Fondue was a very popular party appetizer and dinner food dish in the 1950's through the 1970's. Fondue declined in popularity throughout the 1980's and 1990's but it never entirely went out of style. Now with retro fashion and foods becoming popular again, so is cooking with fondue.
Baby boomer Mira Selbo remembers the avocado-green earthenware pots used for her parent's fondue parties back in the '70s.
"Way back when," Selbo recalled, "it was like melting Velveeta."
Today Selbo is owner of three Melting Pot restaurants in Southern California. One of her restaurants recorded $4.2 million in sales for the previous fiscal year, which was a record breaker for any of the Melting Pot restaurants in the nation - and there are over 120 around the country.
It is no longer like melting Velveeta.
What Exactly is Fondue?
Fondue is simply a pot of melted foodstuff (cheese or chocolate are common) placed over a small burner. The little communal bowl serves as a gathering place where the diners dip bits of food, such as bread or strawberries, into the warmed sauce. The term fondue is dervived from the French verb fondre, which means "to melt." The past participle of the fondre is fondu, or "melted."
Historical Fondue
The origins of fondue were in Switzerland. The Swiss developed fondue as a way of using up hardened cheese. In the Alps, Swiss herders used a mixture of melted cheese and wine in an earthen pot when they were in the mountainous wilds minding their goats.
But it is the French epicurean Jean Brillat-Savarin who is credited with perfecting the dish and bringing fondue to a waiting world. He escaped the French revolution and spent a few years in the United States where he wrote three classic cookbooks that are still used in culinary schools around the world.
Brillat-Savarin's method of preparing fondue was to mix together creamy scrambled eggs, butter, and Gruyere cheese.
But the Swiss old fashioned herder's classic which prompted the break-out popularity of fondue dinner parties throughout America is due also to the well-to-do looking for fun and food in the ski lodges and resorts that popped up all over snowy Switzerland after World War II.
Fondue American Style
In 1952, Konrad Elgi, the chef-owner of Chalet Swiss Restaurant in New York, made a fondue with beef cubes cooked in hot oil that became a extremely popular and spread like wildfire to other restaurants. Then in the early 1960's, Elgi noticed many of his weight conscious female clientele avoided his rich cholocolate desserts. He consulted with his public relations expert and devised a chocolate fondue which he introduced to the world on July 4, 1964.
The fondue had come full circle.
Fun with Fondue
Make fondue on a weekend night for something a little different in the family food fare. Let the kid's choose different fondue recipes.
Or, if you're stuck in the house on a cold winter's day have a fondue lunch with the kids.
Instead of going out, stay in and have a romantic fondue with your partner complete with champagne or your favorite wine.
If you're thinking of throwing an expensive dinner party this holiday, why not try these fondue dinner party and recipe suggestions? You'll not only save on money, but you'll save tons of time as well.
Sources Cited:
- The Food Timeline Organization
- Earnest, Leslie. " A pot of gold for fondue fanchisee - With the help of a national company, restaurateur Miro Selbo is successfully reviving a '70s fad in Orange County." The Los Angeles Times 04 Oct. 2007: C1
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