The Fondue Set at Every Dinner Party

A fondue set changed the way guests sat at dinner. Instead of receiving a finished plate, each person reached toward the same pot with a long fork. The food was part of the conversation because everyone could see the cheese, chocolate, or other mixture warming at the center of the table. A set tucked in a cupboard can bring back the guests who gathered around it.

What made the set a party object?

The equipment invited participation: a pot, a heat source, and forks for dipping. The National Museum of American History's fondue set came with an account from a donor whose family used it after Friday football games and at gatherings with relatives. That is a documented family memory, not a claim that every dinner party served fondue. The museum places home fondue sets in the wider U.S. appetite for the dish during the 1960s and 1970s.

Illustration created for WistMem; not an archival photograph.

Design helped the pot earn a place on the table. A circa-1970 Copco fondue pot in the Smithsonian American Art Museum is cast iron with porcelainized enamel and vivid color. It was meant to be seen as well as used. The National Museum of American History also shows how specialty kitchen stores sold pots, forks, plates, and books together as a complete way to host.

What was actually served?

Cheese and bread are only one possibility. The museum's fondue-set record describes American home cooks using vegetables, meat, and fruit with different kinds of fondue. A photograph of forks in a pot cannot tell you which recipe a family chose. A stained recipe card, box, or the memory of a guest can.

Illustration created for WistMem; not an archival photograph.

Ask who owned the set, whether it came out for a particular group, and who took care of the heating while everyone talked. The answer may be less about a food fad than about a circle of friends. For another shared meal with its own family roles, read The Sunday Roast and the Whole Family.