There’s a lot of cheese available in Switzerland. The local regions, referred to as cantons such as Fribourg, Bern, Valais, St Gallen, produce their trademark fromage. Le Gruyere, Emmental, Appenzeller, Raclette are some of the patented cheese varieties.

Surrounding countries such as France, Italy, Holland also have a rich tradition of producing cheese that find their way to supermarkets in Switzerland. Bresse Bleu, Burrata, Brie, Gouda, Tomme can be addictive, like wine that along with chocolates, make Switzerland such a dream destination. 

Of course, one needs to be careful not to overdo, to guard against a Swiss belly, much like one can be prone to the beer belly back in India. Given the profusion of cheese (and wine and chocolate) in Switzerland, one does observe that these slowly begin to appear in literally every meal. I recently discovered that wine and cheese mix well to make fondue, followed by Cailler chocolate.

I believe some of the real cheese (yes, the stinky, moldy and bacteria infused variety), produced with a lot of pride at sub-local village, individual households, do not find their way to supermarkets. They need to be picked up at farmers’ markets.

Covid has been a setback to these avenues of accessing even more cheese. However, as the situation normalises, I look forward to adding more depth to my cheese journey in Switzerland so far.