Fondue in Brazil

September 4, 2009

Fondue? I love fondue. I’m not sure what it is about it. Maybe it is the slow leisurely process of enjoying the meal, the fact that it is a meal I often enjoy with my husband on special occasions, or maybe it is the food. Yes, the actual food ranks high on the list.

In the US our fondue experience has been limited to Melting Pot. We still enjoy that restaurant very much, but we have found a rather outstanding substitute here in Brazil.

I may have mentioned it before, but in the city we live in right now, food variety is limited. Sure there are lots of great Brazilian foods and even Japanese for that matter, but you won’t find a lot of cultural variety.

Curitiba, one of my favorite cities, is a completely different story. There you can find foods from just about every culture of the world and we take full advantage when we are visiting. On one of our first visits a friend told me about a great fondue restaurant, Chateau de Gazon. It was love at first bite and we’ve been back each trip since. We celebrated our anniversary there, my husband’s birthday and even no special occasion at all.

The fondue here is different, but in a very good way. However, those who fear they may miss the Brazilian cultural influences by eating at a fondue restaurant need not fear; there is a purely Brazilian twist in many ways.

I’ve been to a couple different fondue places in Brazil and it appears that using oil to cook the meat is the most popular option. I’m not a big fan of this and the broths seem hard to come by, but at this particular restaurant they have a great variation – na pedra – or a small stone grill they bring to your table. See, I told you there would be Brazilian twists all over the place.


We always have to start with the cheese fondue, of course. It’s served with bread, broccoli, carrots and mini-potatoes. I haven’t been able to figure out exactly what cheese they use here, but it has a mild flavor and pairs nicely with the bread and vegetables.


The meat usually consists of beef and chicken, sometimes there is lamb as well. It is cut into small pieces and pounded very thin so that it cooks quickly on the small grill. Along with the meat comes one of the best parts, the sauces! Thirteen total. From the Brazilian side of things you get farofa (toasted cassava flour), vinaigrette (chopped veggies tossed in lime juice), rose sauce (ketchup, mustard and mayo; not a favorite) and chopped eggplant in oil. To round that out there is spicy mustard, curry mayo, gorgonzola, onion marmalade, orange marmalade and a few more that we can never fully identify. I want to eat more meat just to try all the sauces!


The dessert course offers all the tropical goodness of Brazil – seven different types of chopped fruits. You get melon, papaya, strawberries, pineapple, banana, apple and grapes. With that there is typically marshmallows and one time we even got little wafer cookies.


The chocolate is of the dark variety and goes so well with all the fruit. The second time we went they started adding an extra dipper to the dessert. In addition to the chocolate we got a bowl of half melted ice cream to dip our fruit in. I wasn’t a huge fan of this. I guess I just find it difficult to get excited about melted ice cream. On our most recent visit, though, they pulled out the ultimate offering. Along with the chocolate we got a bowl of warm doce de leite! With each piece of fruit I speared I was faced with the difficult decision of which one to dip it in, they were both equally fantastic.

To sum up, fondue in Curitiba is a must. In fact, Curitiba in general is a must. If you ever plan a trip to Brazil you’ll likely get a lot of advice on where to go. My vote? Do not miss this great city. I’ve thought a lot about why it is so appealing to me. In addition the diversity and some of the best food I’ve eaten in Brazil, it is also that the city is manageable.

I travel a lot with my husband when he works and that means I’m out and about on my own much of the time. There are lots of great cities here in Brazil, but to be honest, I would not feel courageous enough to tackle many by myself mainly due to their size. I don’t feel that way with Curitiba at all. It is a city of about 1.8 million and it is the ideal size for exploring alone or with a partner. It’s full of parks and historic attractions, not to mention shopping malls and small boutiques. When you combine all of that with outstanding food you’ve got one great travel destination.

Where to find the fondue:
Restaurant Chateau de Gazon
Rua Pasteur, 134 – Batel
Curitiba – PR, Brasil
www.chateaugazon.com.br

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  • lufarah September 4, 2009 at 2:44 pm

    Being from Curitiba (but currently living the expatriate dream in Qatar), i was glad to see someone recommending my beloved hometown…
    Next time you are there, check out Villa Mariantonio- a boutique/bistrot/furniture shop in Batel, at the end of Gutenberg Street. It’s one of my favorite places to spend the day!
    Congrats on the blog – both blogs.

  • VeggieGirl September 4, 2009 at 3:57 pm

    Fabulous fondue fun!! 🙂

  • Cinnamon Girl aka Reeni♥ September 4, 2009 at 5:32 pm

    This looks amazing! Everything sounds so yummy. I’d have to wear my stretchy pants!

  • Erica September 4, 2009 at 5:59 pm

    ahhh very cool. I haven’t had fondue in forever- we just got a pot a while ago and I just found the fuel so….I see melty cheese in our future. I think could eat an entire meal of just cheese and veggies. Fantastic 🙂 Glad you two found this restaurant

  • Chow and Chatter September 4, 2009 at 6:51 pm

    oh this looks like such a lot of fun

  • 5 Star Foodie September 4, 2009 at 8:54 pm

    How neat! I have actually never had fondue (as much as I love cheese), I really do need to try it sometime.

  • Andrea (Off Her Cork) September 5, 2009 at 7:16 am

    Wow, love it! And such an interesting twist to the whole deal yet there are similarities. And mmmm fondue!

  • OysterCulture September 5, 2009 at 7:48 am

    What is it about melted cheese that makes it so darn tasty. I need to try Brazilian fondue by the sounds of it.

  • Tangled Noodle September 5, 2009 at 12:13 pm

    I’ve had both Melting Pot fondue and a Cambodian ‘hotpot’ and I agree that broth is preferable to oil for cooking. This na pedra style looks terrific and with 13 sauces, it sounds like you got a great variety of flavors. Of course, dessert is even better – I like chocolate but would have a hard time not spooning up all the doce de leite! Thanks for introducing us to another delicious facet of eating in Brazil. When we make it down there (one of these days!) we’ll definitely have to check out Curitiba.

  • Eralda LT September 5, 2009 at 6:53 pm

    Lisa,
    The fondue meal sounds delicious, especially the desert portion with all the variety of fruits.

  • Michelle @ Find Your Balance September 6, 2009 at 8:00 pm

    Mmmmm love fondue! I like making it at home but the best I’ve ever had was, of course, in Switzerland!

  • Debinhawaii September 7, 2009 at 12:04 am

    Looks like a great meal. I love the chocolate with all the fruit. I can pretend it’s good for me! 😉

  • Lori September 8, 2009 at 3:55 am

    So glad everyone enjoyed my fondue story. 🙂 It is definitely as good as it looks!

    lufarah – Thanks so much for the suggestion! I’m always looking for new places to explore there. I really enjoy Curitiba.

    TangledNoodle – So glad you mentioned hotpot. My husband has had it in China and I can’t wait to try it during our SE Asia trip!

    Michelle – I do believe having it in Switzerland would be the ultimate experience! 🙂

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