Fondue Sunday

It's been cold, grey, wet and windy, and so it's perfect weather for a cheese fondue. We scheduled the first cheese fondue of the season for last night's Sunday night dinner.

Here I have the ingredients assembled. There's the Swiss kirsch in the background and the block of Swiss gruyere. Instead of Emmentaler, however, in the spirit of buying local, I use Australian Swiss cheese. It tastes pretty much the same but of course it can't be labelled Emmentaler unless it comes from Emmental. So Aussie Swiss cheese it is (and jolly good too). The wine is Australian and so is the bread and garlic clove!

One kilogram of cheese (500 g of each) is a lot of cheese.

Do you recognise my cheese fondue pot, Dad? Mom brought it back from Switzerland for me one year. It has made many, many fondues, both in Cape Town and in Melbourne. Now the cheese is in the pot, and so is the garlic. I use the whole clove, chopped, rather than just rubbing the pan with it.

The cheese has melted and here Lee is helping to stir it. You always said to stir it using a figure-of-eight motion; rest assured that the knowledge and technique has been passed down through the family.

Here are my fondue forks. Recognise them, Heidi? You brought them back from Switzerland for me.

Luke usually assumes the bread-heating and bread-cutting duties. He errs on the larger side. And now it's time to dive in.

Time passes. The fondue bubbles on. There is serious fondue eating happening. The last of the fondue is now being scraped out. Who will get the last creamy morsels?

The fondue is all gone ... but the crusty cheesy bit at the bottom is now lifted out and cut into six slices. And that's the end of the fondue!