Yeah, You guess it.. Its the frickin Cheese, Swiss cheese to be exact
So, what is Swiss Cheese Fondue?
Continuing on the Cheese saga here, so here's it went down, back in in 1699, when it was referred to as 'Käss mit Wein zu kochen', which translated to 'to cook cheese with wine'. So its like Flambe'ed Cheese? Some say that the practice began with Alpine farmers in Switzerland who would cook up wine, garlic and herbs with cheese as a way to use up their leftovers during when fresh food was unavailable during winter. See, most of great thing is mostly started with smaller set of place and with such cold season or some sort haha. Farming families would gather up hardened cheese, plop it in a pot, and called it caquelon, that had been rubbed down with garlic and then splash in some wine, and throw it over a fire, JK you don't actually throw a block of cheese (*´∀｀）While the known roots of this practice was been in the mountain, the practice then migrated down the slopes and it was also eaten by those in the towns where they use they use Gruyere cheese and also was a favourite ingredient.
To be frank, the exact roots was a... Well, like any history, its always been blurry and etc, it was somewhere along in French-Swiss border, and between Alpine farmers and the wealthy classes, the association with Switzerland was cemented by the Schweizer Käseunion, or the more palatable Swiss Cheese Union, in the 1930s. As an attempt to bolster cheese consumption, and as way to bind the Swiss together, the Union trumpeted cheese fondue, and the lesser know, but just cheesy as raclette, wowie, a bit twisty right? Well as a national dish. 'La fondue crée la bonne humeur', or 'fondue creates a good mood', its sounds great and all but its actually an overt and aggressive marketing campaign used by Cheese Unions. And also, did you know the Union once (or still) referred as 'Cheese Mafia', what? yeah what, they literally sent out these Fondue to the military and of course a popular event and alike, the goals was ensuring that the Swiss cheese was being eaten, entering the way of Swiss lifestyle and stays that.
Its actually pretty nice history to me, its somewhat wholesome haha.
And here's the source of the brief history of Cheese Fondue