The gesture is simple. The half-wheel goes close to the heat, you wait for the cheese to start to bead, then you scrape it onto the plate in one stroke. One plate, then another, then one more: raclette isn’t served all at once, it’s served over the evening.
The name comes from the gesture itself: racler, to scrape. Cheese was already being melted by the fire in Valais in 1574, and the word “raclette” was first written down in 1874. Since 2007, Raclette du Valais AOP has been made from raw milk, produced and aged in Valais for three to six months. The heel of the wheel often carries its place of origin, such as Bagnes or Gomser, the German name for the Goms valley.
Around it, very little, on purpose. Potatoes in their skins kept warm in their basket, gherkins, silverskin onions, a turn of pepper. The cheese does the rest.
“Raclette is the one dish where waiting your turn is part of the pleasure.”
It’s a meal for sharing, with friends, with family, with children watching for the next plate. You stay at the table longer than you meant to. Outside, the snow; inside, the cheese melting and the glass of white being topped up.
To go with it, stay in Valais: a Fendant, cool and dry, or a glass chosen with you at the Caveau.
