Switzerland In Focus - Discover Switzerland: Experience the Best of Switzerland - page 602

Cheese
First things first: not all Swiss cheese has holes.
Emmental, the hard cheese from the Emme Val-
ley east of Bern, does - as does the not dissimil-
ar Tilsiter from the same valley. But, contrary to
common perception, most of Switzerland's 450
different types of cheese ( käse in German, fro-
mage in French, formaggio in Italian) are hole-
less. Take the well-known hard cheese Gruyère,
made in the town of Gruyères near Fribourg; or
the overwhelmingly stinky Appenzeller, used in
a rash of tasty, equally strong-smelling dishes in
the same-name town in northeastern Switzer-
land. Or there's Sbrinz, Switzerland's oldest
hard cheese and transalpine ancestor to Italian
parmesan, ripened for 24 months to create its
distinct taste - eat it straight and thinly sliced
like carpaccio or grated on top of springtime as-
paragus.
Another distinctive Swiss cheese with not a
hole in sight is hard, nutty-flavoured Tête de
Moine (literally 'monks's head') from the Jura,
which comes in a small round and is cut with a
flourish in a flowery curl using a special
handled cutting device known as a girolle (great
present to take back home - supermarkets sell them).
As unique is L'Etivaz which, in the finest of timeless alpine tradition, is only made up
high on lush summer pastures in the Alpes Vaudoises (Vaud Alps). As cows graze outside,
shepherds inside their century-old chalets d'alpage (mountain huts) heat up the morning's
milk in a traditional copper cauldron over a wood fire. Strictly seasonal, the Appellation
d'Origine Contrôllée (AOC) cheese can only be made from May to early October using
milk from cows that have grazed on mountains between 1000m and 2000m high.

Swiss Foods

1 FONDUE

2 RACLETTE

3 RÖSTI

4 BÜNDNERFLEISCH

5 CHOCOLATE