How The Nordics Are Changing Our Palette, One Chef At A Time

At a recently hosted food masterclass at the Swedish Consul General’s apartment in Mumbai, I realised that the new wave of food direction is coming from Nordic countries. I arrived at the Consul General of Sweden Ulrika Sundberg’s apartment to meet the extremely soft-spoken Chef Sayan Isaksson who’s not a famous celebrity chef but one who’s achievements are worth diving into.

His restaurant Esperanto won a Michelin star soon after opening in 2007 with another star arriving in 2017 for his small-seater restaurant Imouto. Whiteguide, the leading restaurant guide of the Nordic countries, awarded Esperanto the best restaurant in Sweden five times already. It even named Esperanto the best Nordic restaurant in 2016.

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His greatest claim to fame is curating the menu of the Nobel Prize winning ceremony held annually in Stockholm in 2015 and 2016. In India, he visited Pune, Delhi and Mumbai with his fellow chefs to explain his food philosophy. Accordingly, our masterclass had the theme of “Shapes of Nature”. According to Isaksson, his goal is to create a sustainable menu that takes you back to the forest. His menu was meant to create different shapes of nature with the biggest surprise being his focus on vegetarianism.

Made famous by Rene Redzepi at the reopening of Michelin favourite Noma earlier this year, Isaksson says that people in the Nordic countries are adopting forest produce and vegetables much more than before. “When I started in 1992, this was unheard of but now it’s not uncommon for people to go fully veg at least one day of the week,” he says. 

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Not that Isaksson’s completely into vegetarianism either. “I don’t believe in going veg completely but I’m happy to see meat change from being a main course to just an ingredient,” he says. Even the meat that is served must be cruelty-free certified though, Isaksson says. When animals are stressed or not looked after properly, you can instantly make out the difference when you have their meat.

Once all the small talk was done, we moved with the chef to start preparing dishes from his ‘Shapes of Nature’ theme. The very first item we learnt was how to make branches. For this, Chef Isaksson had prepared a starchy dough dipped in activated charcoal that he diced expertly. This was then dipped in hot oil with the chef using tweezers to give form to the dough whilst it was being boiled. At the end, a single slice had turned into “a super 3D version” that resembled branches.

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We were treated to leaf-making as well. Chef Isaksson and his team had dried apple pieces that were then moulded in specific leaf shapes after being dehydrated and pressed. It was an impressive performance as the final product actually resembled fallen leaves.

One of the more innovative dishes was made by using all the parts of an onion by treating them through different techniques. The  outer skin was used as a garnish, the inner skin was used as a cup to hold the ingredients that included onion pieces along with specially created oils. I was certain the dish would taste too onion-y but was pleasantly surprised that it was not the case. 

A couple of more items were created by the team and put before an eager audience that loved each small plate that came their way. Satisfied with the result, Chef Isaksson said this is his reward. “I love working on my food philosophy and taking it to different places. I’m raring to go to the next destination and introduce them to this sort of food as well,” he signs off.

All images by Priyanko Sarkar. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to stay updated with the latest news. Subscribe to my email list on the right to stay in touch and grab exclusive deals.