Nordic countries rocking at the Bocuse d'Or Europe 2016

They are all here - culinary superstars from Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland!

And me! This is my first time ever attending a Bocuse d'Or contest and it is amazing! I did not know what to expect. It is not a big event in the sense that it would fill a football stadium, however, supporters do attend and they keep as much noise as football fans during their favourite games. The atmosphere is wonderful!

The teams all have their really small kitchen boots where they work over 5 hours and 35 minutes. They have zero privacy! Judges, press, members of supporting staff and everyone and their friends are running around, getting close enough to sniff the food being cooked. At the same time, the audience is going wild, playing music and shouting! Being a chef under time pressure under these circumstances cannot be a walk in the park! Yet they look so calm and relaxed, as they were just making a Sunday breakfast without a care in the world. Truly professional!

FINLAND

Representing Finland this year is Eero Vottonen, a sous chef at Restaurant Olo in Helsinki.

Eero Vottonen from Restaurant Olo representing Finland just minutes before the start

Eero said he is feeling great just prior to the competition despite some minor surprises prior to the start. Nonetheless, the team started their competition with a convincing touch, looking nothing but zen about their business!

No stress on the outside! Coach Matti Jämsen, last year's competitor, keeps an eye on the clock and the team!

The Finnish dishes looked absolutely amazing and stayed true to their Nordic roots with simplistic, yet stunning plating!

Sterlet prepared by team Finland!

NORWAY

Norway is represented by Christopher William Davidsen from restaurant Sostrene Karlsen (meaning the Sisters Karlsen) in Trondheim. Another strong team here!

Norwegian chef working with the sterlet!

The Norwegian team is maybe one of the favourites of the competition, giving a strong contribution this year as well!

Looking and smelling absolutely delicious in the Norwegian pan!

Although the Norwegians claimed that the end result was not what they had inteded it to be, the plate was nonetheless stunning! True to Nordic style; looking so clean and simple, yet look at all the little subtle details and the wonderful colours!

Amazing!

ICELAND

The always so exciting Iceland showed up with chef Viktor Örn Andrésson in the lead! The fascinating thing about Iceland is that they always have a surprise up their sleeve. Always a little bit different, a bit unique...and so creative! I guess this is what happens when you live alone on an island!

Working hard in the Icelandic kitchen with coach watching on with an eagle eye!

The Icelandic team was working hard and well throughout the competition with the coach making sure the timing is met and no disasters happen!

Chef at work handling ingredients

 Fine ingredients are used by the Icelandic team. But wait a minute - what is that KitKat there hidden under the chef's table? Is it a secret ingredient, perhaps? ;-)

The secret ingredient of the Icelandic kitchen - KitKat? :-)

Jokes aside, Iceland put up a wonderful fish dish! 

Fish dish from Iceland!

SWEDEN AND DENMARK

Sweden and Denmark are still battling it out at the time of this writing! More about them to come...

Swedish chef Alexander Sjögren working it in the kitchen!

Danish chef Morten Falk giving his all in the Danish kitchen!

Good luck to Sweden and Denmark through the last hours of the competition!

Getting ready for Bocuse d'Or in Budapest, 10.-11. May 2016

All the Nordic teams are here in Budapest at the moment, preparing to battle it out for a spot in Lyon 2017. They will have 5 hours 35 minutes to prepare two warm dishes: one meat dish and one fish dish.

The meat will be young red deer from Hungary and the fish will be sturgeon; Danube River Sterlet Acipenser Rutheus (5 pieces between 1 and 1.2kg) with 30g caviar. For the meat dish, the contestants will work with the haunch and saddle to produce 14 portions, including 10 that will be presented whole or pre-cut and recomposed on a tray, and 4 portions on a plate. The dishes will be judged based on the specificity and originality of the recipes, as well as on respect of the products. Participants are encouraged to express their cultural heritage and translate the traditions in the taste, presentation, cooking method and/or the use of specific herbs and spices. For the fish dish, attention will be paid to the highlighting of the products. The contestans need to create 14 plates composed of 50% vegetal products exclusively sourced from the Metro market. They will also face a surprise challenge that consists of using a mystery ingredient that they will discover only on the eve of the contest.

Two juries will be grading the contestants. The kitchen jury will follow the work of the team in the kitchen, while the tasting jury will focus on the end result. Hygiene and methodology as well as optimisation of waste will be significant factors for the kitchen jury, whereas taste, presentation, and respect for the product will be key for the tasting jury.

Our Nordic contestants are:

• Eero Vottonen from restaurant Olo representing Finland
• Viktor Örn Andrésson from restaurant Grillid representing Iceland
• Christopher William Davidsen from restaurant Sostrene Karlsen representing Norway
• Alexander Sjögren representing Sweden
• Morten Falk from restaurant Kadeau representing Denmark

So, let's wish our Nordic contestants all the best! If we cannot get a shared number one for all of them, then let's hope they will take home the TOP 5!

More blog posts to come once the competitions hits on...!

Going crazy over liquorice!

One thing that will make a person from the Nordic countries very happy is liquorice. It is not that liquorice as a root would grow only in the Nordic region, nor that liquorice would be unknown elsewhere in the world. For example, the liquorice root has been used in traditional Chinese (and South-East Asian) medicine for ages. It is even being domesticated in France and Germany. Yet, something about this root - or rather the goodies made of it - has made the Nordic people go berserk! You will find it in sweets! And not only in sweet sweets - there is something called salty liquorice or salmiakki as well that is especially popular in Finland! You will find it in alcohol! And you will find it in food! You may even be invited to wine tastings where wines and liquorice are paired together.

If you really fall for it, there is a festival in Sweden that is dedicated to liquorice and everyone who loves it! And if you still cannot get enough of it, then you may continue to another liquorice and salty liquorice festival in Finland!

Liquorice itself has a taste that resembles anis or fennel, although they are not botanically related. The fresh root is actually significantly sweeter than sugar, however, a bitter oil tends to hide the sweetness, which has to be extracted.

When it comes to sweets, there are several brands to choose from. Some of the most popular are Tyrkisk Peber by Fazer and what you could already call a liquorice collection by Johan Bülow.

Tyrkisk Peber was originally created in Denmark in 1977, but has been produced by the Finnish company Fazer since the 1990s. It comes in several different flavours, some of which are milder, some of which are blazingly hot. Tyrkisk Peber is also the main ingredient in an alcoholic beverage (shot) called salmiakki kossu, in which it is mixed with the Koskenkorva vodka. Be careful if trying, though, as the shot will taste like a combination of candy and cough medicine, but have an alcohol content of roughly 40% that you will hardly notice (from the taste).

The liquorice made by Johan Bülow, on the other hand, is what you could almost call gourmet liquorice, with a more refined touch to it. It comes in several different flavours, all nicely and beautifully packed. This is probably the liquorice you want to choose if you buy it as a present!

Liquorice in the food - a mouth watering cookbook on how to utilize liquorice in cooking! By Johan Bülow.

The Nordics are no strangers to using liquorice in cooking either. Both savoury and sweet dishes may get a hint of liquorice to enhance the flavour of the food. For example, here is a short and easy tip on how to use liquorice to gratinate langoustines (or lobsters). You may serve this one with a citrus aioli, which you may also want to add some liquorice powder to in order to enhance the liquorice experience.

Liquorice gratinated langoustines

20 langoustines
100g butter (room temperature)
1-2 teaspoons liquorice granulate
3 tablespoons parmesan cheese (freshly grated of course)
1 teaspoon fennel dill, chopped

Put the oven on 225C. Mix together the butter, liquorice, parmesan, and fennel dill. Split and clean the langoustines. Spread the liquorice butter over the langoustines and gratinate in the oven for 4-5minutes.

Note! Liquorice has a very dominating flavour. If you use too much, it will overpower the dish. Hence, use with caution and remember to taste, taste, and taste!

When it comes to using liquorice in cooking, just let your fantasy guide you! You can add a little bit to a lobster soup. You can add it to your pasta dough to get a liquorice flavour (note that the pasta will not get a black colour, though. For that effect you need squid ink or food colouring). You can add it to a vinaigrette used for salads. Just add it a little bit here and a little bit there.

There are several cook books based on liquorice available, so just pick one and have some fun! If you are hesitant to serving your liquorice based cookings to guests, then just invite someone from the Nordic countries and it will be a success!

Another book on liquorice and cooking, this one focusing mostly on pastry, sweets, and desserts. By Elisabeth Johansson.

Pulled and Shredded Nordic Proteins

There is so many ways to eat nowadays! Some eat everything that moves, some eat vegetarian and fish, some eat the paleo way, some prefer it raw, and some are even pure vegan. Whatever your personal choice may be, there are often two questions that every now and then may come to your mind: where to get the proteins and what to cook for guests with different eating habits.

Fortunately, there is now a Nordic answer to that question! Gold&Green Foods have just launched a pulled and shredded oat & bean product. By combining Nordic products with old Asian production methods, a new and delicious product packed with proteins have emerged! It contains sufficient amounts of all the essential amino acids as well as good fatty acids and fibres. Hence, it is sure to make any protein aware meat lover happy while sharing it with his/her good vegan friend, because unlike e.g. quorn, this product is 100% animal free. 

There is also good news when it comes to sustainability. Oat is one of the most ecological crops in the world. It grows as a happy plant on the fields of Finland and Sweden, enjoying the fresh Nordic climate with light and cold summer nights and some fresh showers every now and then. Hence, there is no negative impact on any rainforest anywhere. Also, oat and beans are like good friends out on the field, with beans producing nitrogen to the soil that the oats will utilise the year after. And there is absolutely no GMO even getting close to these buddies! And when it comes to manufacturing, only mechanical processing such as mixing, pressing, and heating is used!

Cooking with the pulled and shredded oat product is thoroughly straightforward. Just eat it as such or throw it on the pan with some oil, shuffle it in the oven or quickly sneak it into the microwave - whatever suits you best! You do not have to be a master vegan chef to master this product! Just prepare it like you would prepare anything else you are familiar with. No soaking or sprouting or standing on your head is necessary - you are good to go from the start! 

At the moment, the product is still tested in restaurants and food retail stores. It seems to be popular too, as it only took 4 minutes to sell out at the K-market store in Turku, Finland. Check out this video on twitter to see the buzz!

Please visit the website of Gold&Green Foods for some more information, recipes as well as when and how to get hold of the product! 

Food & Fun in Iceland

Food & Fun is an Icelandic food festival arranged since 2002. The idea is simple: chefs from abroad are invited to Iceland to team up with local restaurants to create gourmet menus at affordable prices. But there is a twist! Only Icelandic materials may be used for the centrepieces of the dishes! Not only has this lead to a superb showcase of Icelandic delicacies for the world to see, it has also opened the eyes of Icelandic people themselves when foreign chefs have used their ingredients in ways they never themselves even thought about. What a wonderful way to develop your cuisine while giving something to the rest of the world!

This year 19 restaurants host 19 foreign talented chefs, out of which eight come from other Nordic countries. Among them we have Gabriel Mellim Anderson, Renee Fagerhøi, Daniel Frick, Jacob Holmström, Jesper Krabbe, Ismo Sipeläinen, Leif Sørensen, and Per Thøstesen. In addition to Nordic talents, the event will see chefs with backgrounds from the UK, USA, Mexico, and Italy.

Nine judges have the "daunting" task of choosing a winner between the teams. But these judges know their food, with Michelin stars and Bocuse d'Or experiences in their backpacks. Wouldn't you just love to sneak in as the 10th phantom judge just to get to taste the creations in this competition while listening in on their deliberations?

Now why arrange such an event? Well, Icelanders, like Nordic people in general, are very pragmatic. As late winter time (February and March) is the low season for tourism, something had to be done. So why not host one of the most fun, yet high quality, culinary contests on the planet? The festival has gained in popularity each year, filling up the local restaurants in Reykjavik and boosting the atmosphere.

The next Food & Fun festival will be held in 2nd to 6th of March, 2016 for the 15th time! There is still time to book your trip and head over to the island of volcanoes - and wonderful food!

Good luck to all the participating teams!

Introduction

Welcome to the blog Nordic Cuisine and Design!

The Nordic region consists of five wonderful and unique countries that are bound together not only by geography, but also by history, culture, and common values. The countries of Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland can be regarded as siblings in a small and happy family. The countries collaborate in practically all areas of life, be it business, politics, culture, or education, just to name a few. And like siblings, the occasional wars fought in the early years of growing up together have now turned into jokes and puns thrown at each other during get-togethers - with a glimpse in the eye, of course! But what truly brings us all together is the closeness and respect for our pure and unique nature and the food and inspiration it provides. Nordic cuisine is all about that - creating simple and beautiful dishes with respect for the nature that provides the ingredients! And drawing from nature, Nordic design is functional, simple and beautiful, with a no-nonsense less is more approach to life!

Flamed salmon during a misty night in the archipelago!

The purpose of this blog is to celebrate Nordic cuisine and design in an attempt to showcase them and make them more familiar to anyone interested! Topics will vary depending on ideas and inspiration, and suggestions will be more than welcome! And remember - you are always welcome to visit - all of us!

Teno river between Finland and Norway - the biggest salmon river in Europe!