A woman got quite a surprise this Christmas when her husband gifted her with an extensive set of cookware from the esteemed French-Belgian brand Le Creuset.
The lucky woman, called Val, who goes by @.valpac on TikTok, unveiled the extensive range of items, most in cerise, in a 35-second video that has racked up more than 250,000 likes on the platform.
In the clip, the family gradually unpacks the 157-piece set, which the man picked up at Costco for a whopping $4,500, revealing an array of pots, pans and baking dishes, as well as everyday items like cups and plates.
Most of the enormous quantity came in Le Creuset's signature enameled cast iron or earthenware-style ceramics.
A lucky woman named Val received a 157-piece cookware set from the esteemed French-Belgian brand Le Creuset for Christmas from her husband
The freight was offered by Costco for the bargain price of $4,500 – relatively low for the brand, whose individual heavy pieces typically cost hundreds of dollars.
The set came in approximately eight separate boxes, all delivered together on a wooden pallet
“Crying, screaming, throwing up right now on my Christmas gift from my husband… 157 piece Le Creuset set from Costco, delivered on a pallet as promised,” Val enthusiastically captioned the post.
The items all started in about eight separate boxes, all stacked on top of each other on a wooden pallet.
Among the pieces Val showed off in the clip was the brand's mini cocotte, best for small-scale, slow-cooking projects.
She also showed off both cast-iron and non-stick pans, an array of cast-iron pots of different sizes, and a bunch of miscellaneous cooking utensils, including spatulas and wooden stirring spoons.
Want to win the prize for the cutest item? Undoubtedly the cheminée pour tarte – or 'pie bird' – a hollow ornament intended to be placed in the center of a cake as a ventilation mechanism.
At the end of the clip, Val revealed the entire load spread across her floor, a nearby table and even along the railing of a staircase.
'Am I the only one sweating and panicking about the pieces on the banister? Ma'am, with great power comes great responsibility,” one commenter worried about the display.
To many, $4,500 may not sound like a bargain, even for all 157 well-crafted cookware items.
The brand is best known for its enameled cast iron pots and pans
Val received several types and sizes of pots and pans in the set
The cheminée pour tarte – or 'cake bird' – is a hollow, bird-shaped ornament intended to be placed in the center of a cake as a ventilation mechanism
But for Le Creuset, the regular price for just a nine-piece cast iron cookware set is almost $1,200, while a single cast iron Dutch one costs almost $450.
Meanwhile, individual heavy stoneware items cost about $100 and up.
As one viewer hyperbolically characterized the theft: “By my calculations, that's about a $1.5 million set…Phenomenal gift – congratulations!!”
Thousands of commenters were quick to praise the high-quality, endlessly useful Christmas gift.
“This is what dreams are made of,” said one.
“This is the biggest kitchen flex of 2023,” a second agreed, with a third repeating: “This is the biggest flex on the internet right now.”
She also received cooking utensils, including wooden stirring spoons, spatulas and more
At the end of the video, Val showed the expanse of cargo spread across her floor, a table and even the railing of a staircase.
Thousands took to the comments to express their congratulations for – and otherwise comment on – Val's enormous and ever-useful Christmas gift
“It hurts to see others make your dreams come true,” a fourth complained.
'Does your husband have a single brother???' one enterprising woman wondered.
“Dude, I cried when my chef stepdad gave me his used set. Congratulations, the red is beautiful,” someone else applauded.
Yet another chimed in about her own Christmas gifts: “Honestly I only got the frying pan and the frying pan and when I saw this I should have asked for more” – to which Val cheekily replied: “Go start a fight.”
As another woman stated of the man's gift, “Sounds like he's been Christmas shopping for the rest of the decade!” What a man, what a man, what a mighty good man!'