I was picking out a podcast for one of my adult students to help him improve his French listening and I found 
this episode about La Raclette from the podcast French Cafe! You may remember this podcast was on our list of recommendations to help improve French listening earlier in January!
I hadn’t thought about La Raclette since the last time I ate it a few years ago at a friends dinner party in Toronto but it was a very happy reminder because 1) Raclette is a warm and hearty winter comfort food favourite 2) It’s February in a pandemic, what better reason do we need to draw out meal time enjoyment!
What is La Raclette?
Raclette is many things including a Swiss cheese dish popular in Europe, the name of a cheese, a table top appliance, a dining experience, and a great time!
While Raclette is a Swiss dish, the word La Raclette comes from the French verb “Racler” which means to 
scrape referring to the act of scraping the cheese!
According to cheese history, Swiss shepherds from the French speaking Valais region needed to bring food up to the Alps that was relative cheap and wouldn’t spoil easily in the hot summer month. So they brought cheese and potatoes. While the potatoes roasted in the fire, a big piece of cheese was put close to the fire. Once it started melting the cheese was taken away and scraped of the cheese onto the baked potatoes. This was not only filling and nourishing but also delicious. Today, it is a popular meal enjoyed “après-ski” or after ski meal, in restaurants and at home. Most commonly it is no longer made over a fire but with the help of special Raclette Appliance.
Okay, so I really went down the Raclette rabbit hole today and watched many videos on YouTube and now I have just ordered a Raclette Grill of my own off amazon, it was on prime, should be here in 2 days…. I will have to let you all know how it goes! LOL
Some videos from my deep dive that sparked my impulse purchase include this lady from Quebec talking about what is Raclette, different types of cheese and where to buy and what foods are popular to prepare with it. Also, it is sponsored by bacon so you’ll see lots of bacon!
Here’s another video from Quebec by Chef Marcus who shows us how to make Express Raclette in the oven! So no need to order off amazon if you like the idea of Raclette but don’t want to store the grill for the rest of the year!
Lastly, don’t forget you can make dessert Raclette!! That’s a whole post for another day 🙂 Happy first week of February!