, exchange, or gift.

And the bread oven? By the time she entered, the entire range had been sold out, except for Flame. (Ms. Whitaker of Le Creuset mentioned a decline in Flame’s popularity, leading the company to “de-emphasize” its production.)

Ms. Robillard, the avid Flame collector, possesses well over 1,000 pieces in the original color, including rarities like a 1955 Tostador, a George Foreman Grill precursor by Raymond Loewy, the French American industrial designer responsible for the original Coca-Cola can, the Barcalounger, and the Shell logo.

At 73 years old, Ms. Robillard has a contact in the Netherlands who scours flea markets on her behalf and a dedicated room in her Apopka, Fla., residence for her collection, stored on heavy-duty shelving bolted to the walls for support.

Factory sales and new releases hold little appeal to her; currently, her focus is on acquiring a vintage sangria pitcher she once spotted on a South American resale site. “The thrill of the hunt is always enjoyable.”

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