Raclette

 

Tonight we had dinner with Emilie’s family in La Chappelle d’Abondance, a small town in the French Alps not far from the Swiss border. Thanks to a winter storm, it was snowing for much of the drive and provided a nice holiday feel.

In traditional Savoyard fashion, the group decided to go with Raclette – basically a cousin of fondue in which a massive wheel of cheese is slowly heated on one side and the melted portion is routinely scraped onto everyone’s plate alongside some charcuterie, steamed potatoes and other vegetables.

As “luck” would have it, Yvain and I sat adjacent to where the Raclette “machine” was ultimately set up. Thus, we had the hottest seats at the table – both in terms of the actual heat radiating from the machine and the pressure of scraping the cheese onto everyone’s plate before it melts too much.

Given that I was busy serving others throughout the meal, I didn’t have a lot of free time to actually eat. Instead, I basically found myself stuffing my face in the brief breaks from serving everyone else. It made for a fun dinner, though, and I think that I’ll be much better prepared for the next time we have Raclette.