Why Seventies cheese is back on the menu
If you thought fondue belonged in the past, it’s time to think again … Laurel Ives reports on the revival of an old favourite
From fondue nights at the country’s coolest restaurants, to Marks & Spencer’s fondue bag with the correct mix of Swiss cheeses for £10, it seems the time has come to forgo healthy eating and dust down that Seventies dinner party staple lurking in the cellar. Matthew Carver, owner of the recently opened Cheese Bar in north London, has launched a fondue night on Thursdays, using only British cheese.
“It’s incredibly popular, particularly with young people. Hot melted cheese is one of the best cheese moments you can have. Plus, it’s an interesting dining experience. There’s a bit of theatre with the little pot of fire and the sharing element, which makes it feel a bit special.”
For these young people, fondue doesn’t have the nudge-nudge wink-wink connotations of the Seventies, where the custom was that diners would exchange a kiss if they lost their bread in the pot. Instead, it reminds them of wholesome skiing trips and Alpine cuisine, not to mention a crowd-pleasing social media opportunity.
“When we posted it on Instagram with a picture of the cheese string coming out of the pot, we had hundreds more likes and comments than usual, and we see people photographing it when they come in,” says Carver.
David Sax, a food trends analyst, wrote a book in 2014 entitled The Tastemakers: Why We’re Crazy for Cupcakes but Fed up with Fondue, but accepts this is no longer the case.
“It’s as fun and tasty as it was when the trend first hit in the Sixties. But I think it’s different now, in the sense that fondue’s rise then was due to an increase in post-war cosmopolitanism (look, it’s Swiss, how exotic!) and the growth of the suburbs in the US (we have big houses, we can entertain!).
“Whereas now it’s almost an elemental return to something basic and homely, which from a food perspective fits in well with the growth in artisan baking and cheese making. All that leftover cheese and sourdough… it’s gotta lead to something. And that something is fondue.”
Cheese is big business. Alpine -themed events are cropping up all over the country, from the Yurtbar pop-up in Leeds, serving up fondue at their Après Ski Christmas parties to London’s first “cheese town”, a weekend festival bringing together vendors, makers and punters.
Patricia Michelson was a pioneer of the movement when she began importing local French cheeses to Britain and opened La Fromagerie in London’s Highbury 26 years ago. Now, she also has a shop and restaurant in Marylebone, and has just opened another place on fashionable Lambs Conduit Street.
“When I started out, cheese was either a fuddy duddy cheese board, or mousetrap fodder,” Patricia says. “Now you have all these wonderful varieties by local makers and there’s also been a resurgence in British varieties. And as supermarkets have also seen the possibilities and have started stocking great cheeses, it’s far easier to make a good fondue.”
By which she means an authentic combination of different strength and consistencies of cheeses, rather than the melted cheddar chucked in the pot, often used in the Seventies.
French restaurants, like neighbourhood favourite Patron in London’s Tufnell Park, are taking advantage of that interest in cheese. Jean-francois Pioc, Patron’s French chef, uses a combination of Emmental, Meule du Jura (which is similar to Comté) and Gruyere in his fondue, which is popular with families, groups and the local expat French population.
“In France, we have fondue every year, and as French food has come back into fashion so people are enjoying it again. It’s fun. It’s about sharing and comfort and all the generations enjoying it together.”
And comfort is the key word here. Prof Charles Spence, a food psychologist, explains: “We reach for nostalgic foods when the world seems like an unsafe, uncertain place, what with North Korea and Brexit.”
The world may be topsy-turvy, but the pleasures of cheese and wine are ancient and unchanging.
And as the cold weather sets in, it could be that we’re also just a little bit fed up with the endless emphasis on healthy foods like quinoa and avocado on toast.
As Anna Pallai, author of The 70s Dinner Party and fan of fondue says: “Why does every single meal have to be virtuous and healthy and look great? Even our snacks are now protein bars! Who doesn’t want a great big pot of melted cheese?”
No one will argue with that come Christmas Eve.
‘It’s about sharing and comfort and all the generations enjoying it together’