Campervan Cooking Adventures - Fondue With a View

Fondue With a View – by Michael from ChefCampers

Fondue was never designed to impress anyone.

It wasn’t created in a test kitchen on a split shift. It wasn’t served on crisp white tablecloths by waiters dressed in dickie bows. The origins are much further away than that.

It was born from leftover cheese.

In the Alpine regions of Switzerland and eastern France, long winters meant preservation. Wheels of hard mountain cheese aged in cool cellars until they became too firm to slice. Bread dried out. Wine turned sharp. Nothing was wasted.

So they melted it.

Old cheese grated into a pot.

Wine to loosen it.

Stale bread to dip.

That was the dish.

If you wrote that description on a modern menu, it wouldn’t scream culinary brilliance. Hardened leftovers reheated with alcohol and served with yesterday’s bread doesn’t exactly suggest luxury. It’s not something I would rush to order and I have ordered some very questionable dishes over the years.

And yet, sit a group of people around a shared pot of molten cheese, give them a mountain view and enough time, and it can become one of the most memorable meals you ever have.

This is one of the most important lessons I ever learnt as a chef. You see, when we don our chef whites and plate up food in an underground kitchen, we don’t see the meal. We didn't hear it and we just assumed it was amazing because we were happy with the food. In reality, the front of house staff have the toughest job, they have to make sure everything else goes perfect

Abondance

There’s a small valley in the French Alps called Abondance.

Most people pass through it on their way to bigger ski resorts. It doesn’t shout for attention. It doesn’t try to compete. It just sits there quietly, held between steep green slopes and dairy pastures that have shaped its identity for centuries.

The cheese made there carries the same name. Abondance. A semi-firm, nutty, slightly fruity mountain cheese with a history stretching back to monastic farms in the 12th century. It was never industrial. It was local. Made to sustain communities through harsh winters.

During Covid, that valley became our refuge.

When borders closed and the world felt uncertain, we drove up there in the van and stopped moving. We had no house to go to and we figured it was safer to just hide away in the mountains next to a river, away from anyone.

The ski lifts had stopped. Restaurants shut their doors. Roads emptied. We had the place to ourselves! We walked every day. Cooked simple food. We had around 12 days worth of heating in the LPG tank and we rationed it. Rupert (our dog) experienced a frozen water bowl every morning and we would have to place it on top of our kettle to defrost in the morning. We started to get worried about how we could sustain it.

But then the sun appeared! It had never felt so good before. Our moods lifted, our solar panels started working and In two days, we slowly watched the frozen lake defrost. When are we ever going to be able to do that again?! Sit back, with a cup of tea and just watch a frozen lake slowly thaw out.

It was a time in my life when everything slowed down and we had a chance to simply sit still and ask ourselves what we really want.

We stayed in this camp spot for over a month, before realising this would go on much longer. It’s a place we love and will always feel like ours. Every few years, we make an effort to go back and this is what happened the last time we did.

We drove the same road in. Parked near the same spot. Looked up at the same ridge we used to stare at.

We decided to climb the hill we were never allowed to. France had very strict restrictions during covid. We weren't allowed to be 1km away from home. We listed the car park, at the lake, as our home, so that gave us some decent walks on our allowance.

However, there was a new rule that stipulated you couldn’t climb hills or mountains as people were staying within 1km, but climbing the mountains in their back garden. Instead, we would just walk around the lake and look up.

But this time, we packed cheese, charcuterie and an old catering tin we’d punched holes into, filled with charcoal to make a makeshift stove. Obviously there was a bottle of wine too. We climbed the hill and decided it was now time to enjoy lunch from that view point.

Step 1 - Make a temporary stove

We used an old can from the kitchen and placed some charcoal and firelighters inside. We then realised the can would start melting through the snow, so make sure you add some branches underneath!

Step 2 - Open the wine

Most adventurous meals require a bit of courage, this is no exception.

Step 3 - Get the pan ready!

You want to scrub the inside of a pan with garlic, this will give a gentle aroma to the fondue.

Step 4 - Simmer the wine gently and then add the grated cheese.

This is the point where you learn the first rule of fondue. Fondue is made up of lots of silly folklore rules. The first is that you must use a wooden spoon made from your own tree. The forfeit is always a drink! The second rule is to stir in a figure of 8

Step 5 - Prepare the sides

Get the salad ready, the charcuterie meats and the most important side is the cornichons! Without these, the richness of the cheese will be too much! We also like to have some Génépi ready too.

This is our preferred forfeit drink and is a local custom here in Abondance. The bread should be stale and leftover, then cut into cubes. If you use fresh bread, you will face problems (more to come on that forfeit).

Step 6 - Start dipping the cheese!

Now, be careful here. If your bread isn’t stale, theres a chance is will go too soft, too soon and fall in the cheese pot. This is a big faux pas and will result in a double forfeit! So be careful. In, out and twist it all about! You cannot double dip!

Step 6 - Enjoy the Fondue with a View!

Packing some simple things in a bag and finding an amazing spot to have lunch is one of the best meals you could ever have. The food just plays a small part in making this campervan cooking adventure real and worthwhile.

The ingredients are simple, the cooking is simple, but the meal and enjoyment is far beyond any high street restaurant. Give it a go and have your very own Fondue with a View!

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