Le Creuset beams 'Star Trek' into the kitchen with a 60th-anniversary cookware collection
Le Creuset and Paramount mark "Star Trek's" 60th anniversary with a cookware collection — plus a real Dutch oven flown to 111,000 feet in the stratosphere.
LIFE
9/13/20262 min read
Cast iron meets the final frontier: Starfleet deltas, Klingon curses and a Dutch oven that actually went to space
Le Creuset is boldly taking dinner where few Dutch ovens have gone before. The French cookware maker has partnered with Paramount Products & Experiences on a limited-edition "Star Trek" collection marking the franchise's 60th anniversary, turning cast iron, stoneware and kitchen accessories into a love letter to Starfleet, the Klingon Empire and some of the show's most recognizable characters.
The Dutch oven gets a Starfleet assignment
The collection's centerpiece is a $500, 5.5-quart Enterprise Signature Round Dutch Oven in French Grey. The U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 flies across Le Creuset's familiar concentric rings on the lid, a metallic Starfleet Delta swaps in for the standard knob, and "to boldly go" is stamped inside for anyone who lifts the lid mid-recipe.
Fans loyal to the other side get their own piece: a $450 Signature Braiser in darker cast iron, dressed in Klingon-inspired detailing with a Trefoil "Heart of Virtue" knob. "Qapla'" — the Klingon word for success — is stamped inside.
Rounding out the cast-iron lineup is a $150 rectangular covered casserole modeled after the Galileo Shuttlecraft, holding 1.6 liters.
Smaller pieces, bigger personality
The accessories are where the design team clearly had the most fun. A Spock mug builds a Vulcan-style pointed ear into the handle. A spoon rest takes the shape of the Vulcan salute. There's a communicator-inspired cheese grater the company calls the "Communi-Grater," plus an oven mitt and a set of mini cocottes referencing Gorn, Balok and Talosian. Cooks who already own Le Creuset pieces can add a smaller dose of the crossover with standalone Starfleet Delta or Klingon Trefoil knobs. U.S. prices for accessories start around $35 — well under the cost of the cast-iron pieces.
The collaboration lands ahead of "Star Trek's" 60th anniversary; the original series premiered in September 1966 and grew into a franchise spanning multiple TV series, films, books, games and generations of merchandise. Le Creuset has a track record of pop-culture crossovers, including past collections tied to Disney, Harry Potter and a 2019 Star Wars line.
This time, Le Creuset actually went to space
For this launch, the company took the space theme literally. Working with Sent Into Space, Le Creuset sent an Enterprise Dutch Oven more than 111,000 feet into the stratosphere on a high-altitude balloon.
The pot spent 1 hour, 19 minutes and 4 seconds aloft, endured temperatures as low as minus 63.4 degrees Celsius (minus 82 degrees Fahrenheit) and hit speeds above 300 mph on its parachute descent back to Lincolnshire, England.
Getting a heavy piece of cast iron that high took more than a big balloon. Sent Into Space co-founder Chris Rose said the team had to account for the Dutch oven's weight and balance, secure flight permissions, track telemetry throughout the flight and calculate a landing zone clear of people and water.
The limited-edition collection is available now through Le Creuset and select retailers.
Sixty years after the Enterprise first explored the final frontier, its latest mission is dinner.
Images: Le Creuset