Interlaken in Switzerland, at the foot of the Jungfrau region, has launched an online fondue guide that outlines the different types of fondue available as well as the different venues in resort in which to find each type.
The guide, found in > offers, > winter offers at Interlaken.ch acknowledges that first there was cheese, the oldest form of the dish known as fondue, but that there's so much more to fondue these days.
As well as chocolate fondue for desert, there's also meat and now fish fondues cooked in oil (Fondue Bourguignonne) or stock (Fondue Chinoise).
Besides eating fondue in a restaurant or mountain hut, you can buy fondue equipment and ingredients to make your own if you rent a holiday apartment, and the guide also lists 'fondue experiences' where you combine a fondue meal with sledging or snowshoeing.
But the classic cheese fondue remains the most popular. With this the cheese is mixed with white wine and cornflour as a binder, plus a shot of Kirsch and various spices. The mixture is melted in a special pan known as a caquelon and small cubes of bread are then dipped into it.
The caquelon is set on a small réchaud (burner) at a gentle heat to keep the cheese warm and melted. There are many variants on this basic recipe which can be refined to taste with spices, herbs, vegetables and alcohol.