Candace Bergen reveals she nearly burned down Swiss restaurant at 14

There are moments from youth that outlive us in the memories of strangers — small fires, literal or otherwise, that burn themselves into the record of a place. Candace Bergen, reflecting on her adolescence during a conversation with Ted Danson, recalled one such moment: at fourteen, boarding school in the Swiss Alps, a glass of wine poured into hot fondue fat, and a restaurant evacuated into the snow. Decades later, a staff member recognized her not by her fame, but by her infamy — proof that some acts of accidental chaos become, quietly, a kind of legend.