You’ve bought the optimum raclette grill for the event you’d like to host. Now you’ll want to take inventory to make sure you have the tools to make the night run smoothly.
While the grill on the table is the star of the show, the right accessories are the supporting cast that turns a messy dinner into a seamless experience. Having the right accessories on the table isn’t just about convenience; it’s about safety, hygiene, and keeping the “flow” of the meal moving. In addition to standard guest plates and eating utensils, you’ll also want to be prepared with my top seven pro tools.
7 Item checklist for your ultimate raclette toolkit.
1. The Scrapers
The scrapers facilitate the spread of melted cheese when the cheese is hot and serve-ready.
A defining tool of the raclette experience, the scraper is so iconic to the flow that most raclette grill kits come with basic plastic versions. However, once you get the feel of regular raclette meal events, you may wish to upgrade to wooden or silicone scrapers.
How exactly are the scrapers used? If you’ve never experienced a raclette style meal, just know you’ll be able to pick up the use of this tool quite naturally, as most people do. It’s intuitive to seek out the best way to use it to slide that cheese that you heated in the broiler pan using a gentle scraping action. Just slide that oozing, melted goodness all over your meat, veggies, potatoes, or bread without burning your fingers.
Wooden spatulas feel better in the hand and don’t scratch the non-stick coating of your cheese melting trays, but, if you can’t get wooden ones, the smooth plastic scrapers that likely came with your grill kit will still get the job done. Look for scrapers with a beveled edge for the perfect slide. You’ll want to one scraper per participant so everyone can jump in for their cheese topper melted in the pan as soon as the cheese is ready.
You can buy a pack of 8-wooden, beveled scrapers HERE.
*Note: The Cusimax 8-person raclette grill you see in my photo came with wooden spatulas to compliment the wooden base aesthetic.
2. Thin Wooden Tongs
Tongs are good to maintain safety, keeping fingers and hands away from the hot grill surface.
Regular kitchen tongs are often too thick for raclette when there is a lot to navigate. Plus, it’s ideal to have a personal set of wooden tongs available for each person to interact with the gril simultaneously. Wooden, perhaps even maple or bamboo tongs that are 7-9” in length are good for this and are typically inexpensive to purchase in a bulk quantity that will suit your needs. Guests can feel more empowered to jump in and flip meat or veggies on a whim when they can use a delicate wooden tool to do so, without worry of accidentally catching someone’s hand with a metal instrument.
Pro-tip: if you can find wooden tongs that are curled in at the bottom for better grip, you and your guests will have a much easier time gripping meats with them.
You can purchase thin wooden tongs, with the optimized edge for gripping, in packs of 4 HERE.
An alternative: wooden chopsticks. You may already have some chopsticks on hand in your kitchen utensils. Either reusable ones or disposable (perhaps extra sets collected from Asian cuisine takeout meals). And if you had a stack of unused disposable chopsticks you have to admit, this was probably the reason: knowing there’d be a perfect occassion to break them out.
3. Small Bowls (Ramekins)
A raclette meal involves a lot of moving parts—sauces, spices, oils, and personal creations. Small bowls (often called ramekins or dipping bowls) are ideal.
You need a place to hold your favorite dipping sauces (aioli, chimichurri, ranch, bbq sauce), cooking oil, or your personal spice mixes. These small bowls can also hold small food garnishes like: cornichons (small pickled cucumbers), pickled onions, olives, or spicy pepper slices,
A tip for cooking oil: although many grills work best when you take a light basting brush and use it to paint a thin layer of cooking oil ont the grill top to prime the grill, avoid filling the ramiken with too much oil. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll see why. Less is more when using the cooking oil as too much can splatter, spray or buildup on the grill if you over-oil it so use sparingly.
You can purchase a set of 6 white ramekins in 4oz and 6oz sizes HERE.
Or you can purchase a set of 6 colored ramekins in 6oz size HERE
4. Basting Brushes (a.k.a. Pastry Brushes)
Before the grilling starts and we always like to use small basting brushes (also known as pastry brushes) to prime the grill by brushing it with a thin coat of olive oil, coconut oil, or avocado oil. Any silicone brush or wooden brush with natural fiber bristles will do. We continue to use them throughout the meal to make sure raw veggies are glistened up if the grill surface is starting to get too dry.
Note: Unlike tongs and scrapers, not every participant needs a brush for a smooth experience. These can be passed around and used only when necessary, so one or two brushes will do for the table.
You can puchase a set of 2 pastry brushes HERE.
5. Raw Food Platter Plates
My favorite way to display the pre-cut think meat strips (chicken, steak, fish) or portobello mushroom slices is to use a set of white porcelain rectangular platters that are about 4.7 inches wide by 11.7 inches in length. They look like they could be used as serving plates at an upscale sushi restaurant, but they’re perfect for the raw meat display because the width is ideal for maximum meat strip length optimized for raclette grilling. You can line everything up in neat rows where they can easily be grabbed with the thin tongs and placed onto the grill.
These are only one example pf platter plates you might use. You can certainly choose the best size, shape and color that will fit your taste and table.
Link to the set of 4 plates I love to use is HERE.
6. Charcuterie Boards (or Cutting Boards, or Wood Serving Platter)
With the grill sitting center stage in the middle of the table, you’ll also need “satellite stations” for the other prep ingredients So, in addition to the raw food platters, I use nice wooden charcuterie boards (a.k.a. cutting boards) to display a variety of veggies, cheeses, and toasted bread slices. Some people have perected the art of the charcuterie board display presentation using everything from color wheel arrays, repeated patterns of visual symmetry, to salami roses. If this is you: please do your thing on the boards! If it’s not in your talent wheelhouse, no worries! Neatly organized displays to showcase the array of ingredients will do just fine.
The wooden cutting board displays help to elevate the experience to a bit of an artform; at a raclette party they are akin to an artist’s paint palette you’re loading up raw materials for people to create their plate masterpieces from.
A cutting board somehwhat similar to the ones featured in the above photo can be found HERE (larger, darker board) and HERE (light colored platter with sections).
7. A Silicone Mat
An easy way to spare your table or tablecloth from hot oil splatters or cheese drips is to use a special silicone mat underneath the grill that also protects the space surrunding the grill – like a frame – on the table. For this, I’ve used different kinds of silicone mats. I’ve used a thinner slightly textured black silicone mat that was originally designed to be used inside an oven as a liner for easy oven cleanup. I’ve also used a thicker, larger light grey silicone mat. These help make your clean up job easier and also can allow people a place to rest a hot broiler pan on the table if they need to without causing damage.
The large grey mat used in the photo can be found HERE
The black silicone oven mat liner I’ve used also can be found HERE.
Having these seven items in your raclette tablescape arsenal will make you look like a pro.
I’d love to learn about any other tools you are using that have helped to make your lunch or dinner parties something extra special. Send me a message via the contact form if you’d like to share your tips.