Fabulous Fondue
Way back in the late ’60s, when I was a bride-to-be, I received a fondue pot as a wedding gift. I had never heard of fondue but it was a life-changing (well, at least gastronomy-changing) gift. Fifty years later the fondue pot still makes an annual appearance at our version of a Super Bowl party along with a couple of its cousins acquired in the years since.
At one end of the table is the traditional cheese fondue with its bowl full of bread cubes and a collection of long-handled forks for dunking. At the other end, is a bubbling pot of hot oil, ready to cook bits of meat, which are then topped with a variety of condiments. The food is paired with a simple salad and perhaps a baked potato.
At yet another station, a chocolate fondue, with its accompanying fruit, is a favorite with the newest generation. Indeed, fondue is as much a Super Bowl tradition for us as are pizza and grinders for other folks.
Fondue became popular in the 1960s and ’70s, fitting easily into the new sense of informality and community that was growing during that era because eating fondue is a communal experience. As more women joined the workforce, fondue became an easy way to throw a dinner party together after a day at the office.
Paradoxically, as women became even more busy, the fondue fad faded but—like bellbottom pants and the mini-skirt—it is again on the rise. In a day when everyone is glued to a screen, we can celebrate a form of eating that encourages convivial conversation.
Fondue appears to have originated centuries ago in Switzerland, perhaps as a way for peasants to use winter ingredients such as cheese, wine and bread as they aged. The earliest known recipe for the modern form of cheese fondue comes from a 1699 book published in Zurich, under the name Käss mit Wein zu kochen, “to cook cheese with wine.”
In 1930, the Swiss Cheese Union declared fondue the official national dish of Switzerland as part of a campaign to increase cheese consumption. It insisted, “La fondue crée la bonne humeur” (“Fondue creates a good mood.”) Since the 1950s, the term fondue has been generalized to other dishes in which a food is dipped into a communal pot of hot liquid—including our much-loved meat and chocolate versions.
Fondue crossed the “Great Pond” in 1964, where Americans encountered it at the Swiss Pavilion’s Alpine restaurant at New York’s 1964 World Fair. By 1970 Betty Crocker was advising, “A fondue party can be great fun.” Indeed, it can!
If you don’t have a fondue pot in your house, how about experiencing it the way it first gained its cachet in the U.S.—in the atmosphere of a ski lodge. At the Swiss Hutte in Hillsdale NY Gert Alper, born in Zurich and trained as a chef in Luzern, proudly presents a creamy cheese fondue in front of the two fireplaces in the restaurant. So, put down your phone, pick up your fork and enjoy the company of genial friends and family as you revisit this blast from the past.
