Cast iron catnip for Gen Z's aspirations of adulthood

Police had to be called after hundreds of frenzied shoppers descended on a cookware sale this weekend. Helen Coffey dons oven gloves to tackle the LeCreuSlay phenomenon

- Helen Coffey

“God, if I could finally get a big Le Creuset, things might really turn around for me.”

What words could better sum up the stealthy yet unstoppable rise of the formerly formal French cookware brand to become peak Gen Z #kitchengoals?

The sentiment is expressed by Nicola Coughlan’s character in the 2024 Channel 4 comedy-drama series Big Mood, which follows best friends Eddie (played by Lydia West) and Maggie (Coughlan) as they attempt to navigate grown-up life in London in their twenties. They’re always teetering on the brink of going off the rails – Eddie because the rat-infested bar she inherited is failing to turn a profit, Maggie because she struggles to manage her crippling bipolar disorder – and make terrible romantic decisions, terrible professional decisions, terrible dinner party decisions (too much booze and inedible food) in their quest to play at being “proper” adults. But hey, all would be fixed if only they had a big Le Creuset! Then everything else in their chaotic lives would surely fall into place!

While we may know deep down that simply owning a robust casserole dish isn’t really a shortcut to sorting out life’s problems, this throwaway line perfectly encapsulates Le Creuset’s newfound status as the ultimate aspirational bit of homeware for Gen Z and millennials. The traditional range of cast iron cookware, known for its signature shade of “volcanic” orange, used to be something your mum might have hanging around the back of the kitchen cupboard after she picked it up at a car boot sale in the 1980s. These days, the brand is like middleclass catnip, coveted to the point where police have to get involved when they throw a sale. Yes, really.