Have you ever seen such shiny, perfect hair? (Surreptitious photo taken in Zürich by me.)
I’ve never seen as much beautiful hair as I did in Zürich. Just look at this gloss, the perfect variegated colour. I believe with all my heart that the Swiss have such gorgeous hair because of their high per capita cheese consumption. Canadians put away a respectable 13.3 kilos of cheese each year, but the Swiss trounce us with their 21.73 annual kilos eaten.
Sadly, my theory may be flawed. An American makeup artist I know who once lived there told me that all the beautiful hair was because excellent hair colourists gravitate to Zürich, a global banking centre, to serve the very wealthy population.
But I still think it’s the cheese.
In that spirit, please make cheese fondue for dinner this week. See below for the best, authentically Swiss recipe. I posted it last year, but will not rest until everyone has tried it.
Outdoor fondue dining would be a perfect Covid activity, wouldn’t it? (Photo from that same Zürich trip.)
Authentic Cheese Fondue for two
Try this cheese fondue recipe instead of defaulting to those pre-mixed foil cheese packets from the grocery store. This version only takes minutes to pull together and is so worth it. The only challenge may be in finding the perfect cheeses, (see note below.)
400 grams total of grated Gruyère and Vacherin Fribourgeois cheese (see Note, below)
150 ml white wine, like a nice dry Riesling
2 tsp cornstarch
2 tsp kirsch (Kirsch is a colourless brandy made from fermented cherries. It is not a sweet liqueur. Don’t skip this ingredient as it adds a lot of essential flavour. Buy a bottle and it will last forever.)
A round or loaf of sourdough or country bread with a deep crust, cut into bite-sized cubes
A plump clove of garlic
Method
Cut a garlic clove in half lengthwise and rub the cut side all over the interior of your fondue pot (caquelon) releasing the garlic juice. Leave the little garlic bits in the pot.
Whisk the cornstarch into the wine in a measuring cup. Pour this into your fondue pot with the bits of garlic still there.
Place the pot on the stove and heat the liquid over low-to-medium heat until hot but not boiling and then add all the cheese. Whisk constantly allowing the cheese to melt, paying special attention to scraping up the bits on the bottom of the pot and not letting the heat go too high.
Once the cheese has melted, add the kirsch. Remove the pot from the stove, light the heating element on your fondue stand (the ‘rechaud’) and place the pot on the stand. Adjust the heat so your cheese is hot enough but not furiously bubbling. Add a tiny bit more wine if it’s too thick.
Skewer your bread cubes on your fondue forks, dip and twist to remove excess cheese and enjoy. Tradition has it that anyone who loses a bread cube has to pay for the next bottle of wine.
As you eat and the amount of cheese in the pot goes down, turn down the heat so as not to burn what’s left. If there is a caramelized circle of cheese at the bottom of the pot when you are finished, carefully pry it off with a wooden spoon (not metal because it will scratch the finish) and enjoy.
This recipe increases easily. Add 200 grams of cheese and 75 ml of wine for each additional serving.
Note: a classic Swiss mix of cheeses for fondue can be as simple as the above half Gruyère and half Vacherin Fribourgeois version, but you can also add small (or larger) amounts of Emmentaler, Appenzeller and Challerhocker as well.