Swiss - French Recipe Ideas for Personal Chefs by Ruth Paget

Swiss – French Recipe Ideas for Personal Chefs by Ruth Paget 

After visiting the Swiss – German towns of New Glarus and Monroe, Wisconsin during my 2026 summer vacation to the Dairyland State, I wanted to learn more about Swiss food and read The Classic Swiss Family Kitchen Cookbook: 150 Traditional Recipes from Switzerland’s Home Kitchens by Clayton Daniels (Available on Amazon Kindle). 

Daniels features recipes from the 4 official language areas of Switzerland. The official language follow on the list below: 

-German 

-French 

-Italian 

-Romansh 

Romansh is a Romance language from Switzerland’s largest canton (Swiss state) located in the country’s southeastern corn. This canton in named Graubünden. 

The recipes I singled out for discussion here are Swiss – French. I have made similar French recipes at home and/or eaten these dishes in restaurants. 

The following recipes give a flavor of Swiss – French food and are not too difficult to prepare: 

*Geneva Cardoon Soup 

Prickly leaved cardoons are prepared with shallots, potatoes, and cream in this rich starter soup. 

*Vaud Potato – Leek Soup 

This soup makes use of premium ingredients with the addition of cream for another rich starter soup recipe. 

*Vaud Harvest Loaf 

This bread is made with white and whole wheat flour and the addition of chopped walnuts. 

*Wild Mushroom Fondue 

Adding sliced and sautéed wild mushrooms to melted cheese in fondue is a very sophisticated French touch to this delectable meal. 

*Valais Raclette 

This recipe features melted raclette cheese that is spread on boiled potatoes. Sour cornichon pickles are the typical accompaniments to this dish. 

I have seen raclette served in Parisian restaurants where a raclette cheese half was suspended above a flame that made the melted cheese drip onto trays that were delivered to diners to go with their potatoes. (Table top raclette trays and raclette suspenders are sold on Amazon.) 

People who would like to visit Dairyland Switzerland, learn about their ancestors’ cooking, or add to their personal chef portfolio might enjoy the Classic Swiss Family Kitchen Cookbook by Clayton Daniels. 

Bon appétit! 

Note:  The following blog recounts a trip to Basel, Switzerland that my husband Laurent too when we lived in Germany;

https://ruthpaget.blogspot.com/2015/08/basel-switzerland-lunch-spot-above-rhine.html?m=1

Note: The following blog describes our trip to Lake Constance whose shores touch Germany, Switzerland, and Austria:

https://ruthpaget.blogspot.com/2013/04/konstanz-germany-alpine-lake-resort-town.html?m=1

Note: The following blog describes a Swiss meal I ate with my daughter Florence Paget at Lugano, a Swiss restaurant in Carmel, California;

https://ruthpaget.blogspot.com/2018/02/sampling-swiss-cuisine-with-juilliard.html?m=1

Note: A suggestion for an easy Family Fondue Night follows:

https://ruthpaget.blogspot.com/2026/01/family-fondue-night-for-sustainable.html?m=1

Note: New Glarus, Wisconsin visit blog:

https://ruthpaget.blogspot.com/2026/08/grilled-swiss-apple-cheese-pesto.html?m=1

Note: Monroe, Wisconsin blog post:

https://ruthpaget.blogspot.com/2026/08/swiss-cheese-swiss-art-values-and-kino.html?m=1

By Ruth Paget

-author Eating Soup with Chopsticks, Marrying France, and Europe’s Lessons written during overseas duty in Germany + 5 other books

-developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games + 8 Classical Western Civilization War Gsmes

-developer of food and beverage knowledge games

-creator of online exhibits about San Miguel Arcangel Mission, French baguette making, and the Carmel Valley History Center

-creator of French travel and culture games

-writer of 1900+ Central Coast California lifestyle blogs

-family genealogist

-developer of 9 music theory games

Swiss Cheese, Swiss Art Values, and Kino (Cinema) in Monroe, Wisconsin by Ruth Paget

Swiss Cheese, Swiss Art Values, and Kino (Cinema) in Monroe, Wisconsin by Ruth Paget 

After a great morning visit to New Glarus (Wisconsin), my husband Laurent and I drove to Monroe, the county seat of Green County that is also famous for cheese making. 

When you drive into the county seat square, Civil War canons greet you around the imposing stone and brick county offices. 

Laurent went to Baumgartner’s Cheese Store and Tavern to purchase some Swiss cheese for my mom. There is a covered outdoor terrace that can be a café or biergarten depending on your beverage and food. 

White Swiss crosses on a yellow brick building decorated the top of an art gallery featuring local artists’ work. Swiss white crosses signal the following values in modern Swiss art: 

-peace and tranquility 

-craftmanship 

-minimalism 

Local galleries like this one give artists exhibition credentials so they can work their way up to city galleries and international fairs like Art Basel. 

Finally, Monroe, a town of 10,000 people, restored its movie theatre from 1931 and shows first-run movies in it to add to the town’s cultural offerings. Admission is by cash only, which reminds me of how Stuttgart, Germany preferred to do business when I lived there. 

The afternoon visit to Monroe was a success. We drove back to DeForest and ordered pizza and pasta from Pizza Hut and slept like babies as we geared up for more tourism the next day. 

Wisconsin Dairyland Vacation Day 5 Afternoon - Complete!

By Ruth Paget 

-author Eating Soup with Chopsticks, Marrying France, and Europe’s Lessons written during overseas duty in Germany + 5 other Kindle books

-developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games + 8 Classical Western Civilization War Games 

-developer of food and beverage knowledge games 

-creator of online exhibits about San Miguel Arcangel Mission, French baguette making, and the Carmel Valley History Center 

-writer of 1900+ Central Coast California lifestyle blogs 

-family genealogist 

-developer of 9 music theory tests

Grilled Swiss Apple-Cheese-Pesto Sandwich at the Fat Cat Coffee Works in New Glarus, Wisconsin by Ruth Paget

Grilled Swiss Apple-Cheese-Pesto Sandwich at the Fat Cat Coffee Works in New Glarus, Wisconsin by Ruth Paget 

On Day 5 of our vacation in Wisconsin, my husband Laurent and I set out for New Glarus in southwestern Wisconsin. 

New Glarus is a slice of Switzerland in the US. Its streets are full of Swiss German chalets, restaurants and taverns where you can eat Swiss specialties like cheese fondue, souvenir shops with Swiss products, and the New Glarus Brewing Company on the edge of town where you can do beer tastings, take tours, and buy merchandise in the gift shop. 

New Glarus was founded in 1845 when the Canton of Glarus in Switzerland suffered a financial crisis that was brought about by several factors: 

-crop failure 

-overpopulation 

-widespread poverty 

The Canton of Glarus helped a group of settlers find fertile land to farm in the US to ease the overpopulation at home. 

For brunch, Laurent and I went to the Fat Cat Coffee Works, which is located in the town’s old train depot. Neighboring shops sell local crafts and art, vintage kitchen items, clothes, and flowers. 

We ordered an iced tea for Laurent and an iced latte for me, which was delivered on an antique hutch. We placed orders for French toast for Laurent and a Swiss grilled apple sandwich for me that was made with melted cheddar and Swiss cheese and freshly made pesto. Both dishes were delicious. 

I liked learning a new dish to make with apples to give some Swiss flair to fall at home in California. I liked the paintings of tractors in the dining area along with the coffee pot that had been repurposed into a light. A framed photograph of a light brown Swiss cow, a tractor, and a red barn was selling for $125 by Brian Schmitt. 

On the way out, we bought two 2-pound bags of locally roasted Ancora coffee beans that were selling for $37 each to drink at home through fall as a souvenir of our trip. 

Wisconsin Dairyland Vacation 2026 Day 5 Morning – Complete! 

By Ruth Paget

-author Eating Soup with Chopsticks,  Marrying France, and Europe's Lessons written during overseas duty in Germany + 5 other Kindle books

-developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games + 8 Classical Western Civilization War Games

-developer of food and beverage knowledge games

-creator of online exhibits about San Miguel Arcangel, French baguette making, and the Carmel Valley History Center

-creator of French travel and culture games

-writer of 1900+ Central Coast California lifestyle blogs

-family genealogist

-developer of 9 music theory games

Athens Restaurant, Sweet Lodi, Amish Country, and Ehlenbach's Cheese Chalet Day Trip from DeForest, Wisconsin by Ruth Paget

Athens Restaurant, Sweet Lodi, Amish Country, and Ehlenbach’s Cheese Chalet Day Trip from DeForest, Wisconsin by Ruth Paget 

On the third day of our trip to Wisconsin, my mom took us out to eat at the Athens Restaurant in Westport, which is located halfway between Madison and Middleton in a strip mall on Madison’s west side. 

You order at the counter and servers bring your food to the table and take away dishes at the end. Laurent and I shared a gyros sandwich platter for two. 

I love spicy lamb and beef gyro meat with thin-cut, white onions and tzatziki made with thin-cut cucumbers, yogurt, garlic, salt, and red wine vinegar. The gyro sandwich bread at Athens is chewy and seemed to be made with some yogurt. I have never had a bad meal at a Greek restaurant. The Athens Restaurant joins Detroit and Chicago Greektowns as a good place to eat. 

After lunch, Laurent and I visited Lodi named after a northern Italian with a long history for battles including one with Napoleon and cheese. Lodi’s dairy contribution to the community in Wisconsin seems to be ice cream at the town’s pizza parlor. 

On the way into town, we saw signs for fresh strawberries and eggs along with billboards for the Lodi Sausage Company. Lodi as a town was very clean. Having a butcher shop seems to promote cleanliness to keep the butchered meat sanitary and cool. 

The day we were in Lodi, there was a small, classic car show going on and a duck show on a small river that meanders through town (the Wisconsin River is nearby and this may be a tributary of that river). 

The town’s tourism magazines advertised wine and whiskey tastings along with shows by blue grass and blues bands. Outside town, there was a large park where people walked with their children. 

The tourism guide said there was an “Amish Country” nearby, so we drove down hilly and crooked roads by very organized and clean farms. People in Amish Country all seemed to have blue Harvestore silos for food to feed cows and farm animals. 

We wound our way back to DeForest and stopped at Ehlenbach’s Cheese Chalet to do some shopping. We bought some garlic and herb sausage and three kinds of cheese: 

-Swiss-style gruyère

-Mesquite wood smoked 7-year cheddar 

-2 year-old aged Swiss 

We ate the sausage, cheese, and toasted bread with my mom for dinner. The Monterey Mice were happy in DeForest on their vacation. 

This was a waddle-to-bed day for me. I had fun all day and conked out sleeping. 

Dairyland Wisconsin Vacation Day 3 - Complete!

By Ruth Paget

-author Eating Soup with Chopsticks, Marrying France, and Europe’s Lessons written during overseas duty in Germany + 5 other Kindle books 

-developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games + 8 Classical Western Civilization War Games 

-developer of food and beverage knowledge games 

-creator of online exhibits about San Miguel Arcangel Mission, French baguette making, and the Carmel Valley History Center 

-creator of French travel and culture games

-writer of 1900+ Central Coast California lifestyle blogs 

-family genealogist 

-developer of 9 music theory games

Family Fondue Night for a Sustainable, Nutritious Winter Meal by Ruth Paget

Family Fondue Night for a Sustainable, Nutritious Winter Meal by Ruth Paget 

One of our family’s go-to winter meals in Salinas, California is Swiss fondue with cubes of day-old artisanal baguette bread to dunk. We purchase both of these protein-, calcium-, and energy-rich items at Nob Hill in Salinas. 

My husband Laurent cuts half a loaf of baguette per person into cubes for the fondue. He says chopping the baguette into cubes takes about 5 minutes per person to do. Each person gets a bowl of bread cubes to dunk by their plate. 

Once the bread is done, Laurent puts the fondue pot on the stove along with the contents of two Emmi Swiss Knight fondue packages and ½ to 1/3 bottle of Chardonnay wine. (We use Kirkland brand Chardonnay from Costco which tastes like a Kendall Jackson chardonnay. We drink the remainder of the bottle with our meal.) 

You have to constantly stir the fondue cheese sauce and wine till they become smooth. This takes about 20 to 30 minutes. We like Emmi’s Swiss Knight Fondue for several reasons. First, they make the fondue with Swiss cheese and kirsch (Swiss cherry brandy). The packaging is secure and very neat to open. You can also store the fondue at room temperature till you are ready to open it, making it perfect for pantry storage. I think the packaging also discourages insects and rodents, because it is very sturdy. 

I doubly like Emmi, because they have a subsidiary in Stoughton, Wisconsin outside Madison. This location has an all new facility devoted to sustainable product production. Emmi’s headquarters which are in Lucerne, Switzerland set up the Wisconsin location to create sustainable sourcing, production, and distribution. I like buying a brand that promotes a sustainable supply chain. 

These are thoughts that come to you as you stir the fondue. The same is true of ruminations about the fondue set. My family uses a Swiss Cousances fondue set that my in-laws gave Laurent and me for Christmas when we were first married. We have saved money eating fondue throughout winter. If you like cheese, you might consider buying one. 

When Laurent and I came back from living in Germany, we gave our daughter Florence Paget a Cuisinart fondue set, since California is also the number one producer of dairy goods in the US. I told her she would always have dinner, if she eats fondue here. 

Once the fondue becomes liquid and bubbles with steam rising, it is time to move the fondue pot to the table. Fondue sets come with a stand with a hole in the center. This hold is for steno quick flame containers with flammable gel. You have to take off a secure lid and light these with a stove lighter before the fondue comes out. There is a cover with holes that you open to distribute flames underneath the fondue pot. 

Place the fondue pot on top of the stand and dunk your bread in the cheese with forks provided with the set. California is rich in Chardonnay, so you can find it at all price levels. 

The Swiss in Switzerland drink a wine called Fendant du Valais with fondue, which is sometimes listed on Swiss restaurants in the US. 

A salad with creamy dressing and chopped tarragon are a nice finish to a fondue supper. 

 

Fondue Bubbling on a Fondue Stand
We used two packages of Swiss Knight Fondue
You can see bread cubes in a bowl in back

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

It's About the Cheese - Part 2 - Lugano Swiss Bistro Reviewed by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

  

It’s About the Cheese – Part 2 – Lugano Swiss Bistro Reviewed by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Raclette’s history evokes Switzerland’s pastoral heritage.  As snow melts in the spring, cow herder’s can take cattle higher up on the mountain slopes until they reach the lushest pastures at the foot of the glaciers.

The herders stay on these high pastures all summer and make rich cheese.  Villagers go up to the pastures where they heat half wheels of the new cheese over branch fires.

The villagers scrape melted cheese over steamed new potatoes, making raclette.

Lugano’s raclette lived up to my foodie musings.  Generous amounts of Swiss cheese covered the potatoes I ordered.  Sour-sweet cornichon pickles added crunchiness and a sour taste to the rich cheese dish I had before me.

My friend took advantage of the weekly savings to order roast rack of lamb with a demi-glaze and seasonal vegetables.  The tender lamb was juicy with a slight crust.  It takes decades of roasting to achieve that finish at home and make it look simple.

My friend’s dish came with Swiss Roesti potatoes as a side dish.  Roesti roughly translates as “potato pancake.”  The Swiss eat them for breakfast along with milky coffee.

To make roesti potatoes, the cook boils waxy potatoes, peels them, and, then, rubs them through a ricer.  Finally, the potatoes are fried in lard with a little bacon until they form a sturdier version of hash browns.

Lugano offers several interesting beers.  We drank Späten Oktoberfest and a Czech lager.  The Oktoberfest is a smooth beer while the Czech beer had more bite to it.

We ate chocolate fondue for dessert.  We dunked musk melon balls, banana slices, and strawberry halves in the chocolate.

I felt like a kid and still do when I eat fondue.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France


Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

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It's the Cheese: Lugano Swiss Bistro Still Shows What Life is All About - Part 1 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

It’s the Cheese: Lugano Swiss Bistro Still Shows What Life is All About - Part 1 - by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

The editors at the Monterey County (CA) Weekly (Circulation: 200,000) knew they had a treasure house of multicultural restaurants in a community each time I queried for an article with about five restaurant suggestions along with international dishes they served and distinctive herbs and ingredients used in the cuisine.

I loved Carmel’s Swiss Restaurant Lugano for its gemüchlikeit German charm in the German side of the restaurant and dolce vita charm in the Italian side of the restaurant. 

The editors of the Monterey County Weekly asked me to review Lugano and sample more than fondue despite its being excellent.  (They knew my mother’s family was from Wisconsin.)  My article follows:

It’s the Cheese

When my husband Laurent and I yearned for some Old World charm on our recent anniversary, we headed out to Lugano Swiss Bistro in the Barnyard in Carmel, California.

We used to sit on the German side of the restaurant enjoying its carved wood and beer tankard decorations, but now we prefer the Italian side with its painted street scenes of gelati vendors and florists.

The night of our anniversary, we ordered Swiss onion soup and original Swiss fondue.  Swiss onion soup tastes like French onion soup.  They both use beef broth and excellent gruyère cheese in their making.

We continued our cheese fest with fondue, a dish said to have originated in the French-speaking part of Switzerland.  The creamy texture made from bubbling gruyère, emmenthal, and appenzellar cheese makes it tempting to drop bread cubes into Lugano’s fondue and just fish them out with spoons of cheese. 

The penalty for doing something like this according to A Little Swiss Cookbook (ISBN – 0-86281-271-2 published by Appletree Press) by Jacqueline Martinet is to buy another bottle of white wine like Fendant du Valais for your party.

Laurent's favorite wine, though, for fondue at Lugano’s is Père Patriarche.  This slightly sour wine perfectly cuts the rich cheese flavors of the fondue and aids in digestion.

After my dinner with Laurent, I went to dinner with one of my writing group friends, who was looking for restaurants with “locals” menus during slow times during the week.

We went on a Tuesday night and started our meal with a Swiss specialty called Bunderfleisch, air-dried beef.  These are slices of beef that taste like a meaty prosciutto, but not as delicate. 

This was the first time I ate bunderfleisch, and I liked it.  Usually, bunderfleisch is served before fondue or another cheese specialty called raclette, which is cheese that melts out of cheese crust onto plates for spreading.  You eat sweet cornichon pickles with that cheese fest.

End of Part 1.

To be continued.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

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3-Country Buying Tour Game- France, Switzerland, and Germany Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

3-Country Buying Tour Game– France, Switzerland, and Germany:

 

Alsace (France)

Basel (Switzerland)

Stuttgart (Germany)

Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

In France:

Strasbourg –

Capital of the European Parliament

(The elected officials are here.  The bureaucrats are in Brussels, Belgium.)

-Beer Steins

-Moselle Glasses with green stems

Château de Haut-Koenigsbourg

-Books about Falconry and Heraldry

Riquewihr

-Kathe Wolwert Christmas Store here is open all year. 

The headquarters for this store is in Nuremberg, Germany.  They sell wooden nativity scenes, tin Christmas tree ornaments, and probably Mobil wooden toys for children.

-checked tablecloths, napkins, aprons, and placemats

Colmar

-The Issenheim Altarpiece in the Unterlinden Museum is the main reason for visiting this museum and the Madonnas carved in wood

-Canals run through town making it a Little Venice

-Colmar is the wine capital of Alsace, which is known for dry and fruity Rieslings

-Art books at the Unterlinden Museum

-Caraway Seeds to go on Muenster Cheese back in the US

Switzerland

Basel

-Group Banking Introduction to Swiss Financial Products?

-Fondue lunch with Fendant du Valais wine from Switzerland

-Cow bell souvenirs

-Rolex watches

-Mont Blanc pens with GPS

-Cartier Jewelry

Germany

Freiburg – Black Forest

-Hand carved Cuckoo Clocks

-Beer steins

Stuttgart –

Car Capital, Wine Growing Area (Riesling), and Chocolate Manufacturing Town (Ritter Sport)

-Ritter Sport can arrange factory tours

-Baltic pearls

(In the same stores sell Mont Blanc pens and Rolex Watches)

-Group Banking Introduction to German Financial Products?

-Porsche Museum

-USB-Ports with toy Porsches on the end

-Mercedes-Benz Museum

Both Porsche and Mercedes-Benz have their main manufacturing facilities here. All other German carmakers have sales rooms, too.

-Audi – luxury car brand made by VW

-VW

-BMW

-Metzingen and Brueniger Land 

Malls with Designer Clothes and Accessories

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

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