Raclette: where to taste it at Christmas markets

Raclette is a pressed cow’s milk cheese from the Swiss canton of Valais, melted and scraped over potatoes with charcuterie, and its half-wheel melting under the grill, to order, makes it a hot dish of the Christmas markets of Switzerland and the Alps, taken up well beyond them. It is eaten standing up, next to the chalet, at lunchtime as in the evening.

Valais raclette or Savoie raclette: what sets them apart

Raclette du Valais PDO has been protected since 2007: raw cow’s milk, produced and processed in Valais only, in a dairy or on the alpine pasture, for a wheel of around 5 kg and 30 cm. It is served with potatoes in their skins, small onions and pickled gherkins, and readily a glass of Fendant.

Raclette de Savoie PGI has been registered since 2017: uncooked pressed cheese, raw or thermised cow’s milk, produced in Savoie, Haute-Savoie and a few communes of the Ain and the Isère. Outside these two names, the word raclette is not protected.

Raclette sandwich or raclette cone: how it is served at the stall

At the chalet, the half-wheel goes under a raclette grill and the cheese is scraped off to order. The plate with potatoes remains the classic form. The raclette sandwich, cheese scraped into bread, is the Caen formula. The cone, served straight from the scraping, is the Annecy one, and our selection of foodie Christmas markets points it out.

Where to eat raclette at a Christmas market

In Switzerland, Montreux, Geneva, Bern and Zurich serve it with fondue moitié-moitié and mulled wine, Lucerne to order. In Savoie, Annecy offers it in a cone, and Chambéry and Aix-les-Bains have it on their chalet menus too. Further from the Alps, Caen, La Défense, Paris, Béziers, Cholet, Freiburg im Breisgau and Oslo make it one chalet dish among others, and the Walibi Rhône-Alpes park has it on its menu as well.