It is a Swiss custom that was first described in the 19th century by the gastronome Brillat-Savarin in Boston, but only in the 50’s did it become famous on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1956 Chef Konrad Egli cooked, for the first time, pieces of meat in hot oil (fondue bourguignon) and in 1964 followed this with the chocolate fondue. This fondue is the one that most of us are familiar with today- the sweet fondue that is made with melted chocolate, flavored with liqueur and accompanied by pieces of cake, biscuit, fruits or nuts.
The roots of the food, however, extend back to the Middle Ages when grape pickers, in an effort to prevent cooked foods from spoiling, prepared and employed a type of fondue late in the afternoon in their vineyards. The word fondue derives from the French word "fonder" which means "to melt". Fondue was born from the need to utilize the stale cheeses during winter by making them more digestible, as well as to prevent cooked meats from spoiling. The cheeses that are most often used include emmendal and gruyere (Swiss parmesan).
Preparation begins in a pot where you warm, over low heat, the wine, and then add the grated cheeses, the kirsch or some other aromatic beverage like plum brandy. When the cheeses have melted, you rub a garlic clove on the inner part of the fondue pyrex pot and add the mixture, taking care that it doesn’t boil. If the mixture begins to thicken, you can thin it out with wine. It is accompanied by small pieces of bread or fruit (apples, pears), which the dinner guests dip with special small forks into the cheeses. This is the basic recipe, but it can also be prepared with other types of hard cheese. Also, fondue can be flavored with a whole range of other ingredients, including spices, porchini mushrooms, nutmeg, calvados (apple brandy), truffles, sun-dried tomatoes, herbs, and mustard. Apart from bread it can also be accompanied by small tomatoes, carrots, celery, broccoli and anything else that can be combined with cheese. For more flavor the bread or vegetables can be first dipped into warm kirsch and then in the melted cheese. Furthermore, a wine with high acidity helps the cheeses melt better.
A variation of the fondue is the bourguignon. Small pieces of meat are fried slowly in hot oil and are accompanied with various sauces – béarnaise, barbecue, aioli, horseradish as well as various pickles, chutney and potato chips. These are the traditional fondue. They may also be prepared with other soft cheeses like brie and camembert, or even with fontina in its Italian version and then accompanied by scallops, shrimps or salmon. For a lighter version, the oil may be replaced with a fatless vegetable broth.
A similar preparation to fondue bourguignon was brought to China by the Mongols in the 14th century and exists in Chinese cuisine still today. Small strips of various meats are fried in sesame oil and accompanied by vegetables – Chinese cabbage, spinach, fresh onions, green bean puree - and sauces based on soy sauce, ginger and honey. Throughout the rest of Asia there are similar dishes. In Vietnam, for example, where pieces of meat, scallops, strips of cuttlefish, and shrimp are fried slowly in coconut oil and served with sweet and sour sauces and accompaniments.
