News From The Cheese Caves

The fun and friendly crew who signed up for Artisanal’s fondue class last Friday night were rewarded with some ridiculously good eats.

The stage was set to make and consume four different fondues, topped off by a chocolate fondue for dessert.

The popular vote went to the French team of fondue makers who prepared their decadent creation using a pound of Raclette and a pound of Comté. A little taste of heaven on a piece of crusty bread.

An extremely close second place ribbon was awarded to the Swiss – the country credited with the creation of fondue in the 18th century. The cheese blend in this fondue was Appenzeller and Gruyère – a time-honored classic.

America made its debut in the fondue pot with a blend of Fortsonia, a firm, nutty, sweet and dense cheese that was inspired by classic Alpine style cheeses like Gruyère and Comté and Uplands Pleasant Ridge – rock star of the American Artisanal cheese scene, garnering three ”Best in Show” awards at the American Cheese Society conference…kinda like the Oscars, but with cheese.

This fondue was the quite delicious and I hear that Fortsonia was named best cheese in the South by a local magazine. Last year Fortsonia also took third place in the hard cheese category from the American Cheese Society and earned a gold medal from the World Jersey Cheese Awards in the United Kingdom.

Rounding out our melted cheese contest were the Italians. The two cheeses blended together for a palate-pleasing experience. They were the Toma Maccagno (a washed-rind tomme) and Toma Piemontese (one of the oldest styles of cheeses made in Italy). As the team began grating these aromatic wedges they were surprised at how silky and mild the blend tasted when the fondue was done. It was amazingly good.

If you want to try your hand at some fondue olympics…please sign up for the next round of play.  Your taste buds and your tummy will be very happy.

Erin Hedley
Fromagère, APC

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Posted by Artisanal Cheese

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2013 at 3:01 pm and is filed under Artisanal Cheese News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.