Fondue

Table Manners

Eating Etiquette (How to Eat...)

Fondue is a hot dish made with melted cheese and eggs, or with meat or fish. Cheede fondue is eaten with a long-handled fondue fork, one fork per guest. Cubed bread is speared and dipped into sauce served in a communal pot. Because the sauce is shared by everyone at the table, and the fork is redipped into the sauce many times, the tines of the fork do not pierce the cubes all the way through. Rather, the bread cube is removed from the fork with the front teeth only, and the lips and tongue do not touch the tines.

Meat foundue and fish fondue are served with a fondue fork and a dinner fork, one set per guest. Bite-sized pieces of meat or fish are held on the end ofthe fondue fork and cooked in the stock heated in the fondue pot. Because the dinner fork is used as an eating utensil, the lips and tongue may touch the tines.

Eating fondue means sharing a bowl with others, so don't even think of double dipping.

• When you spear a piece of French bread and dip it into the pot of melted cheese, hold the fondue fork still for a moment to let the excess drip off.
• Use your dinner fork to slide the cheese-covered bread onto your plate, then to eat it.
• Rest the fondue on your plate when not dipping.

Meat fondues:

• When the bowl of cubed raw meat is passed, spoon several pieces onto your dinner plate.
• Spoon small pools of the sauces being served onto your plate.
• Firmly spear a piece of meat with your fondue fork and place it in the pot with the other diners' forks.
• When the meat is cooked, remove it and slide it onto your plate with your dinner fork.
• When it has cooled, cut it into smaller pieces to eat.

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