Of all the Alpine clichés — yodeling, goats, snow-fringed chalets, nearly anything from The Sound of Music — the hearty tradition of eating gooey, melted cheese for dinner has transcended its origins to become a collective cultural experience.
Though fondue is a simple tradition of dunking bread into a hot pot of cheese, it conjures stronger associations than perhaps any other food, argues journalist David Sax. “You hear its name and picture ski lodges, a fog of stinky cheese, cracking fireplaces, shag carpets, and Burt Reynolds lying there, shirtless and with a long-stemmed fork in his hand,” Sax writes in his book, The Tastemakers: Why We’re Crazy For Cupcakes But Fed Up With Fondue. “It is not only a cultural anachronism, but a symbol of all cultural anachronisms, of the fate of forgotten food trends.”
Though the fondue parties of the 1960s may seem well in the past, there’s a melted cheese renaissance of sorts happening now in America. In recent years, restaurants around the country have been experimenting with raclette, a dish just as traditional if lesser known than fondue, where wheels of cheese are melted and scraped onto a plate of potatoes and other accompaniments. Some restaurateurs have even opened entire concepts focused on this molten wheel of cheese. So where in their long histories did these two Alpine traditions diverge — and where are they headed?
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