Le Creuset's artisans have worked for nearly a century at Fresnoy-Le-Grand in northern France, perfecting the craft of producing enameled cast iron cookware. The process is built around a time-honored method of hand-casting molten iron in sand molds.

It takes two sand molds to produce the desired shape for each Le Creuset piece — one for the interior and the other for the exterior. After the molds are in place, the raw materials are melted at an extremely high temperature in a large cauldron ("le creuset" in French), then poured directly into the waiting molds.

When the shape is cast and the ...

In the 1600s, cast iron “Dutch ovens” were designed to be placed directly onto a heat source such as burning wood or embers. Cooks would pile coal or embers on top of the vessel in order to surround the food with heat, thus creating an 'oven.’ However, the heat generated through this process varied wildly, and excess evaporation often led to the scorching of food. Water was typically added in order to ensure proper moisture, but this resulted in flavors that were literally 'watered down’. While the invention of modern ovens eliminated the need to place embers directly on top ...

In the mid-1920s, Le Creuset co-founder Octave Aubecq was watching the cast iron production process at his fledgling cookware company when inspiration suddenly struck. Color! Mesmerized by the beautiful molten cast iron emerging from a darkened crucible, Aubecq set out to create an enamel that would mimic this brilliant orange, and the color Flame™ was born. 
While this classic hue has evolved slightly with manufacturing processes over the years, Flame remains Le Creuset’s best-selling cast iron color in markets like the UK, Germany and Japan, and is considered synonymous with the Le Creuset brand.