The Third Man, a classic film from 1949 directed by Sir Carol Reed, has one of my favorite lines in all of cinema. "Thousands of years of civilization, and what have the Swiss contributed," asks the cynical Harry Lime, played by Orson Welles. "The cuckoo clock!"
But in fairness, the Swiss have given the world a few other gifts, one of them the fondue, a pot filled with either a melted cheese sauce, waiting to be scooped up by hunks of crusty bread, or an oily broth, designed to poach meat or fish in its rapidly boiling liquid.
I should mention that the Swiss aren't the only ones who like to cook food at the table, or in hot liquids. The Chinese have dozens of styles of hot pots, the Japanese have shabu-shabu, where foods are dipped into hot dashi or broth, and the Koreans have many forms of tableside cooking. But in Europe, this appears to be a unique phenomenon.
Until recently, fondue's principal homes have been ski resorts or Alpine villages. When done well, a fondue can be one of life's great pleasures, a communal form of eating warming to both the body and the soul.
The Melting Pot, a Florida-based franchise, taps into our primal desire for communal eating, and so far, it looks as if the concept has legs. The three times I visited the West Charleston location, the restaurant was standing-room only. You'd better make a reservation if you're planning to dine here; they don't take many walk-ins.
I can see why. This is quite a handsome place, a labyrinthine of rooms filled with dark, wooden booths or tables surrounded by comfy chairs. Each table is equipped with a hot trivet in the center, upon which your fondue pot will be placed. Everyone is given two long, double-pronged fondue forks, color coded so there will be no confusion about which morsel is whose.
There are several ways to go here. It's possible to have just a simple cheese fondue. Or you can partake in a multi-course feast, in which the cheese fondue is followed by a choice of salad, and then an entrée course consisting of a choice of broths, and a platter of meats and fish, intended to be cooked at the table by none other than yourself.
I'm fond of cheese fondue, both the traditional Swiss variety, made with a combination of Emmenthaler and Gruyere cheeses, white wine, garlic, nutmeg, lemon and kirschwasser (a cherry-flavored spirit); and also something called the Wisconsin cheese trio, where fontina, butterkase and a touch of bleu cheese are employed.
Whichever you choose, the service is an involved process. Your friendly server stirs the cheese together in a hot broth base, then places dishes of apple slices, cut vegetables and bread hunks on the table for dipping.
Fondues are fun to eat, but the bread, flaccid and flavorless hunks of rye, pumpernickel and sourdough, needs to be improved. (Personally, I'd be happy to bring my own loaf of La Brea sourdough or multi-grain from Whole Foods Market across the street, but I doubt that the management would permit that.)
As to salads, there are three, the best of which is undoubtedly the California: mixed baby greens, Roma tomato, walnuts, buttermilk bleu cheese, and a raspberry-walnut vinaigrette. I'd avoid the mushroom salad, really a flurry of thin-sliced mushrooms on a miniscule pile of iceberg lettuce.
If you've chosen the three-course dinner, which includes the first two plus an entrée course, it gets even more complicated. Basically, there are a number of different ways to order, several of which require supplemental prices. If I understand the menu correctly, there is no supplement for the basic bouillon or the fondue Bourguignonne, which here means canola oil.
But in practice, we had coq au vin for an additional $6, meaning a pot stocked with Burgundy wine, garlic, mushrooms and herbs. The server produces a platter of steak, chicken, shrimp, and because we chose coq au vin, salmon, and around four vegetables and seven additional sauces.
When you are cooking, remember the required times vary. Those potatoes take a good 12 minutes, for example, while the salmon, which does wonderfully well in hot broth, is done in less than two. It all works fairly well if you watch the pot, and sauces, like ginger plum, mesquite barbecue and teriyaki glaze, delicious on the salmon, are especially good.
I'd definitely save room for dessert, a chocolate fondue served with fruit, cheesecake, brownies and squares of pound cake. The Original can be had with dark or milk chocolate, and there are esoteric choices like s'mores, Yin and Yang (a combo of white and dark chocolates), or Flaming Turtle, in which the chocolate is swirled with caramel and chopped pecans.
You'll have to bring your own skis.