Fribourg and Geneva residents triumph at Fondue World Championship

The Fondue World Championship takes place every two years. Last year it attracted over 12,000 visitors. Keystone-SDA

Around 200 participants took part in the Fondue World Championship held in Tartegnin, canton Vaud, on Saturday. Swiss residents from Geneva and Fribourg took the top awards.

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The competition was won by Benedikt Wüthrich from the Auboranges cheese dairy in canton Fribourg in the professional category, while Frédéric and Lucie Gay from Thônex, canton Geneva, won the amateur category.

Participants came mainly from Switzerland but also from France. Canada and Brazil, where preliminary decisions had been made for participation in the World Championship in Tartegnin.

The participating chefs had to bring all the ingredients for two fondues, one for the qualifiers and one for the final. The basic rule was that the recipe had to contain at least half AOP Gruyère cheese.

Juries chaired by Geneva chef Philippe Chevrier judged the fondues on the basis of a tasting with the same bread. Five criteria were assessed: flavour, appearance, consistency, homogeneity and overall impression.

The Fondue World Championship is not limited to the cooking competition on Saturday evening. The event, which began on Friday and runs until Sunday, also offers various activities – from folklore music and a village rally to demonstrations on how to handle chainsaws.

Fondues can be enjoyed at various locations throughout the village. Other novelties at this year’s edition include a caquelon throwing competition with a bronze caquelon weighing 24.6 kg.

Television crews from abroad

The Fondue World Championship takes place every two years. “Our goal is to attract 15,000 people, but we would be happy with 12,000, like the last edition in 2023,” Graziella Jayet, spokesperson for the event, told the Keystone-SDA news agency.

The tournament is now well known beyond Switzerland’s borders. Dutch and French television crews travelled to Tartegnin to film the event.

Translated from French by DeepL/sb

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