After France recently took the crown of the largest cheese fondue in the world, it was only a matter of time before Switzerland fired back. Last weekend, an event in Canton Valais hosted the largest ever raclette, taking the record from our western neighbour.
On April 5, the Martigny expo in Valais broke the world record for the largest raclette. The previous record was set just a few weeks ago in March in the French city of Saint-Étienne, where 2.522 people sat down and indulged in a wine and cheese-filled evening.
Speaking to 20 Minuten, event organiser Samuel Bonvin said that they couldn’t “leave this record to the French” and so decided to quickly break the record again. At the event in Switzerland, a whopping 4.893 participants sat down to gorge themselves on melted cheese, usurping the record easily.
Unlike the French record, which involved individual diners cooking their own pre-cut slice of cheese, the Valaisanne used the traditional method, with wheels of authentic Valais AOP cheese. As a result, 361 volunteer scrapers were needed to serve the dish.
"They demonstrated all the ancestral know-how behind the real raclette – the one that is scraped with a wheel, not in slices. In each precise gesture, each perfect scraping, it is a living heritage that was expressed…We didn't just break a record, we celebrated a vibrant culture and the richness of our region," Bonvin noted.
With the raclette record re-secured, Swiss cheesemakers will now set their sights on the big one: breaking the record for the largest fondue in the world, which was snatched from Swiss hands by a French attempt back in March. In that case, the weight to beat is 2.100 kilos of cheese.
Whether Switzerland will rise to the challenge or melt into the annals of cheese history remains to be seen.