AI-generated illustration
Rhône-Alpes
A caquelon of melted cheese, bread and a gentle heat — the fondue known as "savoyarde" was born in the Swiss alpine pastures before becoming, on the slopes of Tarentaise, one of the most widely shared symbols of Savoie.
Traditional dish from Rhône-Alpes.
AI-generated illustration
Cheese fondue is an invention of the Swiss cantons: a 1699 Zurich manuscript, entitled "Pour cuire le fromage avec du vin", constitutes its earliest documented record. It owes its renown above all to a deliberate campaign: in the 1930s, the Union suisse du commerce de fromage launched an operation to revive sales in the face of foreign competition, subsequently presenting the dish officially as the Swiss national speciality at the Zurich National Exhibition in 1939. The 1940 New York World's Fair extended this recognition internationally. "It is not a legend that emerged naturally from alpine pastures; it is a deliberate construction," summarises the investigation tracing this history.
AI-generated illustration
In Savoie, fondue is by no means an ancestral dish: regional historian Marie-Thérèse Hermann, a specialist in Savoyard peasant cuisine, is unequivocal — "Before the war, fondue was not made in Savoie. It was a luxury dish introduced to us by the Genevans. Savoie does not claim the origin of fondue." The dish spread above all after the Second World War, driven by the boom in mountain tourism: in the 1950s and 1960s, as major ski resorts like Courchevel and La Plagne were being created, local producers — foremost among them the syndicat du Beaufort — skilfully adopted the Swiss marketing model to sell their wheels of cheese to holidaymakers.
Whilst the Swiss so-called "moitié-moitié" recipe combines gruyère and vacherin, the Savoyard version was built around the region's cheeses: Beaufort and Abondance, sometimes complemented by Tome des Bauges, or Comté, Beaufort and emmental de Savoie depending on local custom and establishments. This variability in composition, still visible today from one recipe to another, is the hallmark of local appropriation rather than a single codification.
Appearance
a homogeneous blend of melted cheeses, served in a caquelon kept hot on a tabletop burner throughout the meal.
Aroma
the aromas of melted cheese mingle with those of white wine and garlic rubbed around the inside of the caquelon before cooking.
Taste
cheeses of character, with flavours that vary according to alpine pastures and seasons — when emmental serves to reduce costs rather than enhance taste, the result is conversely stringier and blander.
Texture
creamy and stretchy, achieved by gradually adding the grated cheese and binding it with cornflour to prevent it from splitting.
The trio of Comté, Beaufort and emmental de Savoie, found in many restaurant recipes, coexists with a version closer to the Beaufort tradition: Beaufort on its own, optionally combined with Abondance and Tome des Bauges. The syndicat de défense du fromage Beaufort also publishes its own recipe, based solely on this cheese.
rub the inside of a caquelon with a halved clove of garlic.
finely cut or grate the chosen cheeses (diced or in thin slivers depending on the recipe).
pour the dry white wine into the caquelon and heat without letting it boil, until it begins to froth.
add pepper; depending on the recipe, add a pinch of nutmeg or a dash of kirsch.
transfer to a tabletop burner and enjoy immediately, dipping cubes of bread into the fondue.
AI-generated illustration
Fondue savoyarde is eaten hot, kept warm on its burner, accompanied by cubes of bread — ideally day-old — dipped into the caquelon. It pairs with the wine used in its preparation: a dry white wine from Savoie.
Fondue savoyarde itself is not protected by any official quality mark. It is a recipe of Swiss origin, popularised by a Swiss cheese industry campaign in the 1930s, and subsequently adopted in Savoie after the Second World War in the wake of ski tourism. Certain cheeses used in its preparation may hold protected designations (Beaufort PDO (AOP), Abondance PDO), but no product specification codifies the dish itself: its composition — Beaufort, Comté, Emmental, Abondance depending on the version — varies from one establishment to another.
No producer is listed for this product yet.