Château d’Oex’s International Hot Air Balloon festival is rapidly approaching, and some of you may be making  plans to head that way.  Going for the weekend is a wonderful excuse to visit the beautiful region of Gruyère, especially the charming, medieval village of the same name – even if spelled differently (Gruyères).  You’ll take 200 photos of the most photogenic hot air balloons, rising high against a backdrop of the breathtaking Swiss Alps, their colors easy to spot against the clean blanket of pure white snow. Then perhaps you’ll visit Gruyères- its storybook château and one pedestrian street, and then stop in a café for a hot chocolate, as well as the region’s famously rich double cream and meringues.  But you must be saying to yourself now… isn’t the region more well known for… cheese?!

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The new year has just begun and many people are compiling their lists.  Lists of new (or carried over) resolutions, trips to plan and goals to achieve.  Lists looking back on 2009 too, all sorts of “the best of.”  I love lists! I started thinking about my favorite travels, adventures and experiences.  Nearly impossible to come up with a short list, I decided to select one trip that definitely tops the charts.

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While spending time in the Swiss region of Gruyère, it wasn’t very difficult to know what to order at meals. As the saying goes, “when in Rome…,” right?!  So it was meringues à la crème double for dessert, and for savory, Gruyère cheese in all its glory.  Especially fondue!

It was hard to find a restaurant without fondue on the menu.  But you’re not completely off the hook on making decisions – you still have to choose which fondue! You’ll find different combinations of cheese or even some including other ingredients, like mushrooms, tomatoes or herbs.  One place we ate at actually had fondue made with Champagne.  Whatever the case, for every city or region or even country that you visit, you will find just as many answers for what is the “traditional” recipe for fondue.  Swiss versus French. Beaufort versus Appenzeller. Kirsch, nutmeg, cayenne pepper, lemon juice… what else to add?  As long as you are in Gruyères, Switzerland though, what is true and authentic is unanimous. Moitié-Moitié, the half and half fondue, reigns.  

A good thing about the variety of fondue on one menu is that whether you are 2 or 10 people at the table and you all want fondue, you don’t have to agree on which one.  Just get fondue for one person!  It has become somewhat of a norm for us, but I will admit that individual fondue was a funny concept when we first arrived in Switzerland.  I had never seen it before, but it is quite common for people to order single portions.  And why not?  Everything is the same, it just comes in a small pot.  Quite logical in fact.  So one time, I had my fondue with chanterelles, and my husband had his without. Another fondue during our short stay was the obligatory classic recipe, the half and half – and this one was in a pot for two.  I am sure you all guessed one of the halves: Gruyère cheese, of course.  The other: Vacherin Fribourgeois.  Vacherin is another mild cow cheese that melts extremely well, and lends a thick, creamy texture, as well as a very pleasant taste, to the fondue.  I don’t mean to take sides, but I will be honest and say that this was my favorite fondue yet.  It was much softer in taste, with a less pronounced flavor of alcohol, and still irresistibly creamy – as most fondues tend to be.

Below you will see the classic recipe for the Moitié-Moitié.  Feel free to try it at home and practice your fondue etiquette, which is very important!  Always keep in mind a few things, and you’ll be a pro in no time.  First, make sure your piece of bread is real secure on your fondue fork – people have all sorts of funky rules and traditions about how to handle the person whose bread falls in the pot!  Next, don’t just dip your fork in the cheese, but stir it around a few times (some people will say in a figure eight), so that the fondue keeps its creamy consistency and does not separate.  Lastly, it’s not recommended to drink cold water with your fondue, as this may cause the hot cheese in your stomach to congeal.  Wine would be a much better option.  Once you’ve mastered the traditional half and half recipe below, you may even start experimenting on your own with different cheeses.  But if you’re calling it a Moitié-Moitié, and telling anyone in the region of Gruyère about it, I’d be sure to make sure one of those halves is Gruyère!

Fondue Moitié-Moitié (Half and Half)

Serves 4

1 garlic clove, cut in half
3.5 cups (400 grams) Gruyère cheese, grated
4 Tblsp cornflour
1.5 cups (3.5 dl) white wine
1 Tblsp fresh lemon juice
3.5 cups (400 grams) Vacherin Fribourgeois cheese, grated
2-3 Tblsp (3?4 cl) Kirsch

Rub the interior of your fondue pot with the garlic clove.  Add the Gruyère and the cornflour to the pot, followed by the wine and lemon juice.  Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Reduce heat, and add the Vacherin, while continuing to stir until smooth. The fondue should no longer boil.  Add the Kirsch.  Keep the fondue warm, with the pot sitting on its burner.

Serve with bite-sized pieces of bread, small boiled potatoes, gherkins (cornichons) and pickled onions.

After a quick French spelling lesson and an introduction to the quaint village of Gruyères, I hope you have worked up an appetite for the specialties of this dairy rich part of Switzerland.  The region is most well known for its eponymous cheese, but running a close second is the fresh, local cream, famous for its high butterfat content.  I had heard about this cream from friends who lived in Switzerland, but never really understood all the fuss they made about, well… cream.  Turns out it is worth the fuss, for its unparalleled, unctuous texture and its rather unique aroma.  That’s probably why it’s served on top of just about everything, at all hours of the day.  Most restaurants proudly announce that they have “crème double de la Gruyère” outside, so customers are rest assured before entering.
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This past weekend we went on a road trip about 2 hours southwest of Zürich, and found ourselves in the very heart of cheese country - Gruyère of course!  But wait, shouldn’t that be Gruyères as it is written in the above photo?  Truth is, we drove all around la Gruyère, stayed in Gruyères and ate way too much of le Gruyère!  There must be a typo somewhere in there, no?  After being terribly confused myself, having read articles on the region and the cheese in both English and French, I couldn’t figure out who was making the error.  There was no mistake at all.  It turns out there are in fact 2 spellings and even 2 different genders in French.  Here’s a breakdown: Gruyères (plural with an ‘s’) is the name of the village that’s situated in the region of La Gruyère (feminine singular), where you can find the cheese that goes by the same name, Le Gruyère (masculine singular).  Any which way you spell it, it’s a picturesque, medieval town in a beautiful region, and one delicious cheese!  Which, by the way, has no holes… but more on that later!

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