Welcome to the Chateau Bole Fondue Pilot Group. This is a closed group, invitation-only and if you’re not on the list then move along. This isn’t for you.
(If you’re pushed for time and want to just jump in and buy the kit then you can CLICK HERE)
Let’s start with some basics and framing the context of what this is all about. Quite simply it’s about exploring ways to increase the consumption of cheese and wine both within the ex-pat community but also within the local community.
Cheese is not a big thing in China and with the market so small, it makes it commercially unviable to import the vast range of cheeses that are available across the world. Cheese is a perishable product with some cheeses having as little as 2 months to consume before they are unsafe to eat. This is why the vast majority of cheese that is readily available in China is either highly processed muck that doesn’t have much flavour to it – or so expensive that it might as well be made of gold bullion. We’d like to try and do something where we can give consumers access to interesting and rich flavoured cheeses at prices that are closer to what we are prepared to pay.
Fondue
For those of you that don’t know, fondue is essentially an interesting way to chow through half a kilo of cheese with some friends or family. It’s a sociable experience and in many ways quite similar to Chinese Hotpot. It’s interesting to note that westerners refer to hotpot as “Chinese Fondue” no doubt in reference to the similarity of using a communal pot – and that’s where the similarity ends.
Fondue as word, derives from the French word, fondre, “to melt” and as a noun seems to be first referenced in writing in French in 1735 in n Vincent la Chapelle’s Cuisinier moderne and in English in 1878. The earliest known recipe for the modern form of cheese fondue comes from a 1699 book published in Zurich, under the name “Käss mit Wein zu kochen”, “to cook cheese with wine”. It calls for grated or cut-up cheese to be melted with wine, and for bread to be dipped in it. Where things get more interesting is talk of cooking cheese and wine was mentioned in Homer’s Iliad, a famous epic poem that dates back around 800 to 725 BC.
The Basic Concept
It all starts with a mixture of white wine and corn starch (to thicken and stabilise) which is warmed up. Just before the liquid boils, cheese is gradually added and stirred in until it melts into a thick cheese sauce. Herbs, spices and brandy-type alcohols can be added prior to serving.
The pot is then moved to the centre of the dinner table and a small heat source is placed under it to keep the cheese hot enough to remain in liquid form.
Plates of bread, vegetables, meats and anything else that pairs with cheese are made available. The diners or guests each have a fondue fork to spear their titbit of choice and then dip into the cheese sauce before eating.
Alternative Styles
Fondue can be made more interesting with some very basic changes. A basic starting point can be made by changing some of the cheese. The base cheese is almost always an Emmental cheese (“Swiss Cheese”) but exchanging some of the base cheese for another type, for example, blue cheese can create an interesting flavour change.
Adding other things to the cheese fondue – herbs, spices, finely chopped garlic, finely chopped crispy bacon, finely chopped chillies, – can all add different depths of flavour to the fondue.
Using things other than just bread to dip into the fondue. Potatoes, salad vegetables, cooked or smoked meats – anything that you personally think would work with cheese, will probably work with fondue.
The Fondue Pilot Group
If fondue is every going to be interesting on a mass scale in China, we need to try it out with a bunch of open-minded foodie types to get some mature feedback. Should we give fondue a push, or should we leave it in the 1970s alongside elbow patches on jackets, knitted cardigans and flared trousers?
It’s only with a lot of us all trying it out and giving some feedback that we will know.
What’s in it for you?
As guinea pigs you get a few things:
- You get the first Fondue Starter Pack cheaper than anyone else will. At least 10% cheaper.
- You will get some extra cheese for free to play around with that will not be part of any starter kit going forward.
What’s in it for us?
We want photographs from yo all having a blast at this and some comments on the bundles when we launch them. There’s no desire to invade your privacy so if you don’t want to show your face in the pictures, that’s fine and respected. A picture of you making your fondue, a picture of what you’re planning to dip in it and a picture of something on a fondue fork being dipped in your fondue. 3 pictures minimum (one of each) or as many as you want to share.
The Starter Bundle
It will consist of the following items
- 1 x Fondue Pot with a stand, a tray, a small burner (that will hold your fuel pellets) 6 fondue forks and a lid that is shaped to rest the fondue forks in. This is sold separately at ¥150
- 12 x 40-gram fuel tablets for your burner. We sell these separately for ¥25
- 1 x starter pack of Emmental cheese for your basic cheese. This will consist of 2 x 300g packs. This is sold separately for ¥180
- 1 x 150g stilton cheese. This is sold separately at ¥68.88
- 2 x bottles of dry white wine. That’s 1 bottle of Romisa Chardonnay and 1 bottle of African Whisper Sauvignon Blanc (this could be swapped out for a medium sweet German wine if you prefer your fondue a little bit sweeter)
- 100g of Comte cheese.
Ignoring the Comte, there’s a value of ¥551 to ¥641. We will let this go out to the Pilot Group at ¥350 a time.
Are You Still Interested?
We’re limiting the places at 24. We have a tentative from 50 people. So the first 24 that click here and pay in their loot make the cut. We like those that are buying in, to get this sorted Monday 16th or Tuesday 17th and the latest so we can get the pots ordered and get this show on the road.
CLICK HERE to go straight in and buy your Fondue Pilot Starter Kit
CLICK HERE TO GET IN ON THIS.
