A Le Creuset pot was never about cooking, it was about the life I wanted

Plus: Martha, Anora, a hot new read, and the best Christmas candle

I, like many others in the UK, was rather amused at this week’s story about the police being called to a Le Creuset sale in Andover after it descended into chaos. Bargain hunters formed a four-hour queue, all for some discounted kitchenware. The French brand has curiously become something of a status symbol for Gen Z, who like to share their rainbow Le Creuset hauls on TikTok while making jokes about buying expensive homeware in lieu of actual homes. 

I, too, am a devotee of the brand. But Gen Z can keep their pink heart-shaped ramekins and pots resembling pumpkins. My allegiance only lies with one item: the cast iron round casserole dish in shade ‘volcanic’.  

Me and my beloved casserole dish

It’s the Gucci Brixton of Le Creuset, the Birkin bag. Elegant. Classic. Timeless. When I unwrapped my husband’s gift for me last Christmas, I already knew what it was. I had dropped enough hints. I peeled off the wrapping paper and there it was, my very own 26cm casserole dish.

I’d coveted the dish since I was in my early twenties. To me, it symbolised not a cosy life of domesticity but that of a sophisticated hostess, one who held raucous dinner parties and had guests who went home raving about my boeuf bourguignon.

I’d been inspired by the likes of Nora Ephron, who said of the Sixties, “Sophisticated cooking became the thing to do: you were an adult, and therefore you cooked. And bought Le Creuset pots and good knives. It was just what you did.” 

Then, of course, there were Joan Didion’s volcanic Le Creuset casserole dishes that she was photographed cooking with when Vogue came to her house in Malibu in 1972 (her set of Le Creuset sold for $8000 in her posthumous auction). 

What both these women had in common was that they were titans in their fields but they also liked to have a good time. They loved entertaining and held dinner parties filled with interesting people and I always thought that sounded like an exciting way to live. I decided quite early on that I’d live in a big city, have an interesting job in media, and be a fabulous dinner party host. If I was to be a sophisticated city woman I’d need Le Creuset.

And I’m not saying I’m desperate for my mum to pop her clogs (my dad only died this year so I wouldn’t mind pacing things out a bit) but I will eventually inherit her collection of Le Creuset. She’s already kindly passed on a couple of cast iron volcanic roasting pans.

Of course, this is all a bit silly. And a hell of a lot of romance to attach to a casserole dish. But there you have it. And in case you’re interested, they are completely dreamy to cook with, and they come with a lifetime warranty guarantee. But we all know that’s not really what it’s about. 

P.S. Le Creuset always does exceptional Black Friday deals so if you’d prefer not to spend your Sundays in a four-hour queue in Andover, just wait a couple of weeks and fill your boots. 

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Other things!

Speaking of domestic giants, I watched Martha this week, the Netflix documentary about Martha Stewart and it was utterly captivating. Growing up in the UK, I was aware of Stewart’s hold over American culture and even though she wasn’t on our TVs she was referenced in everything from Sex and the City to Jay-Z songs. I also recall her legal troubles, even if it wasn’t quite such big news on these shores. The doc charts her rise from stockbroker to caterer to cookbook author and lifestyle guru media mogul, becoming America’s first self-made woman billionaire in the process. It’s a fascinating account of a woman who is seemingly at odds with her cosy public persona and it’s totally worth your time. Her friend Lloyd Allen says in the doc, “She was the first woman that saw the marketability of her personal life.” A lot of people on Substack owe Martha a huge deal, lol. 

I also watched Anora at the cinema this week and it was the best film I’ve seen all year. What a movie! Anora follows a twentysomething New York stripper who starts a relationship with a young, massively wealthy Russian client. I don’t want to say much else so as not to ruin it but it is touching, hilarious, devastating and wild. Pretty Woman meets Uncut Gems. Mikey Madison deserves a best actress Oscar nom next year, she’s that good in the title role. I have loved director Sean Baker ever since I saw The Florida Project, which was probably my favourite film of 2017. I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to cover it for my former employer Refinery29. I’d set up an interview with Bria Vinaite, who played the twentysomething mum Halley, but she never showed up so I ended up taking an open top bus tour of London with two of the film’s then 7-year-old stars. We had the best time and they were magnificent, if a little tricky to interview. Tangerine, Baker’s film about transgender sex workers in LA and shot on three iPhone cameras, is also brilliant and worth checking out (it’s currently streaming on Amazon Prime).

And as we’ve been on Joan Didion and her pots, I can’t wait to read Lili Anolik’s Didion and Babitz, about her friendship/rivalry with Eve Babitz, which was released this week. This extract in The Wall Street Journal about Didion’s early days in Hollywood has completely whet my appetite. It’s a fabulously gossipy piece (Anolik excels at literary gossip; she also created the superb podcast Once Upon A Time…At Bennington College about Donna Tartt, Brett Easton Ellis and Jonathan Lethem). Also hats off to the book’s publicity team. Anolik had a launch party at the Chateau Marmont this week and everyone from Elizabeth Olsen to Da'Vine Joy Randolph to Emma Roberts did readings from the book.

Now on to more middle class chaos this week. I thought I was imagining that supermarket shelves seemed curiously bare of taramasalata - during one recent craving I went to three stores with no luck - but I’m not, there’s a national shortage due to industrial action at one of the biggest suppliers of the cod roe dip! A standard CBA* lunch for me is a pot of taramasalata, wholemeal pitta and vegetable crudites. Delightful. If you’re tired of waiting out the shortage, try Pinney’s of Offord’s version, which you’ll find in delis and therefore not beholden to the supermarket supply chains. It’s a wildly superior product to the stuff you find in Sainsbury’s (which I’ll happily do from time to time, I’m not that picky). *Can’t be arsed (is this only an English thing?)

And now that the John Lewis ad has dropped (this year: meh?), Christmas can begin. I won’t get a tree until December 1st but I WILL start burning the Sapin candle from Diptyque. Smells like Christmas. (The White Company’s Winter candle is a really decent cheaper festive alternative.) 

Have a wonderful weekend, 

Gillian 

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