I had the pleasure of going to the Switzerland house in Granville Island today to learn more from Chef Beda Zingg about the Switzerland culinary world. Switzerland house is at Bridges Restaurant on Granville Island with a beautiful view of false creek and Vancouver, it’s especially awesome on a sunny day like today.
They have 2 kitchens and dining area – a more casual bar area downstairs and a fine dining area upstairs.
…right by the Switzerland TV studios.
You can tell right away that the Swiss love to eat and put so much care into everything they do. Chef Beda and his team has strived to make both the Whistler and the Vancouver house use the most authentic Swiss ingredients possible and I was so glad they did. I strongly recommend eating at the Swiss house during the olympics if you can!
I then began a delicious 3 course journey into learning about Switzerland food.
The St Moritzer Charcuterie Plate with Cheese came with delicious slices of air dried charcuterie, pickled pearl onions (which I’ve never had but LOVED), and the cheese was Apenzeller.
Then came the Cheese Fondue. Then came the Lindt dessert – which deserves another post on its own, so you’ll have to stay tuned for that one. Chef Beda explained to me that the cheese fondue is a long standing tradition in all regions of Switzerland to eat with friends and family, especially in the winter months. It’s a very social meal (not to be eaten alone) since it’s very active with the communal dipping of bread or potatoes. He explained that there are all these games the Swiss play when they eat fondue – like if someone loses the bread into the pot of cheese, they’d have to kiss everyone around the table or buy the next round of drinks. So the Switzerland house was kind enough to walk me through how to make Fondue and I’d like to share it with you guys. I’ll have to check on the grocery prices and update this post when I do. It’s also a special dish since the Swiss make such good cheese – there’s a never ending combination of cheese that could be added to the fondue.
Summary
Preparation Time: 5 min
Cook Time: 15 min
Servings: 2 portions
Meal type: Main
Recipe Rating: 
Ingredients
- 150g Gruyere Cheese
- 150g Fribourg Vacherin Cheese
- 1 garlic clove
- 150ml white wine
- 30ml Kirsh
- 15g Corn starch
- Fresh ground pepper, nutmeg to taste
- White baguette – at least 1 day old and not fresh
Instructions
1. Grate the cheese (fine pieces)
2. Finely chop the garlic and add into a fondue pot
3. Add in white wine and bring to a boil
4. Slowly add the cheese, stirring in an 8 formation until it is all completely melted. Chef Beda mentioned if you add all the cheese all at once, it’ll just clump together in a terrible mess, so be patient and add it slowly.
5. Add the corn starch and the kirsh together.
6. Add the pepper and nutmeg.
7. Cut up the baguette into small cubes.
8. Start eating with your friends, dipping the bread into the cheese. If you have a fondue set, you can keep the cheese pot heated.
Variations
You can pretty much use any cheese. The Swiss love Gruyere! Feel free to experiment.
As for the kirsch, kirsch is a cherry brandy, some people like to dip the bread in kirsch before dipping it into the fondue. You can just put this kirsch directly into the fondue. It gives the fondue a fruity-ish taste – if you can’t find kirsch, use cointreau, triple sec…and I’ve even heard of someone suggesting vodka or apple juice.
The bread also can be of any variety. Do not use freshly baked bread though – the moment soft bread hits the cheese, it’ll turn too soft and mushy. It needs to be about 1 day old, so that you get a harder texture and taste to the bread so it keeps its form when dipped into the fondue.
Results
DELICIOUS is all I have to say. I’ve had cheese fondue before in Chamonix in France by the Swiss Alps but I just found it filling and not tasty and you get really sick of it really fast. This one tasted perfect – of course you can’t stuff yourself silly with a boiling pot of cheese, but it was really really good. Oh they advised me to either drink alcohol or hot tea to help absorb the fat and assist the digesting – so I did and it was delicious as well.
Thank you Chef Beda and Switzerland house for your excellent hospitality!! Good luck with the Olympics!!!!
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Tags: 2010, baguette, bread, cheese, fondue, gruyere, kirsh, Olympics, Switzerland
