This chronicle tells the little or the big story behind our food, dishes or chefs. Powerful weapon soft power, A societal and cultural marker, food is the founding element of our civilizations. Conflicts, diplomacy, traditions, cuisine has always had a political dimension. Because as Bossuet already said in the 17th century, “it is at the table that we govern”.
It has become the iconic dish of our winters, one that requires absolutely no cooking skills: raclette. This cheese, produced on both sides of the Alps, has invaded our living rooms thanks to its innate sense of conviviality. The figures are dizzying: France consumes nearly 2 kilos per year per household of raclette and it could even soon dethrone Camembert as the second most consumed cheese in France, just after Emmental. In 2023, the dish will even become the second favorite of the French behind chicken and fries, according to a CSA survey.
A French passion that has made raclette an emblem of our gastronomy. A tourist, who arrives in Paris for the first time in the middle of winter, will set his sights on snails with garlic butter, beef bourguignon… and this cheese dish that is so comforting when the temperatures drop. Raclette has earned its reputation. To the point of finding ourselves today in the heart of certain Parisian palaces. Chef Jean-François Rouquette (Pur’, one Michelin star) offers, in the patio of the Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme, a “raclette menu” in a replica of a mountain chalet with exceptional products: natural, smoked and wild garlic Swiss cheeses from Saint-Niklaus, an assortment of mountain charcuterie, Montbéliard sausages and new potatoes. With dessert and starter, you still have to pay a whopping…210 euros per person. No more need for wealthy clients to go to Courchevel, Paris has done it: luxury raclette is born!
A tradition among shepherds
But what was its real birthplace? Switzerland with its Valais raclette or France with its Savoie raclette? On this question, advantage to our Swiss neighbors… In the 11th and 12th centuries, significant migratory movements of peasants were reported in the Swiss Alpine and Jura worlds allowing the installation of “a very important permanent habitat at more than 2000 meters above sea level.” ‘altitude”, says Anne-Lise Head-König in the Journal of Alpine research.
The word raclette does not yet exist but the action of “scraping” the wheels will very quickly become a tradition among shepherds. The first written records mention a “roasted cheese” in the 12th century among peasants in the Swiss mountains of the canton of Valais, as recounted by Marie-Suzel Inzé in her book Switzerland, passion for cheese: “One of the winegrowers, the story goes that his name is Léon, wanted a hot meal. With a fire but no utensils, it was not easy to cook… Never mind! Léon cooked his cheese directly on the fire. We can imagine the divine surprise when tasting it. The apprentice cook had just invented roasted cheese.”
Gaspard Ambüel, a Swiss doctor from Sion, detailed in 1574 how the mountain people began to consume cheese: “A fire is prepared using twigs piled up with Alpine roses […] We sit down, we take a few provisions from our little bag or our satchel, each according to our means, and we melt tasty, fatty, soft and tender cheeses, with a bitter flavor.”
If the practice is therefore relatively well documented, the exact geographical origin is not completely consensus within the Swiss Confederation. Proof of this is: in 2018, David Lewis, a Briton, was refused a Swiss passport because he had the misfortune to locate, during his interview to obtain the famous sesame, the origin of raclette in “Switzerland French-speaking Switzerland” and not in “German-speaking Switzerland”. If raclette has sometimes triggered a quarrel between cantons to take ownership of its authorship, it seems that it is in Valais that it gained its popularity. It was only in 1909 that the name “raclette” was invented by the poet Oscar Perrollaz, during the Valais cantonal exhibition, in reference to a song he composed.
Mushroom raclette
© / Sweety salty
A marketing stunt
It was not until 1973 that it became popular in France through a prodigious marketing coup. During a trip to Switzerland, an employee of the RichesMonts cheese factories was ecstatic about the friendly practice of raclette and spotted an extraordinary vein. The context is conducive to its development. In France, the “snow” plan (1964-1977) was launched. Its aim is to develop high mountain resorts: La Plagne, Les Arcs, Isola 2000 and even Tignes. In total, nearly 150,000 beds have been built. It remains to feed all his mouths which come back hungry from their day of descents. RichesMonts then begins the massive manufacturing of raclette cheese wheels. In order to make the practice even more accessible, the cheese factory launched, in 1975, in collaboration with the French brand Tefal, the first domestic raclette machine with 6 non-stick cups, the famous “pans”. It was also in the 1970s that Savoie raclette – which has had a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) since 2017 – took off. France has thus been able to draw the full potential of this Swiss invention. Its expertise in cheese and its gastronomic prestige will do the rest. Today, many other French cheeses (morbier, fourme or abundance) are also popular with the French for being “heated”.
In order to continue their development, tomme, emmental and raclette de Savoie want to join forces to create an appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOP), like that enjoyed by the Swiss canton of Valais since 2003, which remains for currently little exported. In the columns of World, Benoît Tornay, the Swiss president of a dairy, regrets: “The appellation came thirty years too late. Today we are not up to the task of defending our original raclette against industrial cheesemakers.”
Milk powder to make raclette
And that’s where it hurts. Raclette became so popular that the market was flooded by manufacturers. Nearly 9 out of 10 raclette cheeses produced in France (60,000 tonnes in total) are not “local” and may contain… milk powder or frozen curds. If we take a closer look at the label, our famous pre-cut pieces in the trays are filled with coagulants, additives and colorings. Like E235, natamycin, a natural antibiotic, a fungicide used as a preservative in the food industry. For these industrial cheeses, the milk used can also come from cooperatives linked to the agri-food industry which maintain the precariousness of a very low purchase price, denounced today by many angry farmers.
Some simple tips to be sure to make a good raclette: buy from your cheesemaker, choose AOP and AOC and above all… raw milk!
But one question remained in this fratricidal duel between France and Switzerland: who produces the best raclette? Last October, nearly 90 cheeses – and their producers – traveled to Morgins, a village in Valais, for the raclette world championships. Three categories on the program: raw Alpine milk, raw milk and “other raclette cheeses”.
And 10,000 fans came to see the triumph… of Switzerland. All the prizes were won by Swiss people with the exception of the Limited Responsibility Agricultural Operation The Hazelnut Trees, located in Leschaux, in Haute-Savoie. The French took the silver medal in the raw milk category. If the majority of competitors are indeed Swiss or French, teams from Belgium, Canada, Italy and Romania were also in the running. And the next edition should see producers from the United Kingdom, Japan, Norway, Sweden and even Kyrgyzstan compete. Raclette no longer has boundaries.
Our cheese shop advice in Paris:
Taka & Vermo: 61 bis, rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis 75010 Paris
Paris dairy: 74, rue des Poissonniers, 75018 Paris
Racines cheese factory: 2, rue Ferdinand-Flocon, 75018 Paris
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