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Refuel kitchen equipment is a major investment, and that’s especially true if your dream kitchen includes products from The Crucible. The nearly 100-year-old brand has been the pinnacle of quality kitchenware for generations and has developed a cult following.

You can spot The Crucible products in celebrity homes, glossy magazines and even on the shelves of Delicious Food Studios. But we’re not the only fans: this iconic cookware is celebrated around the world, and for good reason. Here’s a look at what makes Le Creuset products so special, plus some fun facts about the company.

Their signature color recalls the beginning.

The brand’s casting specialist, Armand Desaegher, and enamelling specialist, Octave Aubecq, opted for a bright orange color for their first enameled kiln in 1925, naming the shade “Flame”. They were inspired by the bright glow of molten iron. Even the factory in Fresnoy-le-Grand, France, is painted in the classic shade of orange.

Marilyn Monroe was a big fan.

THE blonde bombshell was an avid cook and owned a 12-piece Le Creuset cookware set in Elysées yellow, a color that has since been discontinued. It was sold at auction for a whopping $25,330 in New York in 1999.

No two pieces are exactly the same.

Each kitchen utensil is cast from a fresh sand mold which breaks down into sand after use. The molded parts are then smoothed by hand and enameled. And that’s just a simplified version: the process can take at least 10 hours and actually involves 12 different steps.

Buttons are more than just accessories.

You’ve probably seen Le Creuset lids topped with buttons in different colors, like black, stainless steel, gold, and iridescent. But these buttons are so much more than just a fashion statement. Old Dutch ovens came with the classic black knob that could withstand temperatures. up to 390°F. They have since expanded their selection to include sturdier resin-based buttons, metal buttons in a variety of shades and even flower and heart-shaped! You can easily swap them out and change the look of your kitchenware whenever you want.

TikTok is currently obsessed.

The app is popular with young people, but it turns out young people have loved this almost century-old company, with #lecreuset gaining over 60 million views as of this writing. Users post exhilarating videos about everything from the quality to the pots to their very chic colors, showing off their collections to the envy of others.

Le Creuset has a strict no-defect policy.

Each jar is inspected by 15 different people before it is deemed fit for sale, and approximately 30 percent of the company’s products are rejected due to imperfections. Often, products are remelted and the iron recycled to create new (defect-free) products.

You can get the best deals at Le Creuset outlet stores.

There are more than 70 factory outlets across the country who sell first quality productions, that is to say items whose colors or shapes can now be abandoned, and second quality items. These have minor imperfections that don’t affect how they cook food, but require selling them at a lower price.

Enameled cast iron cookware isn’t the only thing the company can make.

Ovens may be the most popular, but Le Creuset of course does more than that: consider its offerings of charming tea kettles, saucepans, pie dishes, mixing bowls, cutlery and much more.

Popular colors vary by country.

Le Creuset currently offers around 100 colors, but the favorites are different depending on where you live. Americans opt for primary shades, Germans love Mediterranean blue and Japanese chefs choose pastels. French cooks love it – what else? – in the iconic Flame color, called “Volcanique” in Le Creuset’s country of origin.

Workers at the Le Creuset factory remain busy.

The company turned 95 years old in 2020 and by that year it had created over 300 million products for customers in over 60 different countries.

The company is known for its whimsical limited editions.

They have produced heart- and flower-shaped pots in the past, as well as kitchenware covered in cherry blossoms in Japan. Le Creuset has made Disney fans’ wildest dreams come true with a blue soup pot painted with red roses to celebrate the release of the live-action Beauty and the Beast movie. And in 2021, they released a whole Harry Potter line.

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