It is often presented as a French culinary specialty and regularly appears at the top of the French’s favorite dishes: raclette. However, this dish which takes its name from a cheese is also inseparably linked to Switzerland. So, is raclette French or Swiss?
There is no debate on the subject, considers Loïc Bienassis, scientific mission manager at the European Institute of Food History and Cultures (François-Rabelais University of Tours). “Raclette is Swiss,” he tells BFMTV.com. The Confederation has also celebrated with great fanfare in recent days the 450th anniversary of this dish which has become a national symbol.
“It is an emblematic preparation of Valais (a canton bordering France located in the south of Switzerland, Editor’s note). There is undeniably a link between this territory and this preparation.”
“Raclette is a Valais dish, not Savoyard.”
The first written traces of the recipe date from 1574 and are signed by a certain Collinus, a doctor from Sion, capital of Valais. “This is correct and fully attested,” confirms food historian Loïc Bienassis. “The recipe evokes a ‘tasty, fatty and tender cheese’ that is melted in front of the fire.
But he qualifies his remarks: “At the same time, we can find melted cheese traditions almost everywhere. We have, for example, evidence of this kind in Bresse at the end of the Middle Ages.”
The “constructed” image of a Valais dish
However, raclette as a Swiss national emblem would be much more recent, recalls food historian Loïc Bienassis, also author of The Great History of Gastronomy. “It was in the 19th century that the image of raclette as a Valais dish was built.” He cites in particular the Practical universal kitchen dictionarythe first cookbook aimed at the general public written by Joseph Favre and published in 1894, which evokes a Valais-style fondue recipe.
“It is indeed a raclette, but there is no guarantee that it is the same cheese as today.”
Another legend surrounding the Swiss origins of raclette: the story of Léon, a Valais winemaker, who invented raclette “on a cold day” by heating a piece of cheese on his wood fire. “The typical Valais dish was born”, says the Raclette Interprofession of Valais AOP.
Loïc Bienassis nevertheless warns against the image sometimes conveyed of raclette as that of a common traditional dish. “Melting half a wheel is expensive,” remarks Loïc Bienassis. “We should not imagine the farmers stuffing themselves with raclette. Their production was above all intended to be sold.” Raclette, a local dish? Another legend, according to this historian.
“Raclette uses local products but it is first and foremost a bourgeois dish which was notably put on the menu of inns when they developed and aimed at urban dwellers.”
“It comes from our mountains”
Concerning the origin of raclette, when you cross the border, the sound is necessarily a little different. “It’s not a question of country,” says Frédéric Royer, a French cheese refiner in Thonon-les-Bains (Haute-Savoie), for BFMTV.com. Although he admits that raclette is “historically” more associated with Switzerland than with France, Frédéric Royer explains that shepherds have “always melted and eaten the cheese they produced”.
“Swiss or French, let’s say it comes from our mountains. It’s a knowledge that moved with the shepherds, whether they are Swiss or French.”
This cheese refiner, however, recognizes “small differences” in the manufacturing, refining and conservation of raclette on each side of the border. “The Swiss have many more varieties of raclette, it has more flavor, but it is also more fragile when heated,” points out Frédéric Royer.
On the other hand, IGP (protected geographical indication) raclette from Savoie, recognized since 2017, “is indeed French”, he adds. A raclette which comes “in the form of a round wheel weighing six kilos”, specifies the Ministry of Agriculture. A cheese produced in Savoie, Haute-Savoie as well as in certain communes of Ain and Isère and matured for a minimum of eight weeks.
Each year, France produces 2,300 tonnes of raclette, according to the Association of Traditional Cheeses of the Savoyard Alps (although there is also Jura raclette, without a protected designation).
“The success of a domestic appliance”
As for the triumph of raclette in France, Loïc Bienassis considers that it is above all an industrial success. “It is not the story of a Savoyard dish that would have won the whole country, but the story of the national commercial success of a domestic appliance.”
Because if in Switzerland raclette is enjoyed by scraping the wheel heated in front of a flame, French-style raclette is cut into slices then melted in the pans of a raclette grill. “Tefal launched its devices in the mid-1970s with the success we know.” As of November 2021, device sales have soared by more than 300%.
“This is how France appropriated raclette.”
For cheese refiner Frédéric Royer, the word is strong. “Switzerland has also adopted raclette,” he defends himself. “Everyone defends their land.”
Whatever the case, raclette has earned its reputation on both sides of the border. Last winter, chef Jean-François Rouquette opened a winter chalet on the terrace of the luxurious Park Hyatt Vendôme hotel with a “mountain raclette” menu. And it is in France, and not in Switzerland, that the record for the largest raclette in the world was broken.
Original article published on BFMTV.com
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