Fondue Is Great for a Party, and Better for Two
Fondue’s melty and stretchy origin story places it squarely in the Swiss peasant dish realm, and there it may have stagnated were it not for Schweizerische Käseunion (the Swiss Cheese Union). Using funds from the Swiss government, and member dues from the cheesemakers, the union began advertising in the United States as early as the 1930s; by the mid 1960s, they had offices on Madison Avenue and were aggressively pushing the dipping of bread and fruit into melted Swiss cheese as a paragon of class and sophistication to mid-century magazine readers. It all worked, and interest in fondue exploded in Mad Men-era America.
And then, as quickly as the pots bubbled across our nation, the food went out of style—tastes changed, the low-fat craze dominate...
