Descoware is a discontinued brand of porcelain- or enamel-coated cast-iron cookware Among notable Descoware pots are dutch ovens. Although Descoware is now little-remembered, specialist sources hold that it was the favorite cooking ware of American cooking instructor and television personality Julia Child, more so than Le Creuset, whose association with the chef has been widely reported. Child regularly used Descoware on her television show The French Chef. The Smithsonian Institution's installation about Child's kitchen featured a large orange Descoware pot on top of Child's own stove.

Le Creuset is a French-Belgian maker of cookware. They are best known for producing enameled cast-iron cookware. The company first manufactured their products in the town of Fresnoy-le-Grand in France in 1925, which are similar in function to a Dutch oven but with T-shaped handles. The Le Creuset Dutch oven is on display in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. as a part of the recreation of the chef Julia Child's kitchen. It has been widely reported to be her favorite cooking pot, though specialist sources hold that it was the Dutch oven of Le Creuset's less-remembered competitor Descoware that was her real favorite. The company also makes many other types of cookware and bakeware, from fondue-sets to tagines.