Fondues and don'ts

The 1970s have been called the decade that taste forgot. And even if you're reading this by lava lamp, you have to admit there's some truth to the charge.

But there was one '70s fad that was all about good taste: fondue. And like many other hallmarks of the decade, it's back in style.

Thus, the fall issue of the Crate & Barrel catalogue offers no less than three fondue sets, ranging in price from $21.95 to $125. Similarly, Williams-Sonoma and Sur La Table offer both unpretentious and designer models, including a $300 copper version imported from France.

And people are actually buying them. Le Creuset, for instance, has experienced double-digit growth in fondue pot sales over the past two years. In London, the fashion-conscious kitchen shop Divertimenti has seen demand for fondue paraphernalia rise by 40 percent. Last Christmas, Williams-Sonoma saw an increase of nearly 150 percent in its sales of fondue sets.

There's plenty of other evidence that fondue has completed what the Joy of Cooking calls its period of culinary disrepute. For example, in no time at all I was able to find over 22,000 fondue recipes on the Internet and more than 200 fondue related items for sale on eBay. Amazon.com lists 44 titles on the subject.

Furthermore, the Melting Pot, a chain of fondue restaurants, has grown to over 50 branches while at Artisanal, one of the trendiest of New York's restaurants, there are a dozen versions of fondue on the menu.

No wonder gift stores report that today, just as in the '70s, a fondue pot is a leading item on bridal registries. Nor, perhaps, should it be surprising, given all this, that there's even a contemporary interpretation of the Last Supper, by Philippine artist Alwin Reamillo, depicting Christ and his disciples complete with an array of fondue forks.

As Rick Rodgers, author of a fondue cookbook, puts it, "Like a movie star of a certain age, fondue made a big splash, went into retirement, and is now making a comeback with a vengeance."

The resurgence of fondue can be partly attributed to the so-called retro craze in which, incredibly, even bell-bottom jeans are becoming fashionable again. But there's more to it than that. Fondue is back because it is an inherently communal experience. As Karen Novak, a cheese buyer for a Pennsylvania food store, told the Pittsburg Post-Gazette, fondue is a social event. "No one ever makes fondue alone," she maintains.

By its very nature fondue encourages closeness, conversation and conviviality, and when only two people are involved, romance. As Rodgers points out, it's almost impossible to be mad at somebody when you're both cooking in the same pot. Moreover, as television personality and food writer Burt Wolf observes, when people feel less secure they tend to draw together and return to comfort food. And what could be more comforting than rubbing elbows with friends over a bubbling caquelon (the name for the traditional Swiss fondue pot), especially when it's cold outside? It's a throwback to the earliest form of cooking.

According to legend, cheese fondue (from "fondre," the French verb "to melt") was invented in Zurich in the 16th century during a siege of that city when its population was forced to subsist on what little food was available, namely bread, cheese and wine. Some accounts, however, suggest that the concoction was merely the inevitable consequence of long, Alpine winters during which villages, cut off from each other, had to rely on those staples. One story, probably apocryphal, credits an unnamed Swiss shepherd who, shivering in front of his campfire, had the bright idea of melting his cheese and wine together in a pot and spearing it with chunks of bread.

Fondue Bourguignonne, on the other hand, is an entirely different dish, involving tabletop frying of bite-size chunks of meat in a pot of hot oil. It is said to have originated in medieval France, while chocolate fondue was actually invented in America by Konrad Egli, the Swiss-born chef at New York's Chalet Swiss restaurant, and introduced at the 1964 World's Fair.

Over the years certain fondue conventions have developed. For example, tradition calls for leaving a thin film of cheese in the bottom of the fondue pot to cook into a golden brown crust, called la croûte, which is divided among the participants at the end of the meal.

But tradition is cast aside when it comes to the ingredients used in contemporary fondues. The classic cheese fondue relied on Swiss cheeses, but these days there's no limit to the kind you can use, including brie, Stilton, Cheddar, feta and even cream cheese. (Steer clear of aged Gouda and fresh mozzarella, which don't melt well, and processed cheeses, which are likely to produce an oily film on top of the fondue.)

Likewise, there's no need to stick with the traditional French bread cubes for dipping. You can use English muffins, focaccia, croissants, pita bread and pumpernickel or you can abandon bread entirely and dip with ravioli, pretzels, mushrooms, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, artichoke hearts, potatoes, smoked sausage, cooked shrimp and fresh fruit -- in short, just about anything.

But be careful. Custom has it that if a woman loses her "dipper" in the fondue pot, she must kiss the man on her right. (Some say every man at the table.) If a man loses his "dipper" (just the thought makes me wince), he must buy his host a bottle of wine. And anyone who loses a dipper twice is expected to throw the next fondue party.

Listen to A Harte Appetite Fridays at 8:49 a.m. and Saturdays at 11:59 a.m. on KRCU, 90.9 on your FM dial. Write A Harte Appetite, c/o the Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699 or by e-mail to tharte@semissourian.com.