Fontignac as good as Le Creuset?

Never heard of Fontignac, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say “no”

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but I’m going to go out on a limb and say “no”

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I have no idea why anyone would ever buy a Le Creuset.... Just saying.

Most of my pots are le creuset. Other than All Clad, I have no idea why anyone would ever buy anything but Le Creuset.

Just saying.

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Other than All Clad, I have no idea why anyone would ever buy anything but Le Creuset.

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Eh, different strokes and diminishing returns. Some prefer Staub, some Le Creuset. Both do well with some dishes and poorly with others. If one if only going to use ECI in the oven, plenty of the cheaper options will work just fine. The cast iron performs the same regardless, the difference is the enamel.

As to All-Clad, one could say why would anyone ever buy All-Clad, when Demeyere is available for about the same price and performs objectively better? To take it further, why would anyone buy stainless clad of any sort when Matfer Bourgeat, Falk, and Mauviel all make nice 2.5mm copper bimetal pieces? Why buy copper bimetal when Brooklyn Copper Cookware makes fantastic 3mm thick copper pieces? Why would anyone buy from BCC when Cesare Mazzetti at Bottega Del Rame and Jim Hamman at Duparquet make phenomenal silver lined 3mm copper?

Each of these objectively perform better than the previous option. All depends on one's budget and needs.

For those who may be interested, Staub 4 qt pots or "cocottes" are on Cyber Monday sale for $99.99, which is a really good deal for Staub cast iron. There are only certain colors available for this price and there are a few sites that have them on sale- Amazon, Macy's, Williams-Sonoma, etc. Just google it and they'll pop right up.

I don't really need another cast iron pot, so of course I bought one.

I have a Le Creuset 7.25 qt, but the only reason I have it is because I got it at Dillard's on their New Year's Sale for $70. Otherwise it's something like $379. Prior to that I'd run through one 6 qt one from Kohl's and one 6 qt one from KMart. Both were fine, although significantly heavier than the Le Creuset.

The one from Kohl's cracked the enamel after about 5 yrs. The one from KMart was going strong when I got the LC one. But they were both <$50. I'm all for buying nice things that will last forever rather than substandard things that are cheaper at the time but more expensive in the long run, but dang if the cheap dutch ovens don't work almost as well (and cooking, I think they're probably almost identical, the LC ones are just lighter and probably heat slightly more evenly) and they're 20% of the price.

If you've got the money go for it, but I wouldn't sweat it if you end up buying a cheaper one. Just get one that has a lighter color interior so you can see when your fond turns too dark and one w/good handles and you're probably going to be fine. Costco has pretty awesome customer service so I wouldn't worry about them standing behind it if you did have a problem down the road and I'd be shocked if someone could tell the difference between food cooked in one pan and not the other.

I still use three pieces of Le Creuset that I bought at their (now long gone) outlet in Gatlinburg 45 years ago.

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I haven’t tried Staub yet, but I know a few people who do so I’m interested to see how the brands compare.

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I have a Staub 6qt. The main difference I've seen is that the Staub has a matte black enamel finish, as opposed to the lighter, brighter slick finishes of the Le Creuset (and most other enameled cast iron). That has good and bad points, mainly that it's much harder to see the fond developing so you really have to pay attention with a Staub. However, it browns meat like a boss compared to traditional finishes.