The Real Reason This Trendy Cookware Brand Is In Hot Water

If you want to be a serious Instagram foodie, there are three secrets to success: presentation, presentation, presentation. Even if you have the skills to create your own home-cured charcuterie, the taste won't come across in a photograph, so yes, you absolutely must arrange everything on that ubiquitous wooden cutting board. Nor will your home-baked mille-feuilles get too many likes unless they're perfectly posed on an artfully crumpled tea towel.

If cassoulet or chili are on the menu, then of course you wouldn't dream of cooking them in anything other than a Dutch oven. Of course, not just any Dutch oven will do. Tired old cast-iron is so last century (or more like 19th century). Instead, any Instagrammer worth their fleur de sel has a colorful Dutch oven produced by the hottest cookware brand: Great Jones. If you haven't snagged one of the trendy cookware company's $155 "Dutchess" pans in Blueberry Blue, Broccoli Green, Mustard Yellow, or Taffy Pink, you may want to hurry up. According to Business Insider, the brand has been dealing with some serious internal conflicts, leading some to question where it is headed.

According to Business Insider, the trouble all started in the summer of 2020. Great Jones' co-founders, Sierra Tishgart and Maddie Moelis, were meeting (via Zoom, of course) with their eight-person team. As the streets of New York were erupting in protests over the recent death of George Floyd, Tishgart asked the team to share their feelings, but the sole Black employee felt so uncomfortable she broke down in tears. Moelis requested that they drop this line of discussion and move on to more business-related matters, but Tishgart kept pushing.

It seems employee issues with Tishgart had been going on for some time, as employees found her to be out of touch and hard to work with. Shortly after the meeting, workers voiced their concerns to the only other board member besides Tishgart and Moelis, venture capitalist Peter Boyce. Boyce responded by resigning from the board and was promptly replaced with Tishgart supporter Nicolas Jammet, cofounder of salad chain Sweetgreen. Soon Moelis was out, too, and by September all of the company's employees had quit their jobs. While Great Jones is still up and running, it is unclear to many where they are headed and how the company will change after the mass exodus.

Great Jones provided a statement to Mashed on their future, sharing they have seen "record sales with a growing team since the fall of 2020," and will be releasing new products soon.