This time’s staff meal was the fifth-generation owner’s favorite: cheese fondue!

Yuya made a fondue every bit as good as the one I had long ago in Switzerland.

It was made by thinning a base of chèvre and washed-rind cheese—a gift from a Waseda University professor returning from a business trip to France—with plenty of white wine.

A baguette alone would have been more than enough for dipping, but for nutrition we also added broccoli, king oyster mushrooms, sweet potatoes, and chicken gizzards.

Coat slices of baguette in the piping-hot cheese and enjoy them while blowing to cool them down.

It is so delicious, it makes you want to sing yodeling songs 🎶

Any cheese left over rather than finished was saved for the following day’s staff meal.

And what did the cheese fondue become the next evening? Oyster gratin.

We added the cheese fondue to homemade béchamel sauce, then baked it with oysters and macaroni.

The piping-hot, cheese-rich gratin was packed with plump, succulent oysters.

It was served with marinated fresh spring onions.

We also blended the leftover beans from the recent Setsubun bean-throwing into kinako, then mixed it into the dressing for a protein-boosted marinade.

And there was even a third day.

We simmered down shrimp shells and shrimp tomalley left over from preparing shrimp to make a rich shrimp stock, mixed it into the cheese from the first day, and made shrimp gratin.

The browned surface is so appetizing!

Three straight days of cheesy staff meals—it is like a dream! The best!

Thank you for the meal.