Our weekly “À Table”dinner series gets its name from the mealtime call to the dining table. Since 2018, we have invited friends new and old to share a meal focusing on food, music and traditions from various places in the Francophone world. It has proved to be a fun way to connect with friends and practice our spoken French. Here on our site, we share portraits of some of our favorite meals so that you can easily do a version of the same chez vous Bon Appétit!
Why settle for simply eating fondue when you can deepen the experience by also enjoying some French music, and also parlez de français (speak some French)?
music
Playlist: French Favorites
Though many À Table dinners have a specific artist or genre associated with it, we also have one default Spotify playlist of all of our French-language favorites. Simply put it on shuffle play it’s hours of good listening.
recipe
Our Favorite Basic Fondue
It’s great to offer a variety of accompaniments, across the starch, veggie, fruit, and meats spectrum. For cheese fondue, we offer some combination of the below, depending on the dietary restrictions of our guests.
Our Favorite Basic Fondue
Equipment
- A fondue pot is very helpful but NOT crucial! The first few times I made it, we did not have one. See notes.
Ingredients
- 3/4 lb Gruyère cheese, grated Don't stress too much about exact measurements of cheese here.
- 3/4 lb Emmenthaler grated Or Raclette cheese, which will yield a more melt-y fondue, so change the ratio to 1 lb Gruyère to 1/2 lb Raclete.
- 1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp freshly grated black pepper
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 2 tbsp Calvados Or kirsch or brandy
- 1/4 tsp Nutmeg, preferably freshly grated Optional, but tasty!
Accompaniments (Please refer to notes section)
- 1 baguette, allowed to harden a bit and cut into 1 inch chunks at least. 🙂
- 1 lb small potatoes, pricked and boiled in salted water until fork pricks easily
- 1 lb cooked vegetables slightly steamed carrots, broccoli; roasted broccoli or cauliflower…
- 1 lb raw vegetables, peeled and chopped into 1 inch chunks carrots, fennel, broccoli…
- 3 cups raw fruits, cubed (2 apples, cut into 3/4 inch chunks, or grapes)
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 lb saucisson or salami cut into 3/4 inch cubes
Instructions
Preparation (can be done ahead)
- Prepare accompaniments: Prep/cook any roasted, boiled, steamed vegetables, as needed. Cube the meats and keep aside in serving bowl. Wash and chop fresh vegetables, and keep in serving bowls. Chill meats/vegetables according to waiting time before eating. Cube the baguette and keep aside. We prefer to cover it so it doesn't get super hard, but true French way would be to let it get hard. 🙂
- Grate cheeses. Food processor makes extremely quick and easy work of this, even considering cleaning time for the machine. Toss grated cheese with cornstarch and fresh-grated black pepper and keep aside.
- Mince garlic and prepare liquids and spice measurements and keep aside.
Making the Fondue
- Heat a heavy-bottomed pot to medium. When hot, add wine and garlic until the smell of alcohol subsides and garlic is fragrant. then add cheese to simmering wine, one handful at a time, constantly stirring until cheese is fully melted.
- Reduce heat to medium low, and add Calvados and salt/pepper/nutmeg as desired.
Notes
- Dutch Oven – The first time I made fondue for one of our French dinners, we used our large Le Creuset pot for cooking and eating. We placed it in the center of the table and stayed warm for a good amount of time. It was slightly awkward to get to the cheese at bottom of the large pot, but 2 adults and 4 young children managed to do it fine, and no one got hurt. A smaller Le Creuset pot to cook and serve would be great, so long as you eat relatively quickly before the fondue passes oozy, melt-y goodness into re-hardened phase.
- Warmed smaller Le Creuset pot – We tried warming this pot in the oven while making the fondue on the stovetop and transferring it to the smaller pot for easier access. For this option, the warmed serving pot needs to be really rally hot and isn’t my favorite suggestion.
- Smaller heavy bottomed pot, on a stand with a candle. I’m NOT advocating for precarious food hovering over open flame in your kitchen, but it’s possible if you have something you think can help it stay warm and melt-y.
- Cheese choice – Raclette is a softer cheese that lends itself to staying more oozy and melty, longer.
Bonus
Game: Parlez Francais: Le Jeux
Out of this weekly À Table tradition came a game we developed to encourage speaking with one another during the meal. We found that with varied ages, levels of friendships – not to mention varied French abilities – having a game to fall back on increased the speaking immensely, and was also simply lots of FUN! We’ve prettied it up, and made it a printable so that you can play with your own friends and family.
The first printable French conversation game: Parlez Français: Le Jeux!
Turns out it’s a great way to get to know new friends! Just as often as we invite old friends to join us, we invite classmates / families that we don’t yet know well, and it is always a blast to get to know them as we fumble through our French.
Check out the Etsy listing for more information, and to download it, print it, and play it today!
Et merci à La Mini Frenchie & Rima for her help editing this first official version of the game. Stay tuned for future versions!