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Introduction
EATING THE melted-cheese dish fondue is a Swiss tradition.
Like the American cowboys of the Wild West, the Swiss herders used what they had to sustain them, in this case an abundance of cheese products, loaves of bread and bottles of wine to help ward off the chill. As days passed in the field, no scrap of cheese was spared the "caquelon," or earthenware cooking pot, and every hunk of bread was made moist and tasty by dipping it into the molten cheese mixed with wine. The dish made its way from the fields onto the tables of the Swiss aristocracy by way of kitchen servants who prepared the simple dish with the nobles' finer quality cheese and wine, and served it with the house's fresh assortment of crusty breads. No one seems to be able to give an authoritative account of how the original Swiss dish came to be called by a French name. Back online, there were plenty of definitions: the American Heritage Dictionary says the name comes from "the feminine past participle of fondre, to melt"; the Chef Talk Glossary says fondue means literally "to melt" in French.
Throughout the 'Sixties and into the 'Seventies, fondue remained the focus of friendly get-togethers across the nation. As the "groovy" Eighties gave way to the health-conscious Nineties, the fondue got further expanded to include lobster, shrimp, pork and duck in the Bourguignonne style, as well as Fondue Orientale, the fondue method of cooking meat cubes in broth. Asian variety of fondue employs pots of broth or oil heated on charcoal, which "were communal family receptacles in which pieces of meats and vegetables were cooked in a leisurely manner and served with rice. The broth left in the pot was then served as a soup. "In our country, fondues are becoming popular and have come to be the main stay of many a good menu and restaurant.
Keep sending in your questions to hydphoto@thehindu.co.in or, snail mail them to Metro Desk, The Hindu, 6-3-879 & 879B, Begumpet, Hyderabad. 500 016 or just call Ph: 23403902 (Between 12 and 7 p.m.)
PRADEEP KHOSLA
Executive Chef, Taj Krishna
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