Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Swiss Cheese Fondue
A communal pot of melted Gruyère and Emmental with white wine and garlic, for dipping bread.
Swiss · medium · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 20 min
~757 cal · 47g protein · 5g carbs · 54g fat · 0g fiber · 1g sugars · 32g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Fondue transformed a practical problem, what to do with hardened winter cheese and stale bread in the Alps, into Switzerland's most convivial ritual. Melting the cheese made even dried-out ends delicious again, and the communal pot turned a thrifty meal into a shared event; the modern national dish was heavily promoted in the twentieth century, but its roots are genuinely alpine.
The classic is a blend, typically Gruyere and Emmental (a moitie-moitie, "half and half"), melted with white wine, a whisper of garlic rubbed round the pot, and a splash of kirsch, thickened with a little cornstarch into a smooth, glossy pool. It is kept warm over a burner at the table in an earthenware caquelon.
The eating is the fun. Everyone spears a cube of bread and swirls it through the cheese, and tradition holds that whoever loses their bread in the pot owes a round, a bottle of wine, or a kiss. Warm, communal, and unhurried, fondue is winter sociability made edible.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
3/4 lb Gruyère, grated
3/4 lb Vacherin Fribourgeois, grated (Emmental is the common substitute)
1.5 cups dry white wine
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp kirsch
1 large loaf crusty bread, cubed (for dipping)
a scrape nutmeg
to taste black pepper
Instructions
1
Rub the inside of the caquelon with the cut garlic, then warm the wine over medium heat (do not boil).
✎ Chef’s note
This is moitie-moitie, half and half: equal weights of Gruyere AOP and Vacherin Fribourgeois AOP, both from the canton of Fribourg, at roughly 200 g of cheese per person. Emmental is the usual stand-in outside Switzerland but the Vacherin is what makes it silky. A Fendant (Chasselas) is the traditional wine.
2
Add the grated cheese (or plant cheese) a handful at a time, stirring in a figure-eight until each addition melts before adding more.
✎ Chef’s note
Add the cheese gradually and keep stirring in a figure-eight. Dumping it in at once, or overheating, makes it clump and turn stringy.
3
Stir the cornstarch into the kirsch, then add it to the pot to thicken the fondue to a smooth, glossy cream.
4
Season with nutmeg and pepper.
5
Keep warm over a burner and dip cubes of bread (or potato), stirring occasionally to keep it smooth.
Bern / Alpine tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Bern. Rosti began as a farmers' breakfast in this canton, potatoes grated and pressed into a pan of hot fat until a crust forms on both sides, and the Bernese version is made with lard and bacon in it. Most of Switzerland now treats the dish as national rather than Bernese.
🗺️
Switzerland. Rosti belongs to the German-speaking side, so firmly that the cultural line between German and French Switzerland is called the Roestigraben, the rosti ditch. Raclette is both a cheese and a meal, the wheel melted at the cut face and scraped onto potatoes with pickled onions and gherkins beside them.
🌍
Europe. A surprising amount of European cooking is under five hundred years old. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, maize, beans and chocolate all crossed from the Americas after 1492, and none of them was trusted quickly: the potato took most of the eighteenth century to be accepted as food rather than animal fodder across much of the north.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Switzerland
RöstiSwitzerland’s golden potato cake, crisp outside, tender inside, flipped whole and served with pride.
ÄlplermagronenAlpine macaroni baked with potato, cream, and cheese, topped with fried onions and served with applesauce.
Engadiner NusstorteA buttery shortcrust tart filled with caramelized walnuts, the keeping cake of Switzerland's Engadine valley.
Browse all Switzerland recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Best the day it is made. Wrap well and refresh in a warm oven, or freeze and reheat straight from frozen.
Make it a Switzerland meal
Engadiner NusstorteDessert
ÄlplermagronenLunch
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Swiss Cheese Fondue?
A communal pot of melted Gruyère and Emmental with white wine and garlic, for dipping bread.
Where does Swiss Cheese Fondue come from?
Swiss Cheese Fondue is a Swiss dish from Bern, Switzerland.
Can Swiss Cheese Fondue be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Swiss Cheese Fondue recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Swiss Cheese Fondue safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Swiss Cheese Fondue take to make?
About 35 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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