When I discovered that Switzerland, my home country, was about to hold a so-called Swiss Cervelas Summit , I had to recognize that charcuterie had risen to yet a new gastronomic level. The cervelas we gnawed on at recess may have looked like a fat, curved hot-dog, but it is in fact, a stubby, finely processed mixture of beef, pork and spices in beef casing, eaten hot or cold. It has been referred to as the Swiss National Sausage and may have been around for centuries.
Cervelat, also cervelas, servelat or zervela. Sausage on wooden board. That said, I can assure you that no Michelin-starred restaurant would ever have offered cervelas or any other charcuterie, for that matter, while I was growing up in Geneva.
Things have changed. When Bar Boulud opened across from New York’s Lincoln Center in 2008, it spurred a true French charcuterie revolution. In the words of then New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni, Bar Boulud is a terrine machine, a pâté-a-palooza, dedicated to the proposition that discerning New Yorkers aren’t getting nearly enough concentrated, sculptured, gelatinous animal fat, at least not of a superior caliber.
getty So what is charcuterie? It’s not deli meat nor cheddar cheese, crackers or olives, and even though it has graduated into a TikTok trend, especially served on a wooden board, charcuterie in the European sense includes cured meats, fresh and smoked sausages, pâtés and terrines. If culinary history is your beat, you will discover that.
