Gastronome

TAKE A DIP

BY NANCY DAVIDSON

Eating fondue is interactive and fun, whether you’re submerging the fork in cheese, chocolate or oil.

Fondue is a party in a pot. Interactive and delicious, it’s hard not to have a good time while dipping bread, vegetables and fruit into pots of molten cheese, oil or chocolate—and then eating it!

Cheese fondue, the 18th-century Swiss invention that combined melted Emmentaler and Gruyère cheeses with wine, first became popular in the US in the late 1950s.

At Artisanal (www.artisanalbistro.com; 212-725-8585), a cheese-centric bistro in New York City, Chef/owner Terrance Brennan credits nostalgia as part of fondue’s appeal. “People remember their parents’ avocado-green fondue pot from the 1970s,” he says. While he offers the classic Swiss version, Artisanal’s fondue menu also includes creative variations like Stilton with Sauternes.

At Tavern at the Park (www.tavernatthepark.com; 312-552-0070) near Chicago’s Millennium Park, Chef John Hogan throws poultry into the mix to create herbed chicken fondue, which incorporates rotisserie chicken into a blend of Fontina cheese and roasted garlic, with apples and crusty French bread for dipping.

Coast Restaurant (www.coastrestaurant.com; 414-727-5555), in Milwaukee, combines Wisconsin gorgonzola with Cognac, served with tenderloin tips, grilled shrimp and bread, a combination that Sous Chef Peter Gohsnan says is popular with the bar crowd and very good for sharing.

While cheese fondue goes back at least a few centuries, the chocolate variety is a mid-20th-century invention. It can be made from high-quality bar chocolate—like Valrhona or Scharffen Berger—mixed with an alcoholic beverage for flavor (Cognac, Kahlua or other flavored liqueurs) and served with cubes of cake, strawberries and other fruits.

Chicago’s Plan B Bar + Kitchen (www.planb-chicago.com; 773-252-2680) features a different delicious chocolate fondue every month. Tavern at the Park also offers a cookies-and-cream fondue, with crushed Oreos mixed with melted white chocolate, served with fruit, marshmallows, Rice Krispies treats and pretzels.

Fondue can even be expanded to include any cooking style that involves dipping into a hot pot, according to Fondue author Lou Seibert Pappas. One such style is shabu-shabu, a Japanese dish where hot broth is used to cook meats, vegetables and seafood, or bagna cauda, an Italian dish in which slices of bell peppers, carrots and other vegetables are dipped into a pot of olive oil and butter flavored with anchovies, garlic and red pepper flakes.

More than just an interactive way to dine, fondue can be romantic, too. According to tradition, if you drop a piece of bread in the pot, you must kiss the person next to you.

WARMED GOAT CHEESE FONDUE WITH GRILLED BREAD & SLICED APPLES

Servings: 6-8

1 cup of heavy cream
1 fresh goat cheese
1 sliced Granny Smith apple
1 toasted French baguette

METHOD:
Bring cream to a boil, turn off heat and add goat cheese. Stir to mix cheese. Transfer cheese to fondue set to keep warm. Serve with apple slices and toasts. Recipe can be multiplied by adding 1 cup of cream for every pound of cheese.

—Recipe by Luna Park Los Angeles Chef Todd Butler and Luna Park San Francisco Chef Leticia Limon