(From top) Pradip Rozario of K.K.’s Fusion whips up a mean spinach fondue; His Burgundy fondue is a favourite with guests; This Mocha dessert fondue uses 76 per cent concentrated cocoa

It’s the ultimate melt-in-the-mouth experience and the last word in comfort food. Imagine a golden pot with copious amounts of bubbling cheese placed on the table in front of you.

The oozing, melting goodness is called fondue (from the French word Fondre that means ‘to melt’). It comes with chunks of crusty bread, deep-fried potato wedges and a whole egg at Mocha, a coffee shop tucked away in the heart of Defence Colony in south Delhi.

The chef’s instructions: Spear some bread, dip into the cheese and pop it into the mouth. The gooey cheese is enough to lure you to go dip, dip, dip. This time though with crispy potato wedges. And if you like your egg the Swiss way (slightly undercooked), break the egg into the pot and see it scramble in hot cheese.

Give up on your cup of creamy coffee or that sexy cocktail at the bar after a long day at work just this once. The fondue has hit Indian table tops, making room for a new and fun way of hanging out with friends. “You can while away the time with fondues and conversations. Life can wait,” smiles Chef Brainard Colaco, corporate executive chef at Mocha.

But there are many other places that are offering mouth-watering fondues. There’s K.K.’s Fusion in Calcutta that whips up some mean fondues. One of them is the Bourguignonne/Burgundy, a European style fondue, in which a pot of hot oil on a wicker of flame is served with a selection of marinated raw meats and seafood. It turns out to be a wonderful blend of tapas (small dishes) and communal cooking as you dip forkfuls of prawns, chicken and fish into the boiling oil, let them cook before dunking them in various sauces — cheese, tomato, Schezwan, makhni and korma sauce — and nibble on them. “I go to the local markets and pick up fish like topshe, morola and pabda. They are great to have with the Burgundy Fondue,” says chef and owner of the restaurant, Pradip Rozario, who’s famed for his fusion cuisine expertise.

Rozario has also experimented with a host of other fondues in a small kitchen lab in his office and has come up with dishes like Cheese and Spinach Fondue, the Tomato Fondue and the pineapple flavoured Hawaii Fondue. He has also conjured up dishes like an Avocado Fondue and a tangy Mango Cheese Fondue. He recommends kebabs and bacon rolls with liver to go with them. “Bengalis are very fond of kebabs. So it is good to go with,” he says.

(From top) Chef Jaydeep Mukherjee at the Indigo Deli likes to add white wine and garlic to his fondue; Tabula Rasa’s cognac-flavoured chocolate fondue is to die for

To be on the fondue trail is fascinating, especially as you come across different takes on the fondue. Walk into the deli bistro called Grapes in Hotel Parkland, Delhi, and Chef Jaikumar Bhasin offers you a cheese fondue with cubes of bread and freshly steamed broccoli, carrots and zucchini.

If you are a cheese aficionado — you have to be one to like a cheese fondue — you will be thrilled at the idea of tasting two to three cheeses at one go because the fondue is usually a mixture of Gruyere and Emmenthal.

“Add some fruity white wine along with cloves of garlic and you have the perfect fondue,” says Chef Jaydeep Mukherjee, executive chef at Indigo Deli in Mumbai, a chain of delis and cafes belonging to master-chef Rahul Akerkar. Here they like to slice up rustic cheeses like Gruyere, Emmenthal and Jarlsberg into traditional old cast-iron pots and add wine at the end to impart a mellow and earthy flavour to the fondue.

Celebrities swear by the fondues of Out of the Blue, a sizzlers and fondue joint, on Pali Hill Road in Bandra. They have their reason. The joint offers basic fondues like Cheddar and Emmenthal and the traditional Swiss one with Gruyere and Emmenthal.

The flavoured variants on the menu feature the Beer Cheese Fondue and the Crack Pepper Fondue. The restaurant’s signature creations are the Desi Fondue that has been trademarked and a Pizza Fondue zested up with pizza sauce. General Manager Sartaj Bedi points out that they like to dabble with an assortment of cheeses from Gruyere and Emmenthal to Fontal, Provolone, Asiago and Cheddar.

“You can really ‘Go Fondue! over Fondue’ here. Each fondue has been created after much experimentation. We have various choices with cheese; those flavoured to suit the Indian taste; and fondues with less cheese like the Desi and Pizza fondues. There’s also the Fondue Indiana, a spicy curried fondue,” says Bedi.

If you feel like something different you could also try a fondue for dessert. Choko-la, a chocolate boutique in Delhi, dishes out a chocolate fondue with a choice array of churros tossed in cinnamon sugar, French biscuits, sponge cake and a Martini glass piled high with dried apricots, cherries, papayas, kiwis and berries.

The one at Mocha is delectable with a 76 per cent cocoa concentration. The chef here plays with accompaniments like Angel Hair cake (an airy, sponge cake), strawberries, apples, marshmallows and vanilla cookies dipped in white chocolate. There’ll be a sugar-free version of this soon at Mocha and also an innovative raw chocolate one made with raw cacao beans and raw cocoa butter and served with dehydrated fruit chips. Also, look out for the delicious pool of cognac-flavoured chocolate at Delhi’s Tabula Rasa, accompanied by fresh fruits, profiteroles, meringues, macaroons, almond cookies, biscotti, and marshmallows.

For a twist on the dessert fondue, try the Peanut Butter fondue and Mango Fondue this season at Out of the Blue. Bangalore too has caught on to the fondue craze with high-end cafes like Café Masala on Brigade Road and Chocolate Junction, opposite Ulsoor Lake, whipping up dark chocolate fondues.

There are some points of etiquette you have to keep in mind while ‘fondueing’. Chef Colaco points out: “What not to do in a fondue is important. Do not hog the pot. Give others the chance to eat. Do not smear too much of cheese on the dunk.”

Also, remember it’s a Swiss tradition that you mustn’t leave a nugget behind in the fondue unless you want to buy a round of drinks (this is for men) or if you’re a woman, kiss the man on your left. Adds Colaco: “Alternatively at Mocha we say, you foot the bill.”