Raclette is popular worldwide as a cheese dish that’s become a social media sensation, known for its spectacular presentation where melted cheese is dramatically poured over ingredients. However, in local places in Switzerland—the birthplace of raclette—it’s enjoyed as a more unpretentious, everyday dish.
This time, I visited a locally beloved restaurant in Zermatt, Switzerland’s famous resort town, to experience authentic raclette. Through this experience, I’ll introduce the original eating methods and customs unique to its homeland.
What is Raclette: The Surprising Gap Between International and Swiss Styles
Raclette is a traditional cheese dish derived from the French word “racler,” meaning “to scrape.” Born in Switzerland’s Valais canton, it’s now beloved worldwide.
Internationally, the common style involves heating a large cheese wheel with special equipment and dramatically pouring the melted cheese over ingredients. Often, the spectacular scraping of large cheese wheels becomes popular on social media. It’s frequently prepared as a performance in front of customers, truly known as “show cooking.”
However, authentic raclette in Switzerland is surprisingly served in a much more casual manner. Particularly in local restaurants, there’s no flashy performance; instead, it features compact specialized cooking equipment and practical eating methods. I decided to visit a locally acclaimed restaurant to experience this authentic raclette style.
Swiss Chalet: A Mountain Lodge-Style Hidden Gem Restaurant
I visited “Swiss Chalet,” a restaurant in Zermatt. With its old wooden interior, it creates an atmosphere like a mountain lodge. The interior hosts more local customers than tourists, known as a place to enjoy traditional Swiss cuisine in an authentic atmosphere. Due to its popularity, dinner reservations are essential.
The interior atmosphere is also warmly mountain lodge-style
The restaurant’s menu naturally features Swiss traditional dishes like raclette and cheese fondue as signature items, along with fondue chinoise, fish dishes, and meat dishes. It also features an extensive wine list centered on local Valais wines.
Authentic Raclette: Surprisingly Simple Cooking Method
I ordered a 3-course menu including classic raclette. In stark contrast to the flashy presentations commonly seen internationally, what was actually brought was surprisingly compact specialized cooking equipment.
Oh, this is raclette??
This cooking equipment has a unique shape integrating a grill and burner. It’s a practical tool packed with innovations: a heat source for melting cheese and mechanisms for easily pouring melted cheese over ingredients.
Authentic Cooking Method
Initially, the server carefully explains and teaches the cooking procedure. The process is as follows:
First, thin cheese slabs are placed on the heated grill. This cheese is cut into four equal parts with a special spatula. This is for uniform melting and adjusting to manageable portions.
As the cheese gradually heats, it begins melting from the surface. At this point, spice powder and paprika powder are sprinkled to enhance color. This powder appears to be a blend of several spices, adding exquisite flavor to the cheese.
While shaping the cheese with the spatula as it melts, once completely melted, pre-warmed potatoes are lightly mashed and prepared. The grill has a seesaw-like structure, which can be tilted to pour the melted cheese over the potatoes.
A process that surprisingly requires good timing
This entire process differs from the flashy performances seen internationally, instead characterized by practical, efficient movements. For locals, this isn’t a special show but simply an everyday dish.
I didn’t photograph it very appetizingly, but it’s unmistakably raclette!
Authentic Flavors
The spices including paprika powder enhance the cheese’s richness while adding appropriate stimulation. This combination was exquisite, truly creating an “addictive” deliciousness.
Accompaniments like bread and pickles were also provided. According to the server, these are also recommended for pouring cheese over as flavor variations. However, personally, I found the compatibility with acidic pickles wasn’t very good. This is entirely a matter of preference, and for locals, it might actually be a standard combination.
Unexpected Consideration: Drink Selection
Zermatt’s specialty Zermatt Beer
Incidentally, a personal point of reflection from this meal was my beverage choice. I ordered the local specialty Zermatt beer, but this actually wasn’t appropriate.
In Switzerland, it’s traditional to pair wine with cheese dishes to aid digestion. Indeed, if you experience stomach discomfort the following day, drinking beer with cheese dishes the previous day is likely the cause.
The extensive local wine list made sense for this reason. Particularly, Valais white wines are said to pair excellently with cheese dishes.
What Swiss Raclette Culture Reveals
What particularly impressed me about experiencing authentic raclette was its “everyday” atmosphere. While raclette tends to be treated as a special menu item internationally, in Switzerland’s local places, it’s beloved as a more familiar presence.
The specialized cooking equipment prioritizes practicality over flashy appearance, packed with years of wisdom. The series of actions—melting cheese and pouring it over ingredients—were also efficient and waste-free. Consequently, precisely because it differs from the entertainment-focused international raclette, I could feel the depth of food culture cultivated over long history.
Summary
The real pleasure of enjoying raclette in authentic Switzerland lies in its simplicity and practicality. Not flashy performance, but simple yet careful cooking methods, and traditional flavors continuously beloved by locals.
Particularly, eating at locally-focused restaurants like Swiss Chalet allows you to experience more authentic raclette culture. Enjoying a leisurely meal mixed with locals in a mountain lodge-like atmosphere—this might be the luxury unique to authentic Switzerland.
If you have the opportunity to visit Switzerland, please try raclette at a local restaurant. There, you’ll find genuine deliciousness and culture that social media cannot convey.
Side Note:
Home raclette makers are apparently also sold internationally. While their shapes differ significantly from what I saw in Switzerland, they serve as tools for easily enjoying raclette at home—definitely worth checking out if you’re interested!
