Fondues

[Charlene Leonard]

Recently acquired a fondue as a wedding gift (I had asked for one as have fond memories of parents 'fondue parties' years ago). Does anyone have any recipes for them, I'm looking for a tasty cheese one but also stuff a little less heavy. Would you regard it the height of naffness if you went for dinner and a fondue was served or has it transcended into retro kitsch?

[IrishCream]

Fondue is definitely back. We finally seem to be recovering from the "fat is demon spawn" 1980s and 90s. Fondue is fun and convivial. I have been using the recipe for Swiss fondue from "The Vegetarian Epicure", by Anna Thomas, for years. It has never failed me.

[ChocoKitty]

I have a fondue cookbook by Rick Rodgers and everything I've made from it has been a hit. He has some variations on plain ol' classic cheese fondues, such as cheddar fondue with curry and mango chutney or with roasted garlic and zinfandel. Yummy!

When I want something less heavy, I go for a broth-type fondue (think shabu-shabu, hot pot, etc.).

And frankly, I'm always delighted if someone serves fondue, fashionable or not. It's tons of fun -- how can that be a bad thing?

[Rachel Perlow]

eGullet/Amazon link to Fondue: Great Food To Dip, Dunk, Savor, And Swirl by Rick Rodgers.

[Jaymes]

I'd say it's definitely back. There is a restaurant in the SF-Bay Area that serves nothing but fondues (can't remember the name). It ain't cheap ($100 a person or so) and it's always absolutely packed.

You have choices of fondues - and for the meat fondues, choices of what you want in your boiling cooking pot - bouillons, or oils (flavored and unflavored), or red wine - as well choices of meats, fat oysters, shrimp, shrimp balls (in fact, an extensive menu of stuff) to cook in them.

And, cheese fondues and dessert fondues.

Very popular very versatile very fun.

So, what's not to like?

[Priscilla]

Charlene I hope you keep on this fondue thing, naff or no.

Fondue has come in for some criticism, quite a lot of criticism, around here. And undeservedly. (Leaving out the ill-prepared--ill-prepared anything doesn't count.)

It is a great dish, so good to serve friends and sit around the table eating and drinking and talking. The recipe I have used is from one of the Time-Life Foods of the World volumes, with a mix of Emmenthaler and Gruyere. Good cheese is of course essential.

[BigMac]

I must be way out of the 'hip lingo' loop, but "naff"?

[g.johnson]

I must be way out of the 'hip lingo' loop, but "naff"?

OED: Unfashionable, outmoded, or vulgar; unselfconsciously lacking style, socially inept; also, worthless, faulty, ‘dud’.

[BigMac]

I must be way out of the 'hip lingo' loop, but "naff"?

OED: Unfashionable, outmoded, or vulgar; unselfconsciously lacking style, socially inept; also, worthless, faulty, ‘dud’.

Hmm, I would have guessed the opposite... i.e. "hip, cool, in style".

[Rachel Perlow]

Thanks! I was wondering about "naff" too.

[John Whiting]

How can one call a dish "naff" (or passé or over the hill or whatever) which goes back at least to Homer's time? For a history, see http://www.fonduecity.com/fonduehistory.htm (It's part of an advertising website for a restaurant, but the citations are legit.)

[tsquare]

I'd say it's definitely back.  There is a restaurant in the SF-Bay Area that serves nothing but fondues (can't remember the name).  It ain't cheap ($100 a person or so) and it's always absolutely packed.

You have choices of fondues - and for the meat fondues, choices of what you want in your boiling cooking pot - bouillons, or oils (flavored and unflavored), or red wine - as well choices of meats, fat oysters, shrimp, shrimp balls (in fact, an extensive menu of stuff) to cook in them.

And, cheese fondues and dessert fondues.

Very popular very versatile very fun.

So, what's not to like?

Maybe "The Melting Pot"? They are a chain, with restaurants in Seattle and Tacoma as well as coming soon to a neighborhood near you. Not very appealing to me. But I do have a fond memory of making cheese fondue in college - breathing in the fumes from the heating wine, while drinking wine, and as I recall, we stayed awake long enough to actually eat the fondue as well.

[Vanessa]

Isn't there some relatively trendy restaurant in London doing fondue now? As usual, can't remember what one.

v

[Vanessa]

Just came to me as I posted the last (damn that flood control!): Maquis? somewhere in Hammersmith? Owned by the Moro people?

v

[clb]

Le Maquis? Hammersmith? Moro offshoot?

clb

[Vanessa]

touché!

[Charlene Leonard]

right that's settled it, will definetly serve a fondue in the near future.

P.S I think naff must be a British word which hasn't made it across the Atlantic!

[Steve Plotnicki]

I'll vote for naff. The concept sounds good, but I've never had a good fondue. They are popular at Artisinal in Manhattan these days but everytime I've had them there I was disappointed. What the Swiss call a Chinese fondue which is boiling oil that you cook meat in is a bit better because there is actually something to eat. But fondue could only be popular in a region of the world where they make more cheese then they can sell. Raclette is a far superior and nuanced cheese dish. But it is relatively more difficult to make then fondue since you have to cook the cheese after every serving.

[Taboni]

I have had several good fondues, although on further reflection the best ones were invariably in some now forgotten restaurants while on drinking holidays in Zermatt and St. Anton (I don't ski). One can assume then that the fondue just doesn't stand up on its own without the proper surroundings (at least my attempts at reproduction don't, despite using only traditional recipes) I do fondly recall some excellent raclette while celebrating Swiss National Day when I was working for a Swiss bank, not to mention some great meat fondues and pear williamene at the now dear departed Chalet Suisse in NYC.

[Simon Majumdar]

I'm with Steve on this.

Naff

however they have tried to pepp them up, Fondues still are a nasty remnant of the 70's "Abigail's Party" style.

Modern attempts to re-invent them are just trying to sucker in people who were too young to have been exposed to the horrors in the first place. My Assistant loves them but then she is young enough to say that Spinal Tap is her father's favourite film ( sigh! )

I have been to two dinners recently where the host got all retro on my behind an made fondue. While I forced down the gungy gooey mess with a smile, I was dying on the inside. Quite grim

Rule of cooking No386 - few things are better melted

S

[Charlene Leonard]

where the host got all retro on my behind

Are we talking about fondues or 1970's wife swapping here? I'd rather not know what you do with melted cheese behind closed doors Simon

[Simon Majumdar]

where the host got all retro on my behind

Are we talking about fondues or 1970's wife swapping here? I'd rather not know what you do with melted cheese behind closed doors Simon

Horrible thought

it would just be some poor birds luck to go to a Wife Swapping party looking for some hot action and to find she is hooked up with me, keys to my Austin Princess in one hand and a threatening slice of Jarlsberg in the other.

S

[Jaymes]

I'd say it's definitely back.  There is a restaurant in the SF-Bay Area that serves nothing but fondues (can't remember the name).  It ain't cheap ($100 a person or so) and it's always absolutely packed.

You have choices of fondues - and for the meat fondues, choices of what you want in your boiling cooking pot - bouillons, or oils (flavored and unflavored), or red wine - as well choices of meats, fat oysters, shrimp, shrimp balls (in fact, an extensive menu of stuff) to cook in them.

And, cheese fondues and dessert fondues.

Very popular very versatile very fun.

So, what's not to like?

Maybe "The Melting Pot"? They are a chain, with restaurants in Seattle and Tacoma as well as coming soon to a neighborhood near you.

No - It's La Fondue - Sarasota California in the Bay Area - not a chain. And the food was delicious.

I got married during the first big fondue to-do, and we got three pots for wedding gifts. My favorite thing about fondue then was that all of us young couples were involved in "competitive entertaining" with everyone trying to outdo everyone else.

So, the big thing regarding fondue was to get the tenderest beef you could find, sear it briefly in the boiling oil, and then dip it into a selection of sauces.

With this scenario, the only competition (with the exception of fondue accoutrements) came in the form of who had the best sauces.

Because this happened so early on in my married/cooking/entertaining life, I was rapidly introduced to all the most great and famous sauces; sauces that still today are the classics and most-loved. It was a wonderful education from that aspect.

Seems to me that fondue, like pretty-much everything else, can be a good thing - tasty and fun - or a bad thing - overdone and mediocre - depending on who's doing it.

[Hopleaf]

What's the difference between 'naff' and 'daft'? And while we're at it, what do they mean?

[Simon Majumdar]

Naff = Vulgar & Common

Daft = Stupid to the point of being surreal

I am sure there is a smug scientific bastard out there who can give us the OED definition

S