Although many have heard of fondue, a Swiss dish where diners dip bread into a shared pot of melted cheese, there is another dish from Switzerland made with melted cheese, Raclette (pronounced raw-klett), that is also tasty, filling, and a good choice for enjoying dinner with guests.
Origin
The name for this dish comes from the French word racler, meaning “to scrape”, because the soft melted cheese is usually scraped from a cheese wheel onto plates after being heated by a fire or special machine.
According to Raclette Australia, the dish originated in the French-speaking Alpine region of Switzerland when a group of farmers accidentally left a wheel of cheese sitting on rocks near their fire. Discovering the cheese melting on the hot stones, one of the farmers decided to scrape of the melted cheese, tasted it, and a new dish was born.