French/Swiss Fondue

Tuesday, May 20, 2008
On the train between Lyon and Bordeaux

We were invited over Saturday evening for a “Swiss fondue made with French cheese” at Jean-Claude and Regine’s at 7:30 pm. Apparently there are several ways of doing fondue and the Swiss cook their cheese – gruyere and emmenthal - with the wine but with French cheese you make a sauce of potato starch, white wine, garlic, and kirsch, and when it is well cooked and thick you add the grated Comte cheese after you turn off the stove. When the cheese is melted you put the pans on the little burners on the table. Then you use your little fork to spear a piece of bread, which you then swirl through the cheese a few times in a circle – this is very important for the fondue, the swirling – and then remove it, set it on the edge of the pan and twirl it a bit to get the strings of melted cheese wound up, and then finally eat the bite. I was quite full after just one piece of bread cut into about 10 pieces. It’s very filling and rich. Afterwards we had some hot tea but no dessert because after fondue dessert is “dangerous for the digestion.” I wouldn’t doubt it!

Their house is still being rehabilitated after the major foundation and lime mortar problems due to the drought a couple years ago – lots of new piers going down about 10 meters to stabilize the structure. During dinner we learned that Jean-Claude’s father in Switzerland had been a gruyere maker. He didn’t have his own cows but there was a truck that collected the milk twice a day from the dairy farmers in the area and then the gruyere was made from that. It was Jean-Claude’s first job, making gruyere. We learned this about him after it came out that he was a jazz pianist too – he plays only by ear amazingly well, it was like having Scott Joplin in the room – and he showed us his new electric piano and let us try it out. It was amazingly like a real piano, with a piano’s touch on the keys and even a pedal. After the piano playing we had an aperitif of Champagne with vin de Mirabelle – a liqueur made from tiny yellow plums. The wine was poured several times during the evening, especially after I revealed that my 40th birthday was coming up. And then the Swiss chocolate came out despite the warning about no dessert, and we were sent home with a bottle of wine to drink on my birthday and a bag of Swiss chocolate to remember them by.

Their daughter Emilie hopes to be an au pair in an English speaking country and although I didn’t think anything about it at the time, the next day I found myself hoping that she will come stay with us next summer, to help Reed learn French and so that Walt and I can continue learning. Having a nice girl like Emilie would be a real help.