I have two copper fondue sets that I always found a pain to light up. A few months ago, we purchased an electric metal one and it's worked great! I'd recommend an electric one over the others any day.

I thought it was a Wilton but when I got it out of the box it says Nostalgia on the actual fountain. It was in the Kohl's circular 40% as a Wilton model, but I don't see anything saying Wilton on the actual machine. I would say if you're not opposed to heating in the microwave, buy one like I have. I have since learned of a couple of friends who have them and they have the same idea. Small, melt the chocolate in the microwave. It is more convenient if you can melt it in the actual fountain, but you are definitely paying 3x as much. As for the chocolate I have to respectfully disagree about the craft chocolate. I used 1/2 craft, 1/2 Williams Sonoma fondue chips and it was delicious. I did have to use twice the amount of recommended chocolate to come up to close the rim of the bowl of the fountain which is recommended and the fountain didn't work properly until I added more chocolate, it didn't flow right, spaces where there was no chocolate flowing if you know what I mean. I would think if the craft chocolates were that bad, I wouldn't have gotten as good of a result. I will say that if I were doing a party focusing on the fountain I would use dark chocolate for all adults. Williams-Sonoma chips were $14 a pound and I used 2 pounds of W/S and 2 pounds of milk chocolate craft. Post if you buy one and use it. I think the above posts probably avoided some problems for me. I set it up on a glass topped tea cart. I had plenty of plates. We talked to the two youngest kids about using the plate plus they had a fountain at a wedding they participated in as attendants. No chocolate on clothing. I bought the W/S extra long skewers. Make sure your fruit is dry. I cleaned the strawberries in the morning and sat them on paper towels, changing them 2x in order to get them dry and to let them come to room temperature for serving. I think if your guests have never experienced a fountain you do have to let them know that the chocolate takes a minute to set up, thus holding it over a plate or napkin - don't try and eat it the second you pull it out of the fountain. I am actually going to try the cheese despite the bad experience of the guy at W/S. We occasionally have cheese and fruit for dinner as a treat with a good bottle of wine. I think I might give it a whirl some Sunday afternoon when the game is on. Sounds kind of crazy tho. Football game with a cheese fountain:-,) That I definitely would do a dry run on before I spring on a group of friends...

We have been having a meat fondue every New Years (or eve) for the last 40 years. It's so good no one ever wants to go out! We cut up beef tenderloin and fondue it in oil -- and yes, it's dangerous. Every meal starts with Dad's safety lecture... We also do breaded mushrooms in the same oil -- so good! We've tried various fondue pots, but what works best is actually a Fry Daddy, a little deep fat fryer. They're preset to maintain the right temperature, so we never have a problem with the oil cooling down too far. True, it's not very elegant, and there's that electrical cord hanging down. But the meat's just so darned good that nobody cares about the pot! Especially with bearnaise sauce as Yogacat mentioned. The bearnaise is the whole family's favorite, though I do seven different sauces for luck. I also love a cheese fondue with sourdough french bread. But 'rich' is right! Definitely, add wine or kirsch if it gets too thick, and again, proper temperature control is key. Probably won't do that this year 'cause there are just too many calories... Gotta save 'em for the beef and mushrooms. (Then again, with the recipe above, if I only use one pound of cheese, I couldn't gain more than a pound, right?) For chocolate fondue, add a bit of creme de menthe or peppermint schnapps to a dark chocolate base. To die for!

Depends on what kind of a fondue pot it is and how the burnerw orks. If it's got a cqandle warmer there's not a lot you can do but melt chocolate, but if it has an alcohol burner you can do cheese fondue or if it's a metal pot you can do meat fondue. Linda C