Standard Culture

Fond…Fondle…Fondue

When I was a child, let’s say in the 70s just to be vague, I would come down from upstairs in my family’s weekend home outside of Marrakech and peep my head around the corner to see my parents and all their friends lazily laying around in their Yves Saint Laurent caftans.  They would be drinking champagne, smoking cigarettes that didn’t smell like normal cigarettes and eating pieces of bread stuck on long sticks which they dipped into a pot of bubbling chees.

Later in life, my mother taught me that that pot of bubbling cheese was actually called fondue, a dish of Swiss origin which entails melting a medley of cheeses in a pot kept warm over an open flame and then dipping cubes of fresh bread, vegetables and other accoutrements into it.

The word fondue comes from the French word fondre which means to melt, and fondue is the past tense meaning melted.  Aren’t the Swiss just the most clever people you ever did meet?!

Anystan…the genius that is Chef Dan Silverman who you know from our very own Standard Grill is bringing you this euro-classic daily.  Beginning next Tuesday, we will be serving this delightful delicacy.  Leave it to Chef D. (as I like to call him) to up the ante with a mixture of Emmenthal and Sharffe Max (two Swiss cows milk cheeses), white wine and kirsch.  I don’t know what kirsch is, but trust me, it’s AMAZING.  

Served with cubes of fresh doughy sourdough bread and an assortment of vegetables and fruit with which to dip, including red & yellow bell peppers, fennel, brussels sprouts, granny smith apples and cornichons, this fondue is beyond anything you’ve ever fondled. Keep it clean, people!

For reservations at The Standard Grill, please call 212-645-4100 from 9am - 11pm daily.

xoxo
Stan