FONDUEPOT
The melting pot — cheese & chocolate fondue, hot pot, and communal dining done right.
From getting the cheese-to-wine ratio right and sizing your pot to tempering chocolate, counting forks, planning fuel, and shopping the right portions, FonduePot pairs free hands-on calculators with practical guides and a richly illustrated museum of communal dining traditions. Gather the table, share the pot.
Fondue & Hot Pot Calculators
Free tools for communal-pot dining — cheese fondue ratio, pot size, chocolate tempering, fork & skewer count, fuel burn-time, and a portion planner.
Cheese Fondue Ratio Calculator
Scale the classic 2:1 cheese-to-wine ratio, plus cornstarch and garlic, to your guest count so the pot never seizes or stays thin.
Fondue Pot Size Calculator
Work out how much liquid your table needs and the smallest pot capacity that holds it without bubbling over.
Chocolate Tempering Calculator
Get the melt, cool, and working temperatures for dark, milk, or white chocolate fondue, plus how much to reserve as seed.
Fondue Fork & Skewer Count Calculator
Apply the two-forks-per-guest etiquette rule across courses, with a spare buffer for breakage.
Fondue Fuel Burn-Time Calculator
Estimate how long a fuel canister lasts at a given flame level and how many you need for the night.
Fondue & Hot Pot Portion Planner
Scale cheese, chocolate, broth, protein, and dippers to your guest count for any communal-pot menu.
Communal Dining Museum
Wander an immersive museum of the world’s shared-pot traditions — Swiss cheese and chocolate fondue, Chinese hot pot, Japanese shabu-shabu, and Korean jeongol, each in its own gallery, so you can get to know the stories behind every communal meal: how each tradition took shape, what makes it distinct, and why gathering around one pot has stayed a favorite way to eat together across so many cultures.
Tour the museum →From the Journal
Fresh guides on cheese and chocolate fondue, hot pot at home, fondue etiquette, and choosing the right equipment, plus practical tips for hosting a communal-pot night safely.
The Classic Swiss Cheese Fondue Ratio, Explained
Cheese fondue lives or dies on one ratio: cheese to wine. Here's why the classic 2:1 weight ratio works, what the wine and cornstarch actually do at a chemical level, and how to scale a recipe up without it seizing or turning thin.
How to Temper Chocolate for a Fondue Party
Untempered chocolate melts fine but sets dull and streaky. Here's what tempering actually does at a crystal level, how the seed method works over a fondue burner, and the temperature curve for dark, milk, and white chocolate.
Chinese Hot Pot at Home: A Beginner's Guide
Hot pot is one of the most forgiving communal meals to host — a simmering pot of broth, a table of raw ingredients, and everyone cooks their own. Here's how to set one up at home for the first time, from broth to cooking times to pacing the meal.
Fondue vs. Hot Pot vs. Shabu-Shabu: What's the Difference
Fondue, hot pot, and shabu-shabu all put a simmering pot in the middle of the table — but the liquid, the ingredients, the equipment, and the point of the meal differ more than they first appear to.
Fondue Etiquette: The Two-Fork Rule and Other Table Manners
Sharing one pot with a table full of people comes with its own etiquette. Here's the two-fork rule, what happens if you drop your bread in the pot, how to handle the crust at the bottom, and other habits that keep a fondue night pleasant for everyone.
Choosing the Right Fondue Pot and Burner
Not every fondue pot is built for every kind of fondue. Here's how ceramic, cast iron, and stainless steel pots differ, what burner type suits each, how to size a set to your table, and why the choice matters more than it looks for oil fondue specifically.
Keep Learning
Plain-language explainers on fondue and hot pot basics, cheeses, broths, and bases, equipment and technique, and the dips, sauces, and sides that make a shared pot sing — everything you need to dig deeper and host with confidence.
Visit the Learn hub →