Saturday, March 1, 2008

A Tale of Two Fondues

Sorry for not posting in a while. My wife and I were in Vegas, where we shared an awesome meal at L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon. I also recently fell sick to the flu, but fortunately it happened after our trip to Vegas or else I wouldn't have been able to taste anything!

Nonetheless, I had the chance to try two fondue recipes for a get-together we had for our friend's birthday! There were 13 people over--a whole lot of cheese. We don't actually own a fondue set, so we borrowed a friend's alcohol burner, and we made use of a Chinese electric hot pot.

The two recipes we tried were Alton Brown's recipe from an episode of Good Eats, and the other was based on the more traditional Swiss recipe. One of the nice things about using a hot pot instead of a fondue set is that the hot pot is bigger and can accommodate more people than your standard fondue set. This worked out well and there was plenty of room for people to reach in and dip their food.

In addition to pieces of bread, we also served broccoli, chicken/apple sausages, potato wedges, roasted bell peppers, and sauteed mushrooms. It was a success! I must say, however, that I enjoyed the Swiss recipe much more than Alton Brown's. I am a big fan of AB, but the fondue had kind of a lumpy texture, and I didn't enjoy the flavor of the smoked Gouda. The Swiss recipe had an even texture and a more subtle flavor that worked better with the variety of ingredients we were using.

2 comments:

natalie said...

yes! i think i liked the traditional swiss recipe more as well - although both were tasty! i am now going to to use my chinese hot pot for fondue now, instead of investing in a fondue pot! so easy!

YAAAAAAAAY.

jko said...

Since this wasn't for me but for Natalie, my opinion probably doesn't matter too much. But I agree--traditional was definitely the way to go.