It was on the occasion of the 7th edition of the Toquicimes* mountain cuisine festival which took place on the weekend of October 18 in Megève, that the competition for the best Savoyard fondue in Megève took place. A title won by Édouard Dupuy, chef of the restaurant La Petite Fontaine in Megève, who won over the jury, which included among others Bernard Mure-Ravaud alongside Mercotte, Tom Meyer, Mallory Gabsi, and the mayor of Megève, Catherine Jullien-Brèches, in front of an audience of chefs and gourmands who came from all over France to attend the competition. One title is good, but two is better! Édouard Dupuy pulled off the feat of winning another distinction that weekend, during a second competition, to represent France at the next Swiss Fondue World Cup which will take place in 2025 in Tartegnin in Switzerland. Two cheese experts share their advice with us.
The concentrated and studious jury during the Best Savoyard Fondue competition.
© Gabriel Zacharski
Pro tips for preparing the best Savoyard fondue
The choice of cheeses
Bernard Mure-Ravaud. – For me, the Savoyard fondue contains five cheeses: Comté, Beaufort, Emmental, old Swiss Gruyere and Vacherin Fribourgeois.
In the design, we try to use a little Emmental because it makes a string, but it doesn’t give any flavor, so we use cheeses with flavor, old Beaufort, old Comtés, Swiss Gruyeres.
For the proportions: we add very little Emmental or a similar cheese for softness, and other old cheeses for taste in identical proportions.
Édouard Dupuy. – For a winning Savoyard fondue, we work with gourmet Savoyard, it is a cheese without appellation, which is quite young between 6 and 10 months, and which will provide the creamy side.
Afterwards, we work with Alpine cheeses, a wheel from Jura which is the equivalent of a Comté, matured between 12 and 18 months. But alpine county means summer county, therefore more aromatic than a winter county, because the cows are simply outside.
Afterwards, we work with a Swiss wheel which is the equivalent of a Gruyere cheese. We fight to have a quality-price ratio at the La Petite Fontaine restaurant that is as fair and consistent as possible. We are part of the affordable range since we are €35 with dessert, cold meats, salad. Our goal is to offer a fondue that is the best possible, by finding tips to avoid necessarily putting the most expensive cheeses in the appellation.
The quantity is 20% gourmet Savoyard, 40% Jura cheese and 40% Swiss cheese.
You should not exceed 50% of the cheese being too old, otherwise there is a risk that it will slice.
Also, when eating 200 g of fondue, if you add too much old cheese, you will be satisfied more quickly, whereas a slightly younger fondue allows you to enjoy it longer and take pleasure in returning to it. If it’s too strong, too salty, you’ll be less hungry.
© Gabriel Zacharski
The choice of wine
Bernard Mure-Ravaud. – You have to pair the Savoyard fondue with white wines: Apremont, Chignin, Savoy wines, we stay local.
Édouard Dupuy. – We work on the Savoie flying fox. We are looking for a young wine which is a good compromise between acidity and aromatics, and the russet is not too powerful. You need to find a wine that is not too acidic, but by heating it well and not adding too much, you can temper the acidity.
Wine is one of the most commonly used ingredients in fondue after cheese, so the age of the wine has a real impact on the overall cost of the dish.
We use approximately one bottle for 12 people, we are around less than 10 cl for 200 g. We do it by eye.
Seasoning
Bernard Mure-Ravaud. – The younger the cheeses, the more seasoning is required to add flavor. The more mature the cheeses are, the less necessary. A fondue only with old cheeses doesn’t need anything.
Édouard Dupuy. – We have always added a touch of Meaux mustard. There’s the visual marker of grainy mustard, but it’s a little milder and sweeter. Finally, a little nutmeg and pepper, when sending.
Garlic in fondue, yes or no?
Bernard Mure-Ravaud. – It’s not that it’s necessary or not at all, I don’t use any, sometimes I just eat my croutons. But you don’t have to have fondue.
Édouard Dupuy. – We rub the fondue pot with garlic at the start of the recipe.
Chef Édouard Dupuy of the La Petite Fontaine restaurant who won the title of “Best Savoyard fondue in Megève”.
© Gabriel Zacharski
The technique
Bernard Mure-Ravaud. – Regarding heating: if your fondue is at a low temperature, it will thicken, and if the fondue is at a high temperature, it will liquefy. It is important to have a consistent result.
Édouard Dupuy. – We rub the fondue pot with garlic, put all our cheese in it and add wine little by little when the fondue seems too thick. The important tip is to heat gently so that the fondue does not stick to the bottom.
The best advice is that you have to go slowly, add the cheese, add wine little by little and, above all, mix constantly. 80% of fondues fail because there was too much wine from the start.
If there is too much wine, it comes loose, it falls, it slips. The less wine you add, the thicker and creamier it will be, and when you dip the bread in it, it looks like aligot, it coats the bread. We have a nice texture around the bread.
The big risk of working with mature cheeses is that they risk cutting through the fat because they lose the milky side.
Ripened cheese will necessarily be drier since it will lose moisture as it dries and ages. This concentrates the fat side in the cheese. We have this side which will cut and the fat which will rise. If the fat comes up, it’s not a big deal, you really have to stir hard and you can sometimes get it back in. A fondue that seems to have failed makes up for it. If you mix vigorously, you can always catch up.
To prevent it from cutting, you can use more mature cheeses if you want to look for taste, but keep young cheeses to provide the binder and texture. When we use our gourmet Savoyard, the goal is to have a cheese that is as creamy as possible. When they use Reblochon in fondue, it’s the same. The goal is to deal with this creamy texture and make a binder.
The bread
Bernard Mure-Ravaud. – I prefer a fondue with dry or toasted bread.
Édouard Dupuy. – We work with fresh bread and baguette. For me, it has to be well cooked and have a real crust.
Preparation time
Édouard Dupuy. – For an individual, a fondue for 5 people, in 15 to 20 minutes, that’s it.
The nun
Édouard Dupuy. – At the time, the nuns collected the leftovers and provided meals to the poor. In Bordeaux, they made cannelés with eggs, etc. In fact, in Savoie, they collected the cheese rinds and made gratins. Playing the nun means scraping the fondue from the bottom of the fondue pot and therefore eating something that would have gone in the trash. We add an egg at the end of cooking, the fat from the egg yolk helps to scrape. It’s like de-icing, it allows you to loosen what’s stuck at the bottom.
In short, the fondue errors noted by the jury
- Be careful with salt. The salty flavor comes from mature cheeses, from tyrosine, these famous crystals which crunch under the tooth and are not salt. Do not add salt to the fondue, and balance between old and young cheeses.
- You have to balance between young and old cheeses, otherwise the fondue will slice.
- Garlic is a flavor enhancer but it can unbalance the dish.
- The addition of mustard is interesting. The acidity breaks the fat.
- Be careful of additional tastes which can be disturbing.
- Prefer a wine that is neither too powerful nor too acidic.
- If the fondue is too liquid, it will not stick to the bread and will slip.
- Do not add extra fat to the bread by, for example, browning it in butter. Prefer dry bread.
- Cutting the bread is important. Do not cut too large pieces.
- If the fondue cools, it thickens.
- The real recipe for fondue is old cheese and old bread. It’s a peasant dish.
*Toquicimes is a mountain cuisine festival which takes place every year in Megève and brings together many gourmets around events and chef masterclasses.
