Swiss Cheese Fondue Recipe | Eat Like a Local | Switzerland

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Is there any food more indulgent than Swiss cheese fondue? Ideal for sharing (if you can bear it!), this decadent dish is actually much easier to make than you may think and it’s ideal for a dinner party. The last time I ate traditional Swiss cheese fondue was at the pop-up aprés ski bar at The Angel Hotel, Abergavenny back in December, and no words are needed to tell you exactly how much I enjoyed it – just take a look at this hilarious photo captured by Explore With Ed – I call this my ‘fondue face’! Read on to discover a truly authentic Swiss cheese fondue recipe.

There are lots of cheese fondue recipes out there, but this Swiss cheese fondue recipe has been developed by a native Basler, so you can rest assured your cheese fondue will taste just like the real thing!

This is the second post in my ‘Eat Like a Local’ guest post series. For more information about this feature, take a look at the first post in the series, which features a mouth-watering recipe for Indian carrot chutney. If you’re a blogger interested in featuring, please get in touch – I’d love to hear from you! Read on to discover more about Thomas, and his Swiss cheese fondue recipe.

Thomas Mathys: Basel, Switzerland

• Tell us a bit about yourself.

I’m Tom: a blogger, a photographer and, more recently, a writer. There are two big passions in my life – my blog, TripGourmets and Swiss cheese fondue (find Thomas’ Swiss cheese fondue recipe at the bottom of this post!)

I’m from the city of Basel in Switzerland, which is located close to the border with France and Germany. Although I’ve been travelling full-time for the last six months now, I’ll always consider Basel my home.

Like so many others out there who blog, this wasn’t my first job. I was an orthopaedic nurse for 10 years in the University Hospital of Basel. Being a nurse taught me so much, including the fine art of patience.

Photography and cooking take a big part in my life. I use a Fuji X100T camera and since I’ve had it, I’ve already shot more than 10,000 pictures. I found my love for cooking when I visited Asia for the first time and participated in a cookery school.

• When did you begin blogging, and why did you decide to start a blog?

My girlfriend Sarah and I started our blog because we’ve always loved to discover new places and dishes. In August 2016, we decided to document our travels and eats and with this, the first version of TripGourmets was born. It was more like a hobby for us in the beginning and while we had the motivation and a lot of ideas, we didn’t take a professional approach for a long time. As time has gone on, we’ve learnt so much more and now we take a much more professional attitude to our blog, and run it more like a business that can help us to have more freedom in our lives.

• What is the best experience you’ve had as a blogger?

We have had a lot of great experiences but usually, the best are when we get to meet up with other bloggers. When our good friends and fellow bloggers, iZogAdventure came to visit us in Basel, we had a blast with them. More recently, we have been in Chiang Mai, Thailand where we have also met up with a number of other bloggers and taken part in some great activities together, including a cookery school.

For me, the main highlight of blogging lies in creating something that is yours. It is such a great feeling to see other people reading the post you created and find helpful information in it. But unlike patients, who don’t just decide that they need a nurse, our readers choose to come to our blog because they think it’s helpful. This gives me a feeling of satisfaction in what we do.

• What advice would you give to new bloggers who are just starting out?

My advice for everyone out there who wants to start a blog is to network with other bloggers in your niche as soon as possible. Something I found out over time is that friends and family are often not really interested in the details of what you do as a blogger, which is absolutely okay.

When I was a nurse, most of my friends were nurses as well, because we shared a common ground. We had subjects to talk about nobody else would understand. It’s the same with blogging really. None of your non-blogging friends will understand your frustration when you tell them, for example, about your dropped DA or issues with getting your affiliate income paid by a particular partner. It can be tough being a blogger and because of this, it’s super important to have some peers who can support you and vice versa.

Here is Thomas’ Swiss cheese fondue recipe. If you love this recipe as much as I do, follow TripGourmets on social media using the below links to be the first to hear whenever they publish a new recipe or post!

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Swiss cheese fondue recipe

Being Swiss, I’m a big cheese lover. Switzerland gets a lot of praise for its chocolate and watches, but for me the best thing that comes from my home country is the delicious cheese. In my humble opinion, fondue is the best dish you can get in Switzerland. There are as many variations of Swiss cheese fondue recipes, as there are mountains in Switzerland. You can get your fondue in restaurants, as a ready mix in a grocery store, in a chalet in the mountains or my personal preference, by making it yourself.

Over time, I've created my own signature Swiss cheese fondue recipe and I’m proud of the praise it gets from everyone who tries it. While some ingredients always stay the same, like the Gruyère cheese, for example, I love to mix up the other cheeses a lot. So when you can’t find the cheeses I put on the list, don’t worry - just do it like me and improvise. 

Course Main Course

Cuisine Swiss

Keyword Swiss cheese fondue

Prep Time 40 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 4 people

Author Thomas Mathys

Ingredients

• 1-3 cloves garlic dependent on taste, one halved and the rest finely chopped)
• 1 sprig rosemary leaves only, finely chopped
• 1 sprig thyme leaves only, finely chopped
• 1 pinch sage leaves finely chopped
• 400 g 400g Kaltbach Le Gruyère AOC höhlengereift (or any other Gruyère) coursely grated
• 200 g Luzerner Rahmkäse Rustico (or any other semi hard cheese) coursely grated
• 200 g Emmentaler AOP höhlengereift (or any other hard cheese) coarsely grated
• 2 tbsp corn starch
• 350 ml dry white wine
• 2-3 tbsp kirsch (cherry Schnapps)
• 1-2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1-2 tsp paprika
• 600-800 g bread 2-3 days' old is best

Special equipment

• Fondue set with a burner and four fondue forks

Instructions

• Prepare the table first. Once you start to prepare the fondue, you’re not going to have time for this. Every person needs a plate and a fondue fork. As you’re going to eat melted cheese, I recommend using some place mats as well.
• Cut the bread into around 2cm-thick strips and put it into bowls on the prepared table. 
• Rub the inner surface of the fondue pan with the halved garlic. After this, chop the used garlic finely and put it with the other garlic. Consider investing in some preserved chopped garlic to save time.
• Grate the cheese.
• Mix the grated cheese and the corn starch in the fondue pan (formerly known as a Caquelon), then add the garlic and the white wine (don’t forget to generously taste the quality of the wine!)
• Let everything melt to a smooth, cream-like substance on a medium heat while you continuously stir the fondue with a figure-of-eight movement.
• Once the fondue is smooth and creamy, add the kirsch, nutmeg, paprika and herbs and continue to stir for another 3-4 minutes.
• Now, you can serve the fondue to your guests. To eat it, take one of the bread strips and break off a chunk. Stick this part on your fondue fork and dunk it into the melted cheese.

Notes

Tips

• Don't be afraid to experiment with different types of cheese.
• Traditionally, in Switzerland, if you lose your bread in the fondue, you have to complete certain tasks. Men are expected to buy the next round of drinks, while women are challenged to kiss everyone in the round. I think it’s way funnier if you invent your own rules, though. So,invite some friends round, make a fondue, enjoy and have a good time!

What do you think of Thomas’ Swiss cheese fondue recipe? Don’t forget to pin it so that you can impress your friends next time they come over for dinner!

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