Why does Chez Clément invite Swiss cheesemakers for the Raclette?

Raclette is, at its core, a Valais speciality. The dish takes its name from the verb “racler”, to scrape, and the gesture of scraping a melted layer of half-wheel cheese onto a warm plate is the dish. Done properly, with the right cheese (a semi-firm cow's-milk cheese with the right fat content and the right level of ageing), the right melting equipment, and the right rhythm of scraping, raclette is a piece of culinary craft. Done lazily, with a cheap industrial cheese and a domestic-style table grill, it is simply melted cheese on a potato.

The decision to bring Swiss cheesemakers on site for the four-week October-November season is the difference between those two experiences. The cheesemakers bring the wheels of cheese themselves, manage the temperatures and the timing on the dedicated equipment, and serve each table at the speed and consistency that the dish demands. They also bring the side knowledge that turns a meal into a small lesson in Alpine food culture: how the wheel is aged, why a particular accompaniment matters, what the local Valais bread or pickle would look like at home. The kitchen led by Vincent Frédéric De Laloy, chef in the house since 1996, brigade of thirty-two, composes the side dishes and orchestrates the broader service in the same “everything made in-house” spirit.

This level of care matches the broader philosophy of Chez Clément. The brasserie was founded in 1858 by Henri and Sidonie Clément as an inn called “Bruyère à la Croix”, and has been run by five generations of the same family across 168 years. The wine bar opened in 1976 under Marcel and Andrée, the third generation, was an act of fidelity to terroir; the Thursday disco nights launched by France Clément in the mid-1990s were an act of fidelity to a contemporary social ritual; the Swiss-cheesemakers Raclette is, in the same way, an act of fidelity to product, tradition and craft. Authenticity is not a slogan here, it is a working method.

Under Marie and Gilles Verleyen, the fifth generation since 2021, the Swiss-cheesemakers arrangement has been kept exactly as it was. The four weeks of October-November remain on the calendar; the cheesemakers continue to come on site; the booking pressure remains real (places limited, several-days-ahead booking essential). It is one of the cleanest expressions of the brasserie's identity: a Belgian family-run institution that takes the trouble to do things properly even at the level of a single seasonal event.