How the Swiss Celebrate Cheese: La Fête de la Tête de Moine

For the first weekend of each May the small village of Bellelay, Switzerland, hosts an event filled with wine, food, and games. Central to all the festivities, and the reason for the celebration itself, is a cheese that has been made here for more than 800 years, Tête de Moine AOP.

History of Tête de Moine

Located in the Bernese Jura in northwestern corner of the country, Bellelay is a municipality built around a Norbertine abbey created in 1136 by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Basel. Shortly after the abbey was established, monks began producing cheese to feed themselves and to use as tax payments to the Diocese in Basel. 

The small cylinders of cheese were originally called Fromage de Bellelay. After the French Revolution, the monks were expelled from the abbey, and the wheels of cheese came to be known as Tête de Moine, literally “monk’s head”, thought to be named for the balding heads of those who made it. 

Celebrating Tête de Moine

Today the village is still tiny, with a population well under a thousand residents. Dairy remains the dominant industry, supplemented by tourism to the Maison and the abbey. The Fête de la Tête de Moine is the largest event held each year, drawing over 15,000 visitors. First held in 2016, the festival was created to not only showcase Tête de Moine cheese but to present other regional products as well.

Festival Logistics

The festival is easily accessible by car. Nestled into the hills of the Petit-Val, the road to the village winds through alternating views of tightly-packed evergreen trees towering over the road and expansive vistas of undulating green fields abutting sheer cliffs of Mesozoic limestone. 

Parking at the festival is plentiful, filling the open fields directly across the road. It’s easy to find, mostly because there is a gigantic hot air balloon emblazoned with the Tête de Moine logo gently floating a few feet above the ground, serving as a landmark. 

Choosing a place to stay takes a little planning but isn’t difficult to arrange. The festival location features a hotel, the Hôtel de l’Ours. Built in 1698 as a hostel for the neighboring Bellelay Abbey, it’s considered one of the most important examples of turn-of-the-18th-century hotel architecture in the entire Jura region. Rooms tend to fill quickly as the event approaches, however, as many families participating in the festival stay there. 

If the hotel is full, the nearby villages of Tramelan and Reconvilier also offer lodging. The larger town of Biel/Bienne, with lots of options, is only a half an hour away. Even the capital of Switzerland, Bern, is under an hour’s drive from the festival. There are also lots of rental options for those who prefer the Airbnb style of accommodations. 

There is no entry fee or tickets required to enter the festival. Attendees are welcome to explore as they like. At the center of the grounds is the Maison de la Tête de Moine, a building originally created as an annex to the neighboring abbey. Today, it serves as a museum for the history of Tête de Moine. There is a working dairy on-site, demonstrating production using traditional materials and techniques. Guests can experience the underground cheese caves stacked with maturing wheels. 

Highlights of the Fête

The three dozen vendors participating in the festival are all local families and producers of agricultural products and crafts, and the range of offerings is amazing. One stand features handmade ceramic dinnerware adorned with painted images of the cows that dot the countryside. Another offers passersby small pours of absinthe, a powerful spirit first made only a hundred miles southwest of here. Several boulangeries offer freshly-baked loaves of all kinds and sizes. The aromas are impossible to resist. 

And there is cheese. Lots of cheese. By far the most popular offering is the local Tête de Moine, of course, but each kiosk also presents other locally-made options. At the far end of the path running through the center of the grounds is a group of kiosks clustered together to form a cohesive display, occupied by the festival’s ‘guests of honor’, Vacherin Fribourgeois AOP. 

Demonstrations

Throughout the day, demonstrations and presentations are open for people to enjoy. Photo and art exhibits are presented in a tented gallery. Cow farmers demonstrate how to milk animals. Master cheesemakers in the Maison show guests how Tête de Moine was originally made, using copper cauldrons and open fire to create wheels that will age in the cellars below. Every hour, a group of Alpenhorn players gather to perform. Their ten-foot long horns produce rich, sonorous melodies that can be heard for miles, the traditional purpose of the gigantic instrument. 

Competition

The dairy stable building is turned into an arena for the Tête de Moine competition. Producers submit wheels for the panel to taste and evaluate, but it’s not only the judges who determine the winners. Tables are set for the public to sample as well. Each wheel is fixed with a girolle, a serving device made famous for its use with this particular cheese. The cheese is impaled on a central spike, and a handled blade set on top. A turn of the blade scrapes a layer off the top, creating a delicate flower of cheese called a rosette. Guests sample each competitor’s entry, and vote for their favorite.

Dining

When it’s time to take a break and have a meal, the Maison’s café and restaurant serve traditional Jura dishes like rösti, a fried potato cake laced with fresh herbs and cheese. Fondue is certainly on the menu as well. To celebrate the occasion a unique blend combining Tête de Moine with Vacherin Friborgeois and Switzerland’s other famous cheese, Le Gruyère, is served. Diners plunge hardened bread knots into ceramic caquelons filled with molten cheese mixed with wine and spices. 

Drinking

Thirsty attendees have many options from which to choose. Swiss ales and lagers are drawn from hand-carved wooden taps. Crisp, chilled wines made from local grapes such as Chasselas and Petit Arvine are poured as well, a refreshing counterpoint to the rich foods being served. 

Entertainment

In the evenings, entertainment keeps the fun going. The first evening, a local comedian performs, followed by music and dancing. Saturday night, the last of the festival, is reserved for a communal fondue experience. Guests who have purchased a ticket gather at long wooden tables. Dozens of fondue caquelons filled with hot fondue are spread out, filling the huge tent with aromas of cheese and bread. Diners never have to reach far for their next morsel. Once again, music and dancing follow well into the night. 

On Sunday morning, the festival begins to wind down. Demonstrations are held during the morning, and vendors are still offering food and drink. By mid-afternoon, however, they begin to pack their stalls. A late-afternoon speech brings the weekend to a formal close, although there are always a few straggling visitors gathering in the Maison’s café and restaurant for a last glass of beer or dip of fondue, not quite ready to call it quits. 

First published on www.cheeseprofessor.com.