Fondue etiquette is important for communal eating. Don’t double dip, avoid touching your fork to your lips, and wait for food to cool before eating it. Dive in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction.
Fondue etiquette is important to know if you plan to attend a fondue party, which has become very popular again since the early 2000s. Hosts can help their guests by providing them with a few things that will make their guests politely eat fondue, instead of offending each other by ignoring fondue etiquette. There are also some dos and don’ts, which will make you eat as politely as possible while dipping or cooking your food in a communal pot.
Firstly, if you are invited to a fondue party and feel sick, don’t go. There are too many possibilities to share your illness with others, which is simply not right. Cancel with your host as soon as possible so they have a chance to invite someone else.
Second, never, ever double dip; this violates fondue etiquette in the extreme. Once you’ve dipped into the pot once and taken a bite of cheese-covered bread, chocolate-covered fruit, or cooked meat, don’t add it back into the pot. The same rule applies when eating chips and dips at a party. Your dip counts because it’s one dip per piece of food.
There is also some discussion of fondue etiquette when it comes to using fondue forks. While these are great for skewering bread, meat, marshmallows, or fruit, it can be very hard not to touch your fork with your lips. There are a few ways the host can simplify this. Provide each diner with a plate and fork to remove the dipped bits, or use bamboo skewers, which can simply be removed and tossed after a dip. Hosts should also be sure that the food is really cut into bite-sized pieces, to avoid guests having to put very large pieces of food into their mouths, even a no-no fondue.
When you’re ready to try your first fondue sauce, whether it’s melted cheese, hot oil or chocolate, there’s an easy method to get the perfect, perfectly polite sauce. Thread the food to be dipped so that the skewer goes through the piece of food, which will help avoid dropping the food into the fondue mix. Next, dip the food in and give it a swirl or two at most. If food falls into the fondue, the habit differs as to whether to retrieve it. You could ask a host to help you so others have a clean pot to dip their food in. Don’t dig for it, though.
When you remove the food from the soak, it will usually be very hot. The temptation here would be to blow on the food to cool it down. Fondue etiquette suggests waiting instead of blowing on the food. You certainly don’t want to blow hot cheese, hot oil, or hot chocolate on someone else. If you use disposable skewers, you can eat the dipped food directly from the skewer. When using fondue forks, remove the piece with another fork, being careful not to touch the tines of the “eat” fork with the dipping fork. Then enjoy the dipped food as soon as it’s cool enough to eat.
Finally, fondue etiquette suggests that you don’t dive at the same time as someone else. The dive should proceed clockwise or counterclockwise so that each person has their own chance to dive. Perfect the dip and swirl (fondue is also great for making at home!) so you don’t waste too much time during this exchange.
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