North Atlantic Feast

The New Nordic Cuisine movement is bringing worldwide attention to the food of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and their neighbors. As one of the chef-stars of this movement explains, the goal is to“capture nature at its peak so meals exude the season and qualities of each locality.”

by Joanna Pruess

Nordic food is on fire. Global attention has been set on restaurants in Scandinavia- Norway, Sweden and Denmark- and the other Nordic countries of Finland, Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Åland Islands. In part this attention has been spurred by a series of accolades that acknowledge the talent of chefs focusing on this evolving cuisine. For the second year in a row, Noma, Chef René Redzepi’s two-Michelin-star eatery in Copenhagen, garnered the top ranking in Restaurant Magazine’s “World’s 50 Best Restaurants.” Then, last January at the Bocuse d’Or food competition in Lyon, France, Danish chef Rasmus Kofoed won the gold, Swedish chef Tommy Myllymäki took silver, and Norway’s Gunnar Hvarnes came away with the bronze medal.

The attention is helping to highlight what’s been coined the New Nordic Cuisine Movement, which focuses on local foods and the appreciation of their spare preparation. Clean ingredients and pure flavors are credited with Nordic food’s rising popularity in Europe and the U.S., as they appeal to increasingly health-conscious consumers. U.K. supermarket chain Waitrose has identified products such as herring, smoked fish and lingonberry jam as big sellers in 2011 due to their use of simple, high-quality ingredients. And in the states, Finland’s dense sourdough brown bread, ruis, is flying off the shelves at New York area Dean & Deluca stores and Whole Foods Markets.

The New Nordic Cuisine Movement was founded by Chef Redzepi and his partner Claus Meyer in 2003. Noma, the movement’s name as well as their restaurant’s, is made from two Danish words: nordisk (Nordic) and mad (food). It is best described in the restaurant’s cookbook, where Meyer writes: “Our aim is to offer a personal rendition of Nordic gourmet cuisine, where typical methods of cooking fine Nordic raw produce, and the legacy of our common food culture, are all subjected to an innovative gastronomic approach ... [It] seeks to re-establish our link with the landscape and capture nature at its peak so meals exude the season and the qualities of each locality.”

Rich Resources and Varied Histories

The Nordic countries are in an ideal position to bring indigenous ingredients to life in their cuisine. Northern Europe is blessed with a multitude of natural resources including abundant water, forests and farmlands. Noma’s menu alone is a showcase of the local-ingredient movement, featuring unpasteurized milk from Iceland, angelica root from Greenland, turnips from the Faroe Islands, as well as
native twigs and grasses plucked from just outside the restaurant’s back door.

There are many similarities and subtle variations among the countries’ respective cuisines. “Norway, Sweden and Denmark are like siblings with slight differences,” says Lynda Balslev, a California-based food writer who lived in Denmark for six years and traveled throughout the northern countries. “With common borders, waterways and climates, as well as intertwined pasts, they are fairly homogeneous with similar strengths and traditions.”

While the other Nordic countries share traits with Scandinavia, their history, geography and neighbors have been different over the years, so varied cultural factors impact the cuisine, Balslev adds. For example, the Faroe and Åland Islands are smaller and more insular because they are surrounded by water. Finland was ruled by Sweden for several hundred years until, as a spoil of war, the country was ceded to the Russian Czar in 1878. The Russians then governed until 1917 when the independent Republic of Finland was declared.

Foraging and Preserving

Long before the Noma manifesto and the convenience of refrigeration, foraging for and preserving foods were Nordic traditions. “Reflexively [the people] live off the land; it’s in their DNA,” Balslev says. Using what is available nearby with little adulteration, the people want their foods to taste like the ingredients in them. In season, wild game and berries are gathered from the vast Northern forests. If not eaten fresh, fruits are preserved, dried or made into liqueurs. Game meats are also smoked, cured or turned into sausages. The abundant fish harvested from the Baltic Sea is usually smoked, pickled or salted.

In Finland, once autumn comes the search for wild mushrooms becomes an obsession and local fungi are inescapable in salads, soups, tarts, stews or breads in restaurants and at home. “Five hundred of the more than 2,000 varieties of fungi that thrive in Finland are edible,” says Anna-Maija Tanttu, the dean of Finnish food writers. “Thirty are really worth eating.”

“Nearly three out of every five Finns gather their own wild mushrooms from a nearby forest,” she continues. “Those who don’t forage find seasonal markets piled high with some of the edible local varieties. The rest of the year, cupboards are crammed with jars of marinated chanterelles or bags of dried cèpes.”

“Swedish people are [also] very aware of where their products come from,” says Swedish TV producer Anna Munkenberg, who was born in Trollhättan, a small town on the west coast. They want food to be ecological, produced close to the area they live and preferably by a small family-owned farm, she explains.

Authentic Staples

Hearty breads made with rye and the open-face sandwich are two Nordic traditions. Russian and Swedish influences are reflected in Finland’s dark soured rye breads and rusks. One of the most characteristic are Karelian pasties, fluted flat rye disks filled with rice or berries, originally from eastern Finland on the Russian border.

“Like many Scandinavian countries, Finns have great respect for their traditions, which go back centuries. Their bread is always linked with rye, considered an energy-giving grain,” says Tanttu. During famines and World War II, when grains and other foods were in short supply, rye thrived in this harsh country north of the 60th parallel, as it has for thousands of years, and Finns say the grain is the source of sisu, the mythical spirit of strength, health and the courage to persevere against monumental difficulties.

Whole-grain rye bread is a staple throughout the Nordic countries and is the most frequently used bread for open-face sandwiches, or smørrebrøt. The Danish term means “buttered bread”; similar words exist in Swedish and Norwegian- in Finnish the word is voileipä. The sandwiches, most often eaten in cafés and restaurants for lunch, are eaten in a traditional order, starting with a fish, such as herring, and then working up to meats like roast beef, with different combinations of vegetables and spreads.

At home, platters of fish or meat are laid out and everyone helps themselves, says Christina Heinze Johansson, press manager for the tourist organization VisitDenmark. Smaller-size sandwiches, called “smushi,” are the latest idea in smørrebrøt and a play on the word “sushi.”

Not everyone is so enamored of this custom, notes Munkenberg. “Danes and Norwegians eat sandwiches for lunch, which for us Swedes is just bizarre,” she says. “We always joke about them, saying you just can’t trust people who think a buttered piece of bread is lunch. We want proper food.”

Looking to Home- and Beyond

A return to tradition is a common theme in many Nordic countries with time-honored dishes such as Swedish kåldolmar, stuffed peppers made with ground pork or beef, and Danish rødgrød med fløde, red berry compote or pudding with cream, regaining popularity.

“The big trend in Sweden right now is to go back to basics- to the rustic, old-fashioned style of cooking. One of the latest fashions is making your own sausages,” Munkenberg says.

Conversely, while the local-cooking movement is going strong (Noma’s Chef Redzepi reportedly will not allow avocados in his kitchen because they do not grow locally), other countries’ influences and cooking techniques are slowly creeping into Nordic cuisine. The younger generation is traveling more than ever before and foods, especially Asian ingredients, are being imported. “Thailand is the most popular destination for Swedes,” says Munkenberg. “Half a million travel there every year and there are only nine million of us.”

Some examples of this fusion of cooking cultures include Finnish Jerusalem artichoke soup, which is finished with tiny cubes of tofu marinated in olive oil. The simple garnish is Asian influenced with a touch of Italian (see recipe on p. 131). Similarly, at trendy Helsinki restaurants, steamed mussels are cooked with bird’s eye chiles and coconut milk. And anyone who read Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy knows, journalist Kalle Blomkvist, like countless other Swedes and Scandinavians, eats a lot of pizza. |SFM|

Joanna Pruess is a regular contributor to Specialty Food Magazine.

This article was featured in the July 2011 issue of Specialty Food Magazine. See other articles in this issue at: July 2011 Specialty Food Magazine.

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