Fond of fondue

For me a good cheese fondue encapsulates winter nights and heady Savoie living so it was more than fitting to have one for our last supper in St. Luc.

The term fondue originates from the French verb ‘fondre’, meaning to melt, so literally melted cheese.

Ours consisted of a mixture of Gruyère/Emmental and dry white wine- pretty commonplace for Swiss fondues - with a stack of baguette squares to spear the melting pot but Jarslberg, Comté, Beaufort, Vacherin or Appenzeller are equally good cheese substitutes. I think it's all about new combinations.

Fondues are not just restricted to cheese. From my last few posts I’m sure it’s no secret that I’m a bit of a red meat fan and so for me life probably doesn’t get much better than a fondue Bourguignonne -a classic meat fondue that involves dipping cubes of beef into spitting oil. I have fond memories of flouting fondue etiquette with ‘double dipping’ and chasing lost cubes around the bottom of the hotpot.

According to Swiss tradition, if a man drops his forkful into the cheese abyss he must buy a bottle of wine, and if it is a woman, she must kiss the man on her left - in St. Luc I had my brother on my left and my mum on my right so needless to say we scrapped the rules!